Our love-hate relationship with drama remakes and adaptations

242 November 10, 2014April 6, 2017

Our love-hate relationship with drama remakes and adaptations

by javabeans

“They’re remaking another drama?” *Boo, hiss, wails.* I’m pretty sure that’s a familiar script for most of us who’ve been following dramaland for a while, and one that’s cropped up with particular frequency in recent months and years.

Adaptations and remakes are nothing new—people will retell new versions of old stories until the end of time—but the recent surge has spurred increased talk about the trend. I find it interesting to note the tenor of the commentary, because even though the fan voice tends to be united (in dismay, most often), the broader public response encompasses a pretty wide range.

I don’t have a singular stance that applies across the board—say, for instance, “remakes are the devil”—but there are enough issues in play that I think the topic merits its own discussion, separate from recaps and narrative-focused commentaries. So I won’t be making a central argument here (sorry, high school essay-writing lessons), because I don’t know that I feel one thing about this. Rather, I want to open the conversation and maybe see where it leads us. I guess I should warn you up-front that rambling is afoot, but you probably already know to expect that of me. No apologies!

(I realize that remakes and adaptations aren’t interchangeable terms, and I don’t want to lump everything into one catch-all pot: The manhwa-into-drama adaptation, for instance, is different from the cross-national drama remake, which is different from the movie-to-drama reboot, and so forth. These projects encounter a similar set of complications and pitfalls, so for the purposes of this discussion I’m often talking about them within the same overall context. But we’ll distinguish when necessary.)

Why can’t anybody leave a good thing alone? is the prevailing cry whenever another property gets snatched up for remaking, and it’s a knee-jerk reaction that seems both completely understandable and sadly futile. I feel that chagrin myself whenever Hollywood, for instance, takes something I love—something with nuance and character—and then proceeds to suck out its soul to replace it with empty gloss. (See: Il Mare (The Lake House) or My Sassy Girl or Oldboy. Or scratch that; don’t see them. And I’m more nervous than optimistic for upcoming drama remakes of Nine and You From Another Star; Good Doctor is less worrisome, mostly because I care less about that show but also because it’s a concept that I think would find a ready home in CBS’s medical-procedural stable.)

On the other hand, the Korean industry is just as often the perpetrator, and in those cases I try to keep an open mind that perhaps the end result will be worth the attempt, or that this latest version may even contribute something new to the dialogue. It probably has more to do with the fact that we cover Korean dramas here and not Hollywood ones, and I aim to keep hope alive as long as possible if only for my own mental well-being. (Who needs to introduce stress before it’s necessary? At least hope is its own reward.)

There are concrete reasons for producers finding the remake/adaptation an attractive option, and longtime drama fans are probably aware that the relationship between business and creativity doesn’t always tilt the way we want it to. (Okay, fine, it never tilts the way I want it to! But until I am a multimillionaire with money to spend on funding drama productions, I just have to accept certain bitter realities.) Remakes have built-in name recognition, and are much easier to launch than an original series that must be planned and produced from scratch. Personally I’d like to tell broadcasters to suck it up and just do the work—because I don’t care if it’s hard, I care if it’s good—but again, my unfortunate lack of millions is really getting in the way here.

I’d also like to put aside, for the moment, the broad lamentation regarding the dearth of original ideas. It’s not that the complaint isn’t valid, but I think we all agree that fresh stories are always desirable, and that more of those in dramaland would be nice. Nobody’s arguing for fewer original dramas! But it’s a preaching-to-the-choir sort of speech, of the kind the choir makes while beating a dead horse into a bloody pulp. There’s also the point one could make about there being no new stories under the sun, and if we’re taking that kind of absolutism to its extreme (i.e., retelling old stories is bad and therefore pointless), then perhaps we should all just curl up at home with our battered copies of Aeschylus, because once a story has been told, it must never be told again. *Hiss* *Shrivels from the sun*

The thing that makes adaptations and remakes both challenging and fascinating is: They serve two masters. One is the existing fanbase, whom you do not want to betray, while the other is the broader mainstream audience, whom you do not want to alienate by serving a small niche of insiders at the expense of new viewers. This is a tricky balance to strike and, as we know, not often done well.

