SOAS Research Online

A Free Database of the Latest Research by SOAS Academics and PhD Students

[skip to content]

Stolyar, Julia (2022) Remakes as Resistance: Japanese remakes of Korean television dramas 2008-2019. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00038414

[img] Text - Submitted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only until 9 December 2025.

Abstract

For years Japanese media, and in particular television, was ‘self-sufficient’. Local productions took up most of the broadcasting schedule on open channels, and foreign content was limited in amount and mainly broadcast on cable and satellite. The introduction and success of the Korean television dramas in the early 2000s, first on satellite channels and then on open terrestrial ones, gave rise to a mix of reactions spanning from fascination of the neighbouring country’s content to a sense of competition and subsequently a fear of the influence of this close-but-other rising media giant. This led to the reduction of Korean dramas on the main open channels and gave rise to a new phenomenon: Japanese remakes of Korean dramas. Applying textual and discursive analysis to seven pairs of Korean original dramas and their Japanese remakes, this research looks at the way in which Japanese television drama remakes of Korean originals negotiate the influence of Korean dramas and Korean Wave in Japan. Through the process of remake, Japanese television industry, and in particular the commercial channels adapt the Korean stories to Japanese context, conventions, and local myths. This in turn, highlights what Japan sees as ‘Japanese’ vis a vis ‘Korean’, strengthening Japanese national identity myths in face of the influx of ‘proximate-but-different’ media content. In that way, it problematises the cultural proximity argument of the success of Korean dramas in Japan and presents a limit to the possibility of culture and cultural exchange to bring the people and the countries closer. The research’s original contribution is two-fold: one, the addition of a research on inter-Asian television remakes and transnational television flows. Second, presenting a complex picture of influence and resistance, adoption, and adaptation alongside masking the foreign and strengthening the local in Japan and South Korea context.

Item Type: Theses (PhD)
SOAS Departments & Centres: SOAS Research Theses
Supervisors Name: Griseldis Kirsch and Nana Sato-Rossberg
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00038414
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2022 17:05
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/38414
Funders: Other, Other, Other

Altmetric Data

Statistics

Download activity - last 12 monthsShow export options
Downloads since deposit
6 month trend
1Download
6 month trend
71Hits
Accesses by country - last 12 monthsShow export options
Accesses by referrer - last 12 monthsShow export options

Repository staff only

Edit Item Edit Item