in march 1999, "yellow hair" became the first film to be rejected outright by the korean performing arts promotion committee (kpapc), the organization responsible for film certification and censorship within south korea. the sexual content of the film, including one scene depicting a threesome, was deemed to be in breach of the committee's guidelines on explicit sex. committee member cho hee-mun stated that "the film contains scenes which are disgusting and totally unacceptable to our moral standards." this decision effectively banned the film from release.