The double-edged sword is especially keen when we’re talking about hot properties like Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) or Nodame Cantabile (Cantabile Tomorrow), whose heightened profiles create immediate interest that is nearly impossible for a brand-new show to match. Not without substantial effort and cash, at least. It’s that same interest that makes backlash especially scathing, however, if/when fandoms aren’t pleased. And once you get one Boys Over Flowers breaking out and becoming a smash hit, everybody’s clamoring to get the next one, and then we just end up with a river of tears cried by sad manga lovers.

This is something we don’t necessarily see with adaptations like Three Musketeers or Surplus Princess, which almost don’t feel like adaptations because they’re based on well-known classics and thus are granted more latitude. But they, like the other dramas mentioned here, are doing the same job of taking K-drama twists to make things their own. (Maybe we can look to that as support for the argument that more freedom in interpretation yields better results. A shame that producers aren’t often granted that freedom, though!) Fated To Love You also had a funny trajectory in that the Taiwanese original was wildly popular at home and throughout Asia, and then the Korean remake was successfully exported and enjoyed a fresh wave of popularity in China and Taiwan. But that’s the anomaly.

It’s enough to make you wonder whether it’s better being an adaptation of an original property that wasn’t that popular, which mitigates the potential feeling of betrayal. Pretty Man and Tamra the Island were both manhwas that had smallish niche audiences, so when both dramas underperformed (Tamra because of low ratings despite a cult following, Pretty Man because it was a mess), they receded quietly, without incurring the level of netizen scorn reserved for more high-profile projects. The bigger the target, the harder they fall. (Other adaptations that came and went quietly: Birdie Buddy, Nail Shop Paris, Her Lovely Heels, Strike Love, A Man Called God, My Fair Lady (Take Care of the Lady), Mary Stayed Out All Night, and Hot-blooded Salesman, among more.)

This is also why, despite the impression that it’s easier to write a remake than an entirely new drama, that’s only true from one angle. New dramas aren’t hamstrung by the same expectations and prejudices that these remakes are, which are as much a handicap as they are a helpful guide. Dramas that try to make everybody happy may instead end up making nobody happy.

Because really, the baggage can be paralyzing, and choosing to honor that over a new vision could very well sound your death knell. Consider the drama that’s a so faithful and afraid of stepping out of line that it presents a story with exactly zero surprises. Yawn and yawner.

This is one aspect I find very enjoyable about Cantabile Tomorrow, because it’s just different enough that I appreciate where they’re trying to stretch a bit; the K-drama hews closely enough to Nodame Cantabile’s storyline to feel like an adaptation, but it’s thoughtful about where it chooses to deviate. The hero role of Yoo-jin is like Chiaki, for instance, but the overall flavor of the character feels like something Joo-won has created on his own. I have seen comments that Yoo-jin isn’t cold or harsh enough, and that because Tamaki Hiroshi played him more aloof, Yoo-jin is therefore wrong. I agree that Yoo-jin is the gentler version, but surely both actors still register on the “cold, gruff” spectrum of standoffish heroes, so neither interpretation strikes me as wrong. They’re two ways to interpret what the manga created, and frankly, I love that we have both.

Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers is another example where the heroes were clearly from the same mold—haughty, imperious, in desperate need of some humbling—but diverged in key ways, and I was also happy to have both portrayals to watch. (I do have to say that the heroines were unequivocally better in the Japanese dramas, though.)

I frequently see the argument “This didn’t happen in the novel/manhwa/anime, therefore the drama is wrong” leveled against a show as though the act of deviating automatically invalidates the choice. A bad choice is a bad choice, but let’s not assume that different necessitates bad. In this regard I find the intensity of the criticism against Cantabile Tomorrow surprising; to me, it’s a light, good-natured show that’s doing a pretty good job as a drama and as a remake, albeit with flaws in both areas. What I find odd is the way in which these remake debates can go askew and even revise history, misrepresenting the original dramas as infallible masterpieces and the remakes as worthless drivel. I have trouble accepting such blanket arguments. I found Hana Yori Dango superior to Boys Over Flowers in most ways, but man if Boys Over Flowers didn’t have a strange manic pull that sucked me in, in a way I didn’t feel with the J-drama. Being better in most things didn’t make it better in all things.

