Why South Korean filmmakers would never make movie like "The Interview"

And, unlike the U.S., South Korea doesn’t have a tradition of roasting political leaders. Irreverent criticism of those in power is generally frowned upon, and ridiculing North Korea’s leaders is seen as a risk that could provoke a military attack.

The anger such treatment could cause in North Korea, which considers any caricatures of its leaders an affront to its dignity, was evident when its leaders called the Sony film “an act of war” and threatened a “decisive and merciless countermeasure.”

“For many people in South Korea, the North Korea topic hits too close to home,” said Nemo Kim, a lecturer in Korean cinema studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. “For so much of South Korean history, North Korea has been this thing that everybody knows about but no one is really comfortable talking about, whereas in the U.S. it’s fodder for material, either comedic or dramatic.”