Novel-based dramas raise concern over creativity
The growing popularity of TV dramas based on novels is providing more fun for viewers but it raises concerns that they are taking away jobs from young script writers.
Following the recent success of best-selling novels “Memoir of a Murderer” and “The Fortress” and ensuing box office hits for its movie adaptations, the small screen is now full of novel-based dramas.
SBS’s ongoing romantic comedy “Temperature of Love,” which currently tops the ratings for the Monday-Tuesday time slot, is written by Ha Myung-hee. The drama, starring Seo Hyun-jin and Yang Se-jong, is based on Ha’s 2014 novel “Nice Soup Does Not Answer the Phone,” featuring the complicated love lives of today’s young people who battle with loneliness and emotional scars.
As for the concerns if the drama is a replica of the novel, Ha previously said, “Since the novel is more like telling my story to another personally, it enables a more focused and deep story, but the drama is about telling the story to multiple viewers. So I will put a brighter rom-com spin on the drama adaptation.”
Public broadcaster KBS is also airing coming-of-age teen drama “Girls’ Generation 1979,” based on Kim Yong-hee’s 2009 novel of the same title. It is about the love and friendship of high school girls in Daegu in the late 1970s.
SBS is also working on the drama “The Aerial Swing,” adapted from the 2004 Japanese novel of the same name written by Hideo Okuda. Veteran actor Park Shin-yang will return to television in the drama. When the news hit that the novel will be made into a local drama, there were both expectations and concerns because it already had many local fans who loved the original Japanese novel, drama and animation adaptations.
Not all people welcome the novel-based or webtoon-based dramas recently dominating the local cinema and drama scenes.
“Apart from the fact that fans of original novels take issue with degrading the value of the originals in the adapted works, it is deplorable that we now see less original stories in dramas,” said a local broadcasting official.
“As the originals were big hits already, drama producers could expect more viewers. But this can also prevent finding and developing young aspiring writers, which is crucial for the growth of the local drama industry.”