Nodame Cantabile is a case where I’ll actually argue pretty strenuously that the Korean version is improving on the execution in many ways, and feels more emotionally resonant than the Japanese drama did (for me! I speak for myself!)—the J-drama was fully enjoyable and I daresay nobody tops Ueno Juri as the heroine, but I thought it emotionally lightweight and very, very slapsticky. The Korean version is held back somewhat significantly by Nae-il being less relatable than Nodame, but I also think Yoo-jin and the side characters are doing it more for me here (okay, Mine is a draw with Il-lac). At first I’d wanted to cry at the thought of losing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as Yoo-jin’s solo, until I heard the Grieg and felt the show had done the work to make the selection thematically relevant—it’s powerful, sweeping, and intense, which is reflected in Nae-il’s tumultuous response to it. And while the S Orchestra’s rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue” was inspired in the original, I thought the “Mambo” perhaps even a cut above as a representation of the orchestra’s character—all fast, crowd-pleasing fun.

All of which I say not to convince you to agree with me, but to present the argument that older isn’t automatically better. And that a new adaptation necessitates some new interpretation, no matter how familiar the story. And that a new version can sometimes build upon the older to draw out and improve upon the basis. I love the story of Nodame, but I wanted to feel more emotionally drawn into the world—and that’s what Cantabile Tomorrow gives me (even if I have to put up with some additions that I dislike, such as the teacher drama). Ultimately isn’t this a win-win?

Even so, let’s suppose for a moment that a remake is indisputably worse than the original—can we still agree that harping is an activity we’d like to see cease? Consider a scenario where you go to a party in a good mood, only to run into a guest who follows you from room to room pursuing an argument:

“The party I went to yesterday was better.”
“That’s nice.”
“It had better food than this one. Better music too.”
“Okay.”
“It was better in every way.”
“So I hear.”
“I don’t even know why they bothered throwing this party.”
“I’m going to go over here now.”
“I’ll follow you, so that I can tell you more about all the ways in which the other party was better.”

Murder ensues.

It’s a curious exercise to watch the response to Cantabile unfold simultaneously with the response to Liar Game, because I’ve seen the original(s) for one and not the other. Hearing remarks that the original Liar Game is better is intriguing because I’m enjoying the K-drama wholly, and the possibility of a better version makes me curious—but it doesn’t make me like the K-drama any less. What’s the purpose in insulting one drama to elevate another? Ultimately my conclusion is the same: That I enjoy these K-dramas as K-dramas, and what I know of the world outside of those 60-minute episodes is incidental to how I feel about the show itself.

It’s why I’d argue that the mainstream television audience ought to always be the production’s priority over adherence to the original story, because in adapting this idea for this particular medium, you’d better make sure you serve this medium. If the remake makes an effort to find its own voice, at least it can stand on its own feet even if the fanbase hurls epithets and exits in droves (…though let’s be honest, sometimes it’s more like exiting in drove).

Because what worked in a different medium—or a different time, or a different cultural context—may not work in the here and now, so a remake does in fact necessitate deviation. A beat-for-beat remake, snatched from one time and plonked down in another, starts feeling like some hybrid monster, ill at ease in its own skin. Some dramas stand the test of time because we’re able to view them through the lens of nostalgia, or history; if you took Autumn Fairy Tale and set it in the present day, we’d have a lot less patience for what are now trite misunderstandings and melodramatic twists, even when those are the same moments that gripped our hearts and made us cry back in the day. It’s the misstep I felt with Strike Love, the 2009 baseball drama based on a 1986 manhwa that felt like it had been lifted wholesale from that time. It felt dated, as though nothing about it had been updated to reflect the new milieu.

