Last year, 34 works of Korean comic tv dramas were broadcast through channels, including 7 TV stations, 11 TV boxes and satellite TVs, 13 online platforms, and 3 unconfirmed.
Author: Yiyi
When the 1997 financial crisis swept through Asia, South Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy. In May of the following year, a TV series based on a manga, Mr. Q (also translated as Mr. Cute), came out, telling the story of a clothing company facing difficulties that came back to life and developed under the efforts of the protagonists. South Koreans, who are still plagued by the financial crisis, have gained emotional resonance in this, making the show the highest-rated TV series with a rating of 45.3% after "Watch and Watch". It is also the highest-rated drama in the comic tv series so far.
The birth of this drama also officially opened the prelude to the development of Korean comic film and television dramas.
In 2006, "Palace", adapted from an overhead love comic, became popular at home and abroad, exported to many countries, and also became popular with the male and female protagonists who starred in the play. In 2010, it was adapted into a musical, starring Jeong Yoon-ho, a super popular idol group at the time. Thailand then purchased the rights and broadcast an adaptation of the local TV series in 2017. This year, the South Korean side released the news that it will restart the TV drama project of "Palace" and once again adapt it.
The above is still a comic drama in the era of single-line comics, and entering the era of science and technology, after the rise of online comics, comic dramas have become more and more numerous.
Compared with the previous need to buy a volume of reading comics, now it is possible to flip through hundreds of works on only one platform, and can also read according to the customized labels of the platform, which brings great convenience to these film and television drama production companies.
In the Korean drama "Romantic Physique", he once starred in such a plot. Huang Hanzhu, one of the female protagonists who works for a TV drama production company, asked his employees to look for works with adaptable value in major comic platforms. As a small and medium-sized TV drama production company, compared with inviting mature screenwriters to write original scripts, or risking the use of new screenwriters, adapting existing IP works is more secure and "economical".
According to the incomplete statistics of Sanwen Entertainment, since "Mr. Q" in 1998, there have been about 100 comic adaptations and films that have been played or will be played so far, two of which are "Fancy Man" and "Mischievous Kiss" based on Japanese manga, and the rest are works created by local cartoonists.
(*List of some of the comic book adaptations that have been broadcast or are being broadcast)
According to survey data from the Korea Manga Image Promotion Agency, a total of 34 related works of manga adaptations of TV series were publicly reported in 2020, of which 18 have been broadcast that year, 7 will be broadcast in 2021, and 9 have not yet determined the specific broadcast time. Seven of the works will be broadcast on major television stations, 11 on TV boxes and satellite television, 13 on online platforms, and 3 unconfirmed. Of the established works, 16 are based on Naver Webtoon platform works, 8 are based on Kakao Webtoon (formerly Daum Webtoon), 3 are Lezhin Comics, and 5 are based on manga works on other platforms.
So why are web comics so favored by major film and television production companies and TV stations?
1. Complete world view and ready-made storyboard script
Early Korean web comics were free, and in order to attract netizens to read, most of them were daily short comics. It was not until the emergence of Jiang Cao's "Pure Love Comics" that it really laid the foundation for online comics and induced the development of Korean web comics. The two platforms have also begun to develop their own platforms, attracting many well-known cartoonists and newcomer cartoonists.
In order to attract more readers and monetize the audience, the content of online comics has also begun to develop towards the plot, because a larger world view and a more complete plot line can attract and consolidate more audiences. Such characteristics for film and television drama adaptors, reduce a lot of risk costs.
The storyboard of the comic becomes a ready-made script. In the production of film and television dramas, text scripts are often adapted into screen storyboard scripts, and the storyboard of web comics acts as this function, which will reduce many costs.
And the themes of online comics are diverse, the author's imagination is boundless, compared with the original plot created by traditional screenwriters, it has a new and strange specialty, which provides opportunities and possibilities for the theme breakthrough of film and television dramas.
2. Characteristics verified by the number of subscriptions, ratings, and reviews
A comic on the platform, open to the audience to comment, is equivalent to a lot of "content moderators" helping those film and television production companies to conduct preliminary review and judgment. For example, in 2014, it was adapted and broadcast on tvN TV and then sold overseas, and "Unborn", which was localized and broadcast in Japan, received a cumulative hit rate of 600 million on the platform, and even set off the "unborn generation". As of today, the cumulative click rate of unborn has exceeded 1.2 billion.
