Author | Snowy Night Fenglin
In the past half month, the film and television industry has revived a trend of Japanese and Korean IP adaptation.
For example, what many people don’t know is that "The Lone Moon", which won more than 2.5 billion yuan in box office, is adapted from the comic "The Lone Moon" of the same name by the well-known Korean cartoonist Zhao Shi. Coincidentally, the love movie "I Want to Be With You" starring Yin Fang and Li Meng last Tuesday was scheduled to be released on September 9th. "I Want to Be With You" is also adapted from the original "Witch" by Korean cartoonist Jiang Cao .
(Photo source comes from IMAX official Weibo)
drama market is not idle either. On the same day, "Open the painting! Girls' Manga released its first trailer. This work is adapted from the well-known Japanese comic IP "Monthly Girl Nozaki Kan", and there was news of filing in 2019. In the end, several times of drafting have become today's "Open Painting"! Girls Comics. The restoration level has been unanimously recognized by fans.
Related works frequently appear. Does it mean that the tide of Japanese and Korean IP adaptations has emerged again? With this question in mind, Puffer Fish Film and Television Archives communicated with many front-line film and television copyright and IP adaptation practitioners.
Through communication with Puffer Fish, it was discovered that the film and television industry has actually become rational in purchasing and remakes of Japanese and Korean IPs in the past two years. On the one hand, the market and capital no longer regard IP as the only criterion higher than content quality; on the other hand, many projects have not been successfully implemented after the authorization period, which has caused the copyright holders of Japan and South Korea to vote for a vote of distrust.
However, the current movie and drama market needs more high-quality works to stimulate. I believe that with the good results of a series of Japanese and Korean IP film and television adaptations such as "The Lonely Moon", the market is very likely to rekindle.
has dropped from a 10 million licensing fee to a million tier, and
copyright overdue has become a large-scale phenomenon
Japanese and Korean IP copyright has always been a highly concerned area. Copyright purchases have gone from nearly 10 million yuan around 2015 to 2017 to one million yuan. The continued decline in the price of Japanese and Korean IPs also reflects that various film and television companies no longer compete fiercely for popular IPs, and everything has slowly shifted from IP-oriented to content-driven.
The producer of a film and television company, Comb Zi, told Puffer King that based on her experience in copyright purchase, compared with the hot domestic IP market in the past, the price of Japanese and Korean IPs has never been very high. For example, the copyright fee for Korean comics IPs is roughly in the range of 800,000 to 1 million yuan, and some Japanese comics IPs are even lower, and you can buy them for less than 500,000 yuan. , Kotanshe, , a comic IP such as Japan's top publishing houses, starts at 5 million yuan.
Now that the market has fallen, the copyright fees of mainstream Japanese and Korean IPs are concentrated between 2 million and 3 million yuan, and only the top IP prices are still at a high level.
In comparison, some IP copyright fees in Europe and the United States are much higher. Xinxin, the head of a film and television company, revealed to Puffer King that European and American IPs have basic prices, and with some additional fees, the overall copyright price starts at hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the copyright fee of Japanese and Korean IPs actually has a certain price advantage. In addition, European and American IP also pays great attention to the binding of peripheral authorized products. Domestic film and television companies lack the ability to develop derivative products for subsequent IPs, which is obviously at a disadvantage.
As we all know, 2015 to 2017 was the era when a large number of hot money poured into the film and television market. Funders all hope that film and television companies can hold a large number of IPs, and audiences are more accepting film and television works adapted from well-known IPs. The Japanese and Korean IPs in the hands of a large number of film and television companies were all won during that period.
However, practitioners who communicate with Puffer Fish have admitted that the mentality of the film and television market has gradually changed in the past two years. The threshold for negotiations on copyrights for Japanese and Korean IPs is getting higher and higher. Film and television companies hope to find IPs suitable for domestic audiences for remake and adaptation. The copyright competition is far less crazy than in the past.
"If you want to bid for the copyright of Japanese and Korean IP, you need a certain technical threshold.For example, several film and television companies compete for the adaptation rights of "Chinese Primary School". Japanese publishing houses will not directly tell you what their psychological price is, but will give you a window of the lowest price, allowing you to call up little by little. Japanese TV stations are another IP copyright payment model, and they are calculated based on the proportion of your production fee. 5%-10% of the production fee is the copyright fee paid to him. Therefore, the negotiation difficulty faced by each company is different," Xinxin recalled.
Japanese TV stations will charge IP copyright fees in the above method, but producers who understand the operating mechanism of the TV station will find other ways to reduce specific copyright fees. Some production teams will report a lower production fee to the Japanese copyright owner, and finally share the share with the IP copyright owner based on this lower production fee benchmark.