To look at the issue from another perspective, it’s another interesting exercise to juxtapose these cases of criticized adaptations with those that surpassed their source material. Gaksital may have had its fans when it was a black-and-white manhwa, but the drama brought new dimension to the birth of a dark national hero and made us feel the range of emotions in hi-def, full-colored glory. Coffee Prince was a fluffy romance novel before a thoughtful PD transformed it into something modern, sentimental, and insightful. The drama version of Sungkyunkwan Scandal, based on a novel, took a familiar cross-dressing reverse-harem premise and elevated it with smart casting, adorable chemistry, and sharp directing choices. And The Moon That Embraces the Sun, for all its simplistic melodrama, was a juggernaut of a show that far exceeded the popularity of its novel inspiration.

City Hunter is an example of a K-drama that was really only an adaptation in concept—it was loosely based on the manga, but reset the scene, added a different backstory, reshaped the characters, and turned into a prequel, so that the end result resembled almost nothing of the original save for the title. But it succeeded by being a damn entertaining drama, regardless of its origins, and in my book that puts the drama into the plus column. Since I wasn’t much of a fan of the original to begin with, to me the 2011 K-drama was even an improvement on the source material (…though perhaps diehards of the 1980s manga might have a different argument to make).

These cases are much better, I think, than the flipside where a property is so intent on preserving the original that it forgets to be a drama. Because then you’ve failed before you’ve begun. (Other adapted dramas that were arguably as or more successful as TV shows: Painter of the Wind, The Return of Iljimae, Full House, Goong, Gourmet, Capital Scandal, and the big one these days, Misaeng.)

Speaking of which, Misaeng is currently positioned to become the next pop-culture sensation, and for good reason: It’s smart, it’s thoughtful, its portrayal of what it’s like to work in modern Korea is so keen as to be painful. It captures a zeitgeist that started with its webtoon, which was a sensation in its own right and has now reached bestseller status. What I find fascinating is how the drama production managed to capture the soul of the webtoon so accurately in such a different medium, which speaks to the consummate skill of its director. In Misaeng’s case, the spirit of the original has been transferred without necessarily copying everything frame by frame.

And really the secret to success, for Misaeng specifically and for remakes in general, lies chiefly in the execution—more than casting or content, say, or buzz or faithfulness to an original idea. You only need to look at cases like Faith versus Dr. Jin to see how two very similar concepts (so similar as to incur legal battles) could produce two such disparate shows. Witch’s Romance produced a surprisingly charming remake earlier this year despite being a super-obvious story with no huge surprises, buoyed by its writing and pacing and charismatic leads. On the other end of the spectrum, Level 7 Civil Servant’s spy-meets-spy romance gave rise to one zippy, fun movie and one drama about which we will never speak again.

So maybe what it all boils down to is the most obvious statement of all, which I feel silly saying plainly for its obviousness: Don’t underestimate the power of a good story (or your viewers’ intelligence), and the question of who said it first becomes less important than the fact that you’re entertained—and we’re all really here for the entertainment, aren’t we? Make good dramas, and the audiences will respond. If you build it, they will come.

Images used, in order: Misaeng, Three Musketeers, Cantabile Tomorrow, You From Another Star, Nine, Boys Over Flowers, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Tamra the Island, Surplus Princess, Cantabile Tomorrow, Cantabile Tomorrow, Liar Game, City Hunter, Gaksital, Dr. Frost, Fated To Love You, Misaeng

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1 Rh

November 10, 2014 at 3:41 AM

K-drama cantabile fail because nodame is fujoshi with music talent not a weirdo. K-drama liar game fail because they forget the basic theme, the crazy battle of strategy manipulating other people, with grave effect for who loss the game.

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Hello

November 10, 2014 at 4:49 AM

I'm guessing you didn't read the article past the title.

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talen

November 10, 2014 at 5:38 AM

My thoughts exactly.

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shf

November 11, 2014 at 8:42 PM

i just had to laugh at this because your guess was probably right. lol

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shf

November 11, 2014 at 8:48 PM

and speaking of remakes, if anyone here is a watcher of Thai dramas, i give up on those remakes!

do they have to make a remake EVERY TIME they have a young fresh face?? this is so annoying to me about Thai dramas! most of their dramas are on their THIRD remake!! INSIDE the country, not outside! for example, A was in this drama, now B comes along and is in the remake of A's drama. Now, there's young fresh faced C who's going to remake the drama that B remade from A's drama! I swear, do those Thai writers have no fresh ideas? STOP LETTING SOME 19 year old play a 30 something just for your remake!!

