5th Republic (TV series)


5th Republic is a 2005 South Korean television series that aired on MBC from April 23 to September 1, 2005 on Saturdays and Sundays at 21:40 for 41 episodes. It depicted the Fifth Republic of South Korea, during which Chun Doo-hwan was president from 1981 to 1988, from his rise to power through a military coup to his downfall after a series of democratic movements, such as the Gwangju uprising and the June Democratic Uprising. It was a politically and socially turbulent era in the country's history, which generated controversy for the drama series.
Seventeen former politicians and key aides of Chun's attempted to halt the drama in pre-production, and failing that, sent a statement to the producers with claims of historical distortion and threatened legal action unless the script was changed. The production refused, with producer-director Im Tae-woo saying that they tried their best to maintain objectivity by basing their script on historical records and information that they collected for three years, such as Supreme Court rulings, and other hearing documents and news reports at that time.

Cast