Another comic strip, Dance like a Butterfly, has over 93 million hits and a 10 out of 10 out of 10 rating mechanism on the platform, which airs on both tvN and Netflix. Although the ratings of tvN are not high, the word of mouth is quite good, and it has gained a loyal audience. The work also won the title of "Life TV Series" after receiving the "Life Comics" (that is, after watching it and never forgetting).
Another film, which also scored 10 out of 10 (now down to 9.9), even set the highest ratings OCN has ever seen. Adapted into a TV series on Netflix at a time when the cumulative reading rate exceeded 500 million, "Sweet Home" topped the charts in 8 countries and regions in Asia in just 4 days, with more than 22 million people watching it in one month.
3. The increase of OTT platforms highlights the "potential of web comics"
Compared with previous comic works, online comic works have a "time-sensitive" special feature. That is, with more comic creators and more direct platforms for contact with readers, more works that are in line with current events and the emotions and needs of current audiences are produced. And such content is also more in line with the film and television drama content that the current audience wants to watch.
With the increase of OTT (streaming) platforms, in order to absorb more members and consolidate existing members, the demand for content has also increased, and ready-made web comic works have just made up for this gap in demand.
At the same time, under the restriction that tv dramas could only be broadcast on TV stations in the past, many daily comics were snubbed. And now the emergence of web dramas and short dramas, these super popular daily comics can also be put on the screen.
And Netflix's march, suffering from a shortage of funds and unable to spend money to produce TV series, also got the opportunity, such as "Kingdom" (also translated: Lee Corpse North Korea), which caused a sensation once it was broadcast. The emergence of the drama has also officially opened up the "zombie" theme of Korean dramas.
Netflix bought a stake in Dragon Studio in order to enter the Korean market, and set its sights on the South Korean web comics that are in good momentum, accelerating the process of local content, local production, and global screening. On the one hand, it has successfully attracted a large number of Koreans to join Netflix members, and on the other hand, it has also successfully put a new generation of Korean dramas on the platform through South Korea's mature TV drama production experience, exporting them at home and abroad to make a profit. And this purpose has also succeeded in attracting studios that are eager to make big productions but are struggling with no funds to prioritize some excellent works (but works that cannot be financed locally) to Netflix and get investment in production.
4. The online comic platform enters the film and television market
Naver and Kakao, the two major online comic platforms in South Korea, have set up their own film and television production companies, and the third largest platform, Lezhin, has also set up its own film and television production company, accelerating the development process of comic dramas. The budget for a Korean TV drama production company is not high, so many large-scale productions are difficult to successfully establish projects. The addition of Naver, Kakao, Lezhin and other platforms has filled this market with a lot of capital.
Naver's Studio N was set up by Naver to turn its IP into a film and television series. He has participated in the production of many comic dramas such as "Others Are Hell", "Very Cheap Maxima Supermarket", "Goddess Arrival", "Sweet Home" and so on, and has played 5 works, 4 works to be played, and 12 works to be determined.
Dragon Studio is a film and television production company owned by CJ Entertainment, in which Naver participates, and also forms a joint venture with Kakao Entertainment to form a film and television production company Mega Monster. Dragon Studio has participated in the production of TV series for a number of TV stations, and in 2017, it first participated in the production of the comic drama "The Bride of Heber 2017", and then produced a number of comic dramas.
Mega Monster was also a production company owned by CJ Entertainment before being acquired by Kakao. After being acquired, the first comic adaptation drama was "Touching the Heart" starring the ghost vice CP group Lee Dong Wook and Liu Renna, and then produced "Contract Friendship" and so on. Kakao Entertainment's manga IP has been adapted 65 times since 2006 to 2020, and this year it also announced that it will adapt 65 in the next 3 years.
At the beginning of the year, Kidari Studio did not acquire Its Own Lezhin Studio when it acquired Lezhin Comics, and the studio officially changed its name to Climax Studio in March 2021. After the Netflix broadcast of this year's comic adaptation, "D.P." caused a sensation because its content was too realistic to reflect the shortcomings of Compulsory Military Service in South Korea.
This article is original by Sanwen Entertainment, please indicate the source when reprinting.