Sorry, I just had to vent about Thai remakes because we're on the subject of remakes.

I loved the remake of FATED TO LOVE YOU. It seems these days, nothing is matching up to my love of the Korean FTLY. Everything else seems sub par to the summer I had with the K-FTLY.

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pootah

November 12, 2014 at 5:39 AM

that's their culture there. Why do you even bother? And besides, they have remakes for korean dramas which were quite decent. There are also other Thai dramas which are more decent than any other dramas. You can check on Hormones The Series if you want some fresh teen drama from Thailand.

Emmy

November 10, 2014 at 6:20 AM

Haha, the irony of seeing this as the first comment after I have just finished reading the whole article.

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pitch

November 10, 2014 at 7:23 AM

Oh God, ikr?

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moonpetal

November 10, 2014 at 7:54 AM

Haha.. That's really funny !!
Btw I felt what JB talk about consider a scenario where you go to a party in a good mood, only to run into a guest who follows you from room to room pursuing an argument,etc etc.. That's what exactly what I felt everytime I go to read the recaps of CT.. :)

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dreamcloud

November 10, 2014 at 3:08 PM

My thoughts exactly! It's like about a third (or more) of the comments on each recap of CT have people comparing and arguing about the original and the remake.

I think it would be better to enjoy and take what you can get. And I personally like CT very much, no matter how it deviates from the original, because even though it's a remake it IS a separate drama. It's better to sit back and enjoy the fun than to nitpick.

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Because of Reasons

November 10, 2014 at 3:35 PM

Yup! I often feel the same reading the comments on the recaps of Liar Game.

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tee

November 10, 2014 at 7:47 AM

Sigh. Did you even read the article?

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houstontwin

November 10, 2014 at 9:13 AM

I have only seen the kdrama versions of nodame and liar game, and think that they are both very entertaining. They stand on their own merits.

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sunandhearts

November 10, 2014 at 10:55 AM

@Rh ohhh so you're THAT guest from that party jb set as an example eh?

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azkiya

November 10, 2014 at 9:35 PM

LOL.

guess so. but @Rh, try following other person when you whining 'bout the party, i believe JB is not a good choice here,haha..

anyway, really like this post from JB.
I've been wondering when will DB 'explain' the whole 'chaos' on the comment section surrounding CT, 'coz for me it was just so confusing when i see people keep saying negative things about a drama in a comment section of the mentioned drama (i was like, okay, you've said it 1001 times, but these people here just want to enjoy it, so could you please blurt your negativity elsewhere?).

that been said, i hope DB will stay as a place for us raving (and ranting) about k-drama, i love you all beanies, but for some of you (who is like the guest JB mentioned) i better put a straight face when i say my love, haha..

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doki2

November 10, 2014 at 7:37 PM

hahaha, my thought for K-Liar Game exactly the same. Similar with this was the Genius Game S2.

What makes me worried about NC they just arrangements everything to make a new song. flow, timing, even the notes.
For example, I like Rhapsody in Blue becoz its in acoustic-jazz version. Nodame and piano class included and play pianika. in Mambo, Nodame just played intro and that's it. like in J-drama.
Maybe they forgot to make music consultant and music division work together?

It's really love and hate. I decided to depend into recaps until drama finished was to lessen my worries. I still have hopes.

Fighting kdrama!

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blo

November 10, 2014 at 8:08 PM

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

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mrmz

November 10, 2014 at 10:15 PM

This post being the first perfectly proves Javabeans' post. It is an interesting thing to contemplate because I don't think it's something with can answer with "that's right" or "that's wrong".

I usually go for dramas with original stories but that's becoming less and less available. I don't usually watch remakes specially when

-Completely satisfied with the original (Nodame Cantabile)
-Did not stand the story itself of the original (Hana yori dango)

However I've seen all versions of Itazura na kiss because even though ISWAK was addictive there was always something missing. Watching other remakes may cover the missing part but lacks elsewhere but in general the story is just guilty pleasure that I fall for EVERY TIME.

