Remakes have been done in various ways from music, movies, and even TV series, and they have been gaining popularity among people as time has passed. A remake is a work that is based on something which was produced earlier. To put it simply, it means a new version of an old work. To do a remake, there are two possible ways to do it: Films can be remade completely line by line, or they can only take the background from the original film and tell the story in a whole different way.   -Ed.

Remaking
  There are a lot of films that have been remade over the years, whether they were remade from foreign films to Korean films or the other way around. The first remade Hollywood film that was based on a Korean film was a movie called ‘The Lake House’, which came out in 2006. ‘The Lake House’ was a big success compared to its original film in Korea. From then on, Hollywood turned their eyes over to more Korean movies. Therefore, ‘Mirror’(2008), ‘The Uninvited’(2009), ‘Old Boy’(2013) and more have been remade by Hollywood. However, the movies didn’t appeal as much as ‘The Lake House’ did. Korea has remade films from nearby countries such as Japan and China. For Korea, most of the remakes were done in TV series.

Settling into a new home
  Two TV series, which started from this year in October, received attention before they started. The reason is because the two TV series are being remade from two popular Japanese TV series. These two TV series are ‘Naeil’s Cantabile’ and ‘Liar Game’. Even though these two TV series are being remade, how they developed their stories was different. Since the stories need to fit into Korean culture, they have changed and added some parts.
  The original TV series of ‘Naeil’s Cantabile’ is called ‘Nodame Cantabile’. Compared to its original TV series, the most visible difference was the appearance of a new character. Since Koreans love complicated love stories, ‘Naeil’s Cantabile’ added a new character to form a love triangle between the main characters, so there could be more love interaction between the characters. Another change in the story was focus. While ‘Nodame Cantabile’ focused on the musical and comical factors, ‘Naeil’s Cantabile’ made the story more serious by focusing on the storylines of the characters.
  ‘Liar Game’, which has the name same as the original TV series, has also changed its storyline and features to be more familiar to Koreans. In the remake, the background has changed into a broadcast game show instead of games between players. A new main character, who is the host of the game show, has also been added in the remake of ‘Liar Game’. To make the new character more interesting, the host has a secret childhood, which is a very familiar feature in Korean TV series.
 
Is it in? Or out?
  Remakes can be based on the original TV series that were either popular or unpopular. When a popular TV series is being remade, the producers can easily predict if it can also become a big hit. On the other hand, when an unpopular TV series is being remade, it can approach the audience in a fresh but familiar way by changing some of the features in the story to adjust to the audience.
  Remakes appeal a lot to audiences when the originals are from another country since most of the stories are normally something that the audience has never seen before. Thus, it makes the audience curious about the TV series. The uniqueness of remakes can give a break to an audience who might be exhausted from obviously predictable Korean TV series.
  Even though remakes can give good effects, they can still be a headache for the film crews. If the original was popular, the audience, who saw the original, would want the remake to be exactly the same so it can be as good as the original. However, it’s very hard to fulfill their needs since they need to change it a little bit so that the new audience, who hasn’t seen the original, won’t be hesitant to watch it. On the other hand, if the original was unpopular, the film crews need to change the storyline and the factors to make the remake do well for the current audiences while still having the same plot as the original.

By Heo Jae-rin

jr34@cbnu.ac.kr