In fact, post-8090s are born. The Japanese and Korean IPs I like are basically taken over by domestic film and television companies, but there are only a handful of mature adaptations that can be published.
When IP works are constantly being modified, the most realistic problem is in front of all film and television companies, that is, the copyright cycle. copyright cycle is generally three years, and the longest is five years. When script adaptation and post-production filming are not smooth, overdue copyright can be said to be commonplace.
comparison For example, in 2017, Jiaxuan Universal Pictures obtained the IP copyright of "The Legend of Galaxy", hoping to adapt it into a live-action movie. Although the well-known producer Bai Yicong is in charge, the adaptation of "The Legend of Galaxy" is a very difficult thing. In the blink of an eye, the five-year license is about to expire, and it is still uncertain whether the story of Yang Weili can be released on the big screen.
(Photo source from Sina Entertainment)
Xinxin believes that the most direct consequence of the large-scale overdue copyright is that many Japanese copyright owners are unwilling to authorize IP to Chinese film and television companies. Especially in the eyes of Japanese copyright owners, the production cycle of IP adapted works is very fast, usually about two years, and overdue is almost impossible.
On the one hand, it is overseas companies that are looking forward to being able to be produced and launched quickly, while on the other hand, it is waiting. Chinese companies that may not be able to launch for three to five years, creators who only want to earn a little IP licensing fee will eventually choose the one that can successfully repay the money.
In addition to the factor of collection, the sincerity of film and television companies also determines whether they can get the IP copyright they want. According to industry news, in order to obtain the IP copyright of Japanese movie "Magic Moment", Happy Twist has communicated with Japan Fuji TV many times. In the end, with the good impression established by the copyright owner, Happy Twist obtained the adaptation rights of "Magic Moment" and successfully "This Killer Not So Calm", obtained 2.6 billion and became the big dark horse of this year's Spring Festival.
The passionate theme of love crime is very popular,
The second dimension is abandoned by the platform
detailed analysis, Japanese and Korean IP can be favored by film and television companies for a long time, the core reason These IPs have the strength to impress Chinese audiences under the nourishment of the Japanese and Korean film and television industry. China's cultural background is the same as that of Japan and South Korea, which helps the Japanese and Korean IPs to be successfully implemented.
According to the investigation by Puffer Fish, ordinary audiences and insiders in the film and television industry recognize that love, crime and passion are the most well-made types in the Japanese and Korean film and television industry, and film and television companies are also willing to buy these IPs.
Japanese and Korean love theme works It has a certain universality in East Asia and is very easy to transplant to the Chinese market. Especially in recent years, Korean love-themed dramas have integrated with specific professions, bursting out amazing vitality. The recently popular "Extraordinary Lawyer" is designed to be multi-line narrative. The protagonist breaks through the many difficulties brought by career and diseases, and the love line also touches the hearts of the audience.
Campus love is also a relatively classic theme in Japanese and Korean IP. On June 25 this year, "Friends of the Week" starring Zhao Jinmai and Lin Yiling was officially released.This movie of the same name, adapted from the Japanese manga Matcha, has a bad reputation among the audience, but by accurately matching multiple selling points such as summer and campus, it still earned 121 million yuan in the relatively weak film market in June.
(Photo source comes from the official Weibo of a friend of the week)
Crime suspense type, it is another relatively mature product line among Japanese and Korean film and television works. For film and television companies, although the Japanese and Korean criminal suspense IP has a high risk of censorship, it will bring extremely high benefits after being successfully launched.
For example, after the Korean crime drama "Signal" became popular all over the world, Penguin Film and Television obtained the adaptation rights of "Signal" through the relationship between producer Quan Xianglan, and finally launched "Space and Time Call" in 2019. According to Maoyan Professional Edition, the highest popularity value reached more than 8,900 three days before the series was launched, which proved the audience's attention. There are similar cases in the movie field. In 2016, Su Youpeng released the movie version of "The Suspect's X Appears". This movie is not only one of the more successful adaptations of Keigo Higashino IP film and television, but also successfully made Zhang Luyi, who played Shi Hong famous.
(Photo source comes from the official Weibo of suspect X's dedication)
The Japanese and Korean IPs mentioned above mentioned in the 1980s and 1990s are mostly passionate animation IPs. Although the protagonist's behavior logic is relatively exaggerated, it is quite different from the general personality of Chinese people. However, these passionate anime IPs have become childhood memories for many people, so the benefits after the adaptation are still very considerable. Taking stock of successful cases of passionate IP adaptation in recent years, the TV series "The Soul of Chess" is undoubtedly the best among them.
Director Liu Chang told Puffer King that the key to the success of "Chess Soul" lies in the creation of the script. The main creative team directly sorted out the core line of the story and then filled in the story that belongs to China, making the story of "The Soul of Chess" fit the taste of the general public. Liu Chang said: "After all, the film and television works we filmed must be broadcast in the Chinese market, so we must adapt the more Japanese IP like "Chess Soul" into a real Chinese story. In the end, all the results will be natural."
