On Screen, Not in Real Life: Fictional Collaborator Families in Korean Period Dramas

Period dramas often stage extreme family splits — a father who collaborated with Japanese colonial rule, a daughter who joined the resistance; a brother who became a colonial police officer, another who fought back. The more convincing the performance, the easier it is for viewers to blur the line between actor and role, but a character's choices are the screenwriter's invention, not evidence of the actor's real family or politics. This list rounds up eight fictional family conflicts split between collaboration and resistance, along with the actors who played them.

Each entry notes who chose what, and whether the character is a loose stand-in for a real historical figure or pure invention. Rather than searching an actor's name for sensational family gossip, it's more useful to compare what each story chooses to emphasize — and leave out — in its portrayal of that era.