Web comics (or “Webtoons,” a compound of “web” and “cartoon”) are cartoons published on Internet. Since the IMF crisis of 1997 when bloggers began to draw cartoons, Webtoons that emerged with the development of Internet have become popular as alternative forms of publishing cartoons. Webtoons have firmly established themselves after being serialized on the official Web portal for Korea. In recent years, the development of tablet PCs and smartphones have increased access to the proliferation of Webtoons. Webtoons are therefore enjoying a heyday as a media phenomenon that cannot be ignored in the 21st century. We now find film adaptations of Webtoons, dramatizations of Webtoons, and Webtoons moving into the gaming and advertising markets. Among these, THE AJOU GLOBE (THE AG) brand focuses on film adaptations.
“The Apartment” serialized by Gang-Pul is the first film adaptation of a Webtoon. In the horror genre, this work was released in early July 2006 and viewed by about 640,000 people. A number of viewers commented, “Well, it wasn’t contain original contents.” and, “The director lacked competence.” However, “Secretly Greatly” (serialized by web comic artist Hun and directed by Jang Cheol-su) is considered the best-filmed Webtoon, notching up a box office success by recording 6.95 million viewers. In addition, many works have succeeded in attracting more than one million viewers. Among these are Gang-Pul’s, “Late Blossom,” which depicted twilight love very beautifully and received rave reviews and acclaim for these reasons. As it retold the original story faithfully, a mix of experienced actors acting made movie more rich.
The AG conducted a survey to discover why people had watched a film-adapted Webtoon and what they felt about it. The following are evaluations of these films. Student Moon-Yea Been, a freshman in the University of Education, said, “I watched the movies” Secretly Greatly” and “Moss” because the originals were so good. So I had decided to watch the movies. I was disappointed because the stories moved too fast to become immersed in. In short, the movies were congested.”Lee Sol-jee, a marketer, said, “I can watch the same story more than a thousand times when the story is good and meaningful. So i went to see “The Neighbors” after watching its Webtoon version. It surprised me that the movie was very close to the original in terms of editing and casting.”Apart from this, most of the surveyed people wanted to know which parts had been changed in the adaptation and how well the movie expressed the original. They also commented that most movies could not completely realize the original’s story, scale, or feeling.
At the same time, some dramatized Webtoons are hogging the limelight. A Webtoon called “Hello School Girl” (Gangpul, 2003) was screened for three years in five regions including Seoul. Both “Sambong Barber Shop” (Ha iI-kwon) and “Is it a Coincidence?”(Nam Ji-eun, Kim In-ho) were favorably reviewed because of the actors’ natural acting. Soon, “God of Bath” (Ha Il-kwon), “With God” (Joo Ho-min), and “Trace” (Nasty Cat) will start filming.Meanwhile, “Cheese in the trap” (Soon Kki), and “Dr.Frost” (Li Jong-bum) will also be dramatized.
sjc02031@ajou.ac.kr, sy4689@ajou.ac.kr