Korean Films Get New Life as Hit Drama Series

The landscape of South Korean entertainment is seeing a surge in film-to-drama adaptations, with beloved movies like "Spellbound" and "The Scandal" being reimagined for the small screen. This trend allows beloved stories to unfold over multiple episodes, offering a richer narrative experience for audiences accustomed to expanded content universes.

The tvN drama "Spellbound," set to premiere on June 18, is based on the 2011 romantic horror-comedy film starring Son Ye-jin and Lee Min-ki. The original movie, which drew 3 million viewers, depicted the sweet yet chilling romance between a woman who can see ghosts and a horror magician intrigued by her. The drama adaptation stars Park Eun-bin as a chaebol heiress who sees ghosts and Yang Se-jong as a prosecutor who fears them, retaining the core concept of a ghost-seeing protagonist but altering the characters' professions and plot details.

Netflix is also entering the fray with a series adaptation of E J-yong's 2003 film "The Scandal – The True Story of the Joseon Dynasty," slated for release in the third quarter of this year. The original film explored a daring love affair and a dangerous bet between a talented woman, Madam Jo, and the most notorious womanizer of Joseon, Jo Won, set against the backdrop of a strict Confucian society. The series features Son Ye-jin as Madam Jo, Ji Chang-wook as Jo Won, and Nana as Hee-yeon, a woman upholding her chastity after her husband's death. The original film starred Lee Mi-sook, Bae Yong-joon, and Jeon Do-yeon in these respective roles.

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By expanding IP through transmedia, not just through a single film, we can form larger fandoms and reach different audience segments on each platform, thus maintaining the IP's vitality more broadly and for longer.

This proliferation of film-based dramas aligns with evolving viewer consumption patterns, where audiences increasingly engage with content beyond passive viewing, embracing expanded narratives and secondary creations. The strategy of maintaining a work's core settings and plot while broadening its narrative appeal resonates strongly with viewers. Furthermore, the establishment of multi-studio systems, like that of CJ ENM, allows companies to maximize the value of their intellectual property (IP) by extending it across various platforms and formats, fostering larger fandoms and reaching diverse audiences.

However, concerns linger about the potential impact on original content creation. As adaptations of proven successes like films and webtoons become more common, the discovery and development of entirely new stories might slow down. Drama critic Yoon Seok-jin noted that while adapting successful works offers a stable approach, it could lead to less investment in research and development for new IPs, potentially hindering the industry's creative output.

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The trend of adapting works with proven box office success into dramas is likely to continue. While it's a stable approach, it also means less development of new IPs. From an industrial perspective, research and development for new stories may be insufficient.