To the Beautiful You is the a drama that shows the what gives remakes and adaptation a bad name. The problem here is when they take a popular story only to fill it with talentless pretty boys and idols to promote them. It sucks out the soul of the story. Hana Kimi may have had pretty boys but they were talented!

As for remakes taking liberties, it really depends. I think it's alright as long as the spirit of the story is here. A good example is The Three Musketeers adaptation, as a fan of the original novel, I enjoyed A LOT! The Liar Game's kversion remake isn't one I was planning on watching since the original satisfied me (more or less) but the change they made picked my interest and plan on checking it out soon.

I think Javabean's point is adaptions and remakes have always been happening and will keep on increasing. We should just keep an open mind and, even if remakes isn't our thing, we should respect that firstly, that remake is an original to someone else, and also that some people will enjoy the remake more, as much as it pains us that "our original" is glossed over :P

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Cherrilly.ramos@gmail.com

November 12, 2014 at 1:21 AM

Aww, you weren't invited to the party.

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SJ

November 13, 2014 at 12:44 AM

you don't understand, do you?

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2 Aigoooo

November 10, 2014 at 3:46 AM

I find that this year's remakes have been very good overall. In fact, I can't think of a single one that has really been atrocious. And to be honest though, most of the remakes this year (except for Three Musketeers), I haven't really seen the original so that help out a lot in not having any preconceived notions. It does peak my interest though in seeing the original so I can make the comparison. It's definitely easier to remake something that hasn't been on TV/film yet since you only have to worry about staying faithful to the story and characters instead of comparing actor's talents (i.e. SEK and Ueno Juri).

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3 Nana

November 10, 2014 at 3:53 AM

Thanks. I do not have any opinion on this adaptation/at all except that when i enjoyed the drama i'd give the original a try. Anyway, will this be a chapter in your new book?

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4 harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 4:02 AM

I frequently see the argument “This didn’t happen in the novel/manhwa/anime, therefore the drama is wrong"

I'll cop to often being that person in regards to novel adaptations. But it's always been my stance that the novel is better than any adaptation to begin with*, so seeing directors make ridiculous, unnecessary changes makes my blood boil. (*with one or two rare exceptions.)

Often, US remakes completely miss the mark (US Coupling ::spits::, we shall speak of it no more!) Sometimes they work - The Office was great in both incarnations - but often, the industry sees only the popularity, and misses out on why it was popular.

I don't mind adaptations if they keep the soul of the story intact - Apocalypse Now was a fantastic adaptation of the novel Heart of Darkness, even though the setting, time period, and even some of the characters had been altered. (In the same way, the re-enactors-who-joust-on-motorcyles movie Knightriders was a pretty darn good adaptation of Herman Melville's shipboard story Billy Budd.)

You'll note these are all US examples...and that's because I largely don't watch Japanese or Taiwanese dramas, and I don't read manga or watch anime. So odds are, I haven't seen the source material of any adaptations - heck, I might not even know it's an adaptation.

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Anna

November 10, 2014 at 4:30 AM

Exactly. Lile what is the purpose of calling it liar game when you twisted everything , while we are at it why not give it a totally new name?.

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tweetpandora

November 10, 2014 at 7:07 AM

Oh dear I thought the ratings were good? Was planning to watch it later, I don't mind a change in the setting, its the type of remake where if they don't change anything form the J-version it would be really predictable and boring....

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kirin

November 10, 2014 at 9:47 PM

Liar Game is a good drama. I'm speaking as an addicted fan who read the manga. However, it *does* have some major differences from the original (whether it's the j-drama or manga). If you're okay with that, you may just find it a fun ride, like me.

At any rate, I'm getting tired of people comparing the different versions and complaining about the differences they see. It feels like they're beating a dead horse at this point. That person who follows you from party to party, complaining how that party doesn't match up to this one? That analogy fits perfectly with how I feel about Liar Game.