However, not all classic types of Japanese and Korean IP will be favored by the platform. He has long been responsible for the introduction of Japanese IP to Pudding and revealed to Pufferfish that the platform's interest in Japanese 2D IP is cooling down. Previously, a film and television company has purchased "Dry Girl"! "Xiaomeng" IP copyright, but the video platform did not pass the review because the platform was worried that the two-dimensional themes are still too niche in China and it is difficult to recover the cost.
Differences in copyright procurement and content creation have become bigger
Horror and time travel cannot be filmed
Japanese and Korean IP is certainly basically in line with the tastes of Chinese market audiences, but film and television companies will still face many difficulties in the process of adaptation. There are increasingly disagreements between copyright decision makers and content creators, and changes in censorship standards and audience tastes are constantly restricting the process of Japanese and Korean IP adaptation and production.
"I have experienced some conceptual changes after working in the past few years. In the past few years, because I didn't understand content, I valued the popularity of IP, which eventually led to a long time in the development of the work. Therefore, when choosing IP, the most core goal is to adapt the IP into a good drama. The most important core of content is actually a good story, a good story that resonates with the audience," Xinxin said.
In Xinxin's view, there can be different adaptations for the same IP, and the ultimate reflection is the difference between the creator and the local culture. There was a Korean drama called "The Good Doctor", which was adapted into a Japanese drama after its global popularity. The styles of the two series are completely different.
(Photo source from ETtoday)
The high concept of "Good Doctor" is a story about how a doctor with autism uses his medical skills to save patients.In the Korean version of the story, the image of autistic doctor will try to adapt in a cute direction, while the image of the Japanese version of the doctor will be even more weird. Different cultural backgrounds determine the different ways of adaptation.
Pudding can understand this change of concepts in Xinxin. She believes that when purchasing IP, whether to ask for stories, characters, or concepts is the most practical question before film and television companies. This is very easy for copyright procurement departments and content creators to disagree.
IP development difficulty, mobilizing resources to match works, and how to quickly implement the works are all things that copyright procurement departments need to consider. But content creators only think about one thing, that is, how to make Japanese and Korean IP creation a good story . Although this disagreement gradually decreases, it still plagues content creators.
In addition, even if there is no pursuit of IP purchase, some film and television companies are easily trapped in the rut of "following fashion" in the process of adapting Japanese and Korean IPs.
Previously, Puffer Fish once learned from insiders that a film and television company purchased the copyright of Keigo Higashino's mystery novel. The core trick of that novel is the combination of murder and a sport. But during the adaptation process, the film and television companies hope to replace the sport with a popular sport at the time. The final script looks more like an original script, but it is still an IP adaptation, and the meaning of buying an IP is confusing.
It is not easy to determine the ideas for content production and adaptation, and review has begun to become a new constraint that has affected Japanese and Korean IP procurement and adaptation in recent years.
Bloody horror themes are the first to be affected. In 2016, Perryles Company cooperated with Ciwen, hoping to adapt the story of Junji Ito, such as "Toe" and "The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads" into a film and television drama. However, as the project continues to advance, the review standards are also tightening, and in the end, Junji Ito's plan ended in vain.
Time travel and parallel space-time themes are also not spared. Puding believes that the further restrictions on time-travel themes in recent years have actually affected the adaptation of many Japanese IPs. Similar to the Japanese drama " Marriage Proposal Battle ", it was adapted into an online drama in 2017, starring Zhang Yixing and Chen Duling . But now, if any film and television company wants to adapt "The Battle of Marriage" again, it will be difficult to pass the script review stage.
(Photo source comes from the official Weibo of the proposal battle)
Overall, film and television practitioners no longer blindly pursue popular Japanese and Korean IPs, and content has become a topic of concern to people. All of this shows that the Japanese and Korean IP film and television adaptation market is gradually moving towards rational . Many of the works launched on the market are "inventory", but the light brought by these "inventory" will inevitably inspire the industry's enthusiasm for a new round of Japanese and Korean IP.
More importantly, with the continuous deepening of the film and television industry, purchasing Japanese and Korean IP copyright remakes no longer has to be completely confined to the tastes and reviews of domestic audiences. The original series " versus " released by iQiyi International last year is a similar idea. Like the "Legend of Galaxy" mentioned earlier, it is reported that the international version was developed by Golden Media, which previously operated a series of domestic promotion activities in Yinying, and Golden Media is also a domestic partner of Tanaka Yoshiki .
Perhaps in the near future, we can see more high-quality Japanese and Korean IP adaptations come out through various channels.