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tweetpandora

November 10, 2014 at 7:05 AM

I am with you, I HATE big deviations form the source material for remakes (not adaptations, I have little against adaptations) also make my blood boil, better to just call it something else in the end...

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harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 12:08 PM

I HATE big deviations form the source material

I was particularly thinking of the character assassination of Faramir in the film version of The Two Towers. It made a huge thematic change, and there really was not a good reason to alter Tolkien's original narrative (unlike, for example, the film's change of Glorfindel to Arwen on the way to Rivendell - because the shortened format meant there was a need to pare down to essential characters.)

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Rossi

November 10, 2014 at 1:26 PM

Oh god yes re: Faramir! He was my favorite character from the books and I was so looking forward to his onscreen adaptation. I was/am still a bitter fangirl. At least in the extended version, his character was adapted better.

#JusticeforFaramir

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harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 3:23 PM

::fistbump:: I read LotR when I was 13, and fell desperately for Faramir. I was so looking forward to the movie version. I left "Two Towers" very dissatisfied. (But all was forgiven because they got The Coming of the Rohirrim perfect. "Ride, ride to Gondor!")

I may still be a little obsessed with this trilogy.

tweetpandora

November 11, 2014 at 1:23 AM

OMG me too, am a LOTR's fanatic and couldn't believe what they did to Faramir foe absolutely NO reason!! #justiceforfaramir indeed. I can swe why the Tolkien family are not on speaking terms with Jackson. That being said I was just so happy to have thw story told via a new medium even if it lost the nuance of the written material and made unnecessary plot addition's and removals a little too many times

harmonyfb

November 11, 2014 at 3:53 AM

That being said I was just so happy to have thw story told via a new medium even if it lost the nuance of the written material

Oh, don't get me wrong - I adore the trilogy (except for those specific bits in Two Towers); it was like seeing my imagination painted directly on the screen. The casting was brilliant, the set pieces were perfect, and I cried with joy when I saw Galadriel's temptation scene.

Of course I have things I wish they'd left in - the scouring of the Shire, and Sam's prayer to Elbereth in the caves - and things I wish they'd added, while they were about it (actual shieldmaidens at Helm's Deep), but on the whole, I still regard it in starry-eyed wonder. :) It's not as good as the books, of course (and it's about time for my every-five-year re-read), but it's still pretty darn awesome.

kpopholic1

November 10, 2014 at 7:11 AM

the Jdrama versions of hana yori dango, nodame cantabile, and liar game are sort of female centric series...

the Kdrama remakes made it all about the first male lead, then the second male lead... and then reducing the female lead to a ragdoll that the two male leads will fight over. basically the kdrama romance love triangle treatment... and basically all other kdrama in existence.

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hajae

November 10, 2014 at 2:36 PM

Couldn't agree more and basically one of my major problems when it comes to Korean remakes of female-centric dramas/manga/books that I love. I just know that the female character that I adore will be sacrificed so that the male characters will shine more.

I feel that, for some reason, many females in Korean dramas are always defined by their significant other. I find the imbalance in character development disheartening, because it implies many things on their outlook of what a woman is.

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tee

November 10, 2014 at 7:54 AM

The US adaptation of Coupling was a crime against humanity. lool
I usually have an issue with novels being adapted into movies also but i am always willing to give them a chance.

The whining about jdramas/tdramas being adapted to kdramas has reached unprecedented levels and i just don't understand why. I always advocate, give it a chance! Then you can complain.
But keep in mind, an adaptation isn't and shouldn't be a straight copy. So be prepared to have some things change.
FTLY for instance was a successful adaptation but i cant help wondering how better it could have been if they had changed some major (okay 1) major detail.
Then there is Liar Game (kver) which is absolutely thrilling. I see complaints it's not as thrilling as the jdoorama but, remember the korean audience is also different from the japanese audience.

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harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 11:32 AM

But keep in mind, an adaptation isn’t and shouldn’t be a straight copy.

There's no way you could make a straight copy from novel to screen, because the novel gives the reader insights that have to be communicated differently to the viewer.

Sometimes, an adaptation of a novel will even add value to the novel (I'm thinking of the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, which improved the novels for me, because McCall-Smith's prose is so very spare.)

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Megumi

November 13, 2014 at 2:39 PM

I would have really agreed with your point about Korean viewers and Japanese viewers are different if the ratings of the dramas you mentioned were good, 'Cantabile Tomorrow' and 'Liar Game' have been flopping pretty badly in ratings, I don't have any complaints about CT because I didn't care much or have watched the full original Jversion, but, Liar Game is what I'm pissed about because I think they could have made that drama a hit if they had followed the same Jdrama path, as soon as they made Liar Game a reality show the drama turned fluffy in an instant, I stopped visiting the recap page recently because of the same reasons Javabeans laid out, that I might sound like a broken record to the ifans who're actually enjoying it, but this article being the place to vent your frustrations or opinions I'm laying mine out, the main reason I was pissed is because I care for the actors/actress involved esp KSE and SSK, this drama could have been KSE's breakout drama but sadly the drama is tanking on ratings, I think it's more of a international Kdrama fans have different taste than Korean viewers, most of the time I find that the dramas Ifans love are not loved by Kfans and vice versa, trust me if the ratings of Liar Game was even mediocre I would not have complained one bit, I would have swallowed my disappointment about the plot, after all in Korea it's mostly all about the ratings.

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Megumi

November 13, 2014 at 2:41 PM

Sorry I forgot to mention who I was replying to, I was replying to @tee.

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eJc

November 10, 2014 at 7:55 AM

I laughed at your 'Coupling' & ' The Office' comment because that's exactly how I feel about them.

Your novels-always-better-than-adaptation-(with 1-2 rare exceptions)-comment lets me scratch my head, though.
I love books, too. But I also love movies & TV (incl. adaptions). I'm happy like little child under the Christmas tree if a favorite book of mine is adapted to the screen. Isn't it a pleasure to see the chracters and their world come alive? Even if it has to be different from the books? To know more people will have the chance to meet them on screen?

Vice versa, I go and buy a book if a movie has captured my interest (for beeing good or even bad) to see how the original author created the story. Like I did the other day for 'Gone Girl'. Both mediums can be very entertaining, inspiring and challenging. I do not think that one is generally better than the other. And sometime adaption can even be better. Storys and ideas have always been adapted to different art forms and have influenced other artists ( e.g. fairly tales or Shakespeare to ballet, to opera, to theater, to movies, to book, to comics, ...)

Therefore, I don't understand absolute comments of book lovers who condemn movie/TV adaptions in general. I agree with javabeans. I do appreciate how she presents different ways to look at the topic and never claims to not state her personal view. Movies and books are different media vehicles, and as javabeans explains "what worked in a different medium - or a different time, or a different cultural context - may not work in the here and now, so a remake does in fact necessitate deviation".

You have provided good examples where you think the 'soul' of the original books are captured well in the movie adaption despite the changes they made. I would argue that this 'soul' is like beauty in the eyes of the beholder. One will find it not truthfully enough to the original. Others will complain about the stiffness/ flaws it has because it's not adapted enough to the possibilities movies are offering. Like javabeans stress "in adapting this idea for this particular medium, you’d better make sure you serve this medium. If the remake makes an effort to find its own voice at least it can stand on its own feet even if the fanbase hurls epithets and exits in droves..." Without the adaptions and influences the different media types have on each other we would miss out a lot.

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harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 11:55 AM

Therefore, I don’t understand absolute comments of book lovers who condemn movie/TV adaptions in general.

Oh, I'm not saying adaptations are bad or worthless...just that the book is better. :) (Cause books are always better. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

My middle child makes a habit of watching film adaptations first before he reads the book, so that he can actually enjoy the film (otherwise, he'll be constantly comparing one to the other.) On the other hand, I often will take a pass on a film adaptation of a novel I'm particularly fond of, as it will never measure up to the images of it in my head. :)

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harmonyfb

November 10, 2014 at 11:58 AM

Isn’t it a pleasure to see the chracters and their world come alive? Even if it has to be different from the books?

Well, not if they're too different. There comes a point where they might as well have just not even called it an adaptation (::"The Seeker", I'm looking right at you::)

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