
Ever feel like you're watching the same TV drama over and over again? It's not just you. Beside similar genre formulas, the same stories often get retold across Asia, either through straight-out remakes or adapting the same source material. If a drama is a big hit in one country, there's a good chance another country will pick it up. Particularly popular stories may get adapted multiple times, even in the same country!
In the first installment of our two-part Asian Drama Redux feature, we take a look at Japanese manga and dramas that have been adapted multiple times in Japan and beyond. How many of these "same story, different feel" dramas have you watched?
Manga are the ultimate treasure trove for adaptation. Besides feeding the anime industry and being the source of seemingly every other Japanese drama and film, many popular manga titles have been turned into live-action series outside Japan as well. Of these, the most famous representative is
Boys Over Flowers, which has caused a sensation with every iteration.

As one of the all-time favorites for live-action adaptation,
Boys Over Flowers took Asia by storm in the 2000s with its legendary Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean and mainland Chinese dramas.
Kamio Yoko's shojo manga
Hana Yori Dango tells the romantic, youthful story between campus hotshots F4 – four handsome and rich boys – and a poor but spunky high school girl.
Taiwan's
Meteor Garden in 2001, the first-ever drama adaptation of the manga, is the pioneer of the "idol drama" genre. The main leads –
Barbie Hsu and newcomers
Jerry Yan,
Vic Chou,
Vanness Wu and
Ken Chu – were all propelled to immense fame in Asia, setting a precedent that would be repeated time and time again.
Meteor Garden's F4 was so phenomenally popular, they even continued in real life as the boy band
F4.

Japan and Korea followed with their own versions that also became huge hits. While
Meteor Garden changed the campus to a college, the Japanese and Korean adaptations retained the manga's high school setting. Spanning two seasons and a blockbuster
film from 2005 to 2008, Japan's
Hana Yori Dango series featured the strong cast of
Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi and Arashi's
Matsumoto Jun as Domyouji Tsukasa, with
Oguri Shun,
Matsuda Shota and
Abe Tsuyoshi forming the rest of F4. Though the Japanese franchise had a comparatively more well-known cast to begin with, the series undoubtedly elevated the leads – and Arashi – to a new level of fame.
Korea's
Boys Over Flowers set off yet another craze across Asia in 2009, with
Ku Hye Sun as heroine Geum Jan Di,
Lee Min Ho as F4 leader Gu Jun Pyo, and
Kim Hyun Joong,
Kim Bum and
Kim Joon as the rest of the F4 boys. A relative unknown before, Lee Min Ho jumped straight to the top of the A-list thanks to
Boys Over Flowers.

Mainland China made two seasons of the unofficial adaptation
Meteor Shower (with an H4 instead of F4) in 2009 and 2010. The series launched the acting careers of
Zheng Shuang,
Zhang Han,
Zhu Zixiao and singers
Vision Wei and
Yu Haoming, again affirming
Boys Over Flowers' reputation as a star-making vehicle.
Almost two decades after the first
Meteor Garden wave,
Boys Over Flowers is still going strong.
Meteor Garden producer
Angie Chai struck again in 2018 with the Chinese reboot of
Meteor Garden that introduced newcomers Shen Yue,
Dylan Wang,
Darren Chen,
Caesar Wu and
Connor Leong. A Thai remake of
Boys Over Flowers, or
F4 Thailand, is also scheduled to air in 2021.
Playful Kiss is another classic high school romantic comedy that everyone loves to adapt.
Tada Kaoru's shojo manga
Itazura na Kiss is a teen love story depicting a cold genius and a cute, clumsy girl whose relationship begins to bloom because of a kiss.
Itazura na Kiss was first adapted into a Japanese drama starring
Kashiwabara Takashi and
Sato Aiko in 1996. Taiwan again brought the first live-action version outside Japan with
It Started with a Kiss in 2005, which achieved high popularity and viewer ratings. The idol drama classic launched
Ariel Lin,
Joe Cheng and
Jiro Wang to stardom, and the leads returned for the sequel
They Kiss Again, which covered the protagonists' married life. To this day, Ariel Lin and Joe Cheng remain one of the most popular onscreen couples in Taiwan television history.
Boys Over Flowers' Kim Hyun Joong took the lead role of Korea's
Playful Kiss with then newcomer
Jung So Min in 2010. Though the Korean remake didn't get high viewership ratings, that didn't stop the drama and stars from attaining popularity with local and overseas K-Drama fans.
Seventeen years after the first
Itazura na Kiss, Japan released the new live-action
Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo in 2013, with
Yahagi Honoka and
Furukawa Yuki giving breakthrough performances as the protagonists. The stars returned for a TV special and
second season the following year. Thailand adapted the manga into
Kiss Me starring
Aom Sucharat Manaying and
Mike Angelo in 2015, and Taiwan also rebooted with
Miss in Kiss starring
Dino Lee and
Esther Wu in 2016.

The last of the big three shojo manga favored for live-action is
Nakajo Hisaya's
Hana-Kimi, which has been adapted in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. If
Hana Yori Dango offered four handsome guys,
Hana-Kimi offered an "ikemen paradise," as boasted in the tagline of the 2007 Japanese drama.
As often the case, Taiwan was the
first to adapt the youth romcom about a cross-dressing girl who enters a boys' boarding school. S.H.E's
Ella starred as the heroine of the plucky 2006 hit, while Fahrenheit's
Wu Chun and Jiro Wang leapt to fame playing the boys whose hearts she fluttered and confused.

Japan's legendary 2007 adaptation
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e went all in with
Horikita Maki opposite
Boys Over Flowers' Oguri Shun and Johnny's idol
Ikuta Toma, and scored a big hit. The drama's promised ikemen paradise of boarding school boys included
Mizushima Hiro,
Okada Masaki,
Mizobata Junpei and
Suzuki Ryohei. A mere four years later, Fuji TV attempted to recreate the magic with a
reboot featuring a new cast led by
Maeda Atsuko,
Nakamura Aoi and
Miura Shohei, but this version failed to click with audiences.

Korea joined the
Hana-Kimi party in 2012 with
To the Beautiful You produced by K-pop giant SM Entertainment. Directed by
Boys Over Flowers director Jun Ki Sang, the series aimed squarely for the K-pop market with popular idols
Sulli and
Min Ho in the leading roles, plus an abundance of cameos. Despite high anticipation, this version's appeal largely did not extend beyond fans of the cast.

While the shojo genre seems to be the most popular pick for adaptation outside Japan, one manga that has bucked the trend is
Abe Yaro's
Shinya Shokudo. The warm story of a small Shinjuku diner that opens at midnight was first adapted as a
late-night series in 2009, with
Kobayashi Kaoru as the Master who cooks comfort dishes for troubled customers in episodic stories filled with good food and life lessons. Beloved by local and international audiences, Japan's acclaimed
Midnight Diner has spawned five seasons and two spin-off films so far.

Both Korea and China opened midnight diners of their own with high expectations. Korea's 2015 series starring
Kim Seung Woo was directed by
Princess Hours director Hwang In Roe, and China's 2017
series starring
Huang Lei was directed by
Meteor Garden director
Tsai Yueh Hsun. Both the Korean and Chinese versions added new elements and adapted dishes to local palate, but attempted to retain the appeal of the original with an izakaya-like environment, the Master's signature denim blue shirt, and similar storytelling style and structure.
Though not a lasting hit, the Korean version found a receptive-enough audience amongst watchers of K-Dramas. The Chinese version, however, was panned for awkwardly transplanting uniquely Japanese elements into a Chinese setting and garnered a famously low rating on the user ratings site Douban. A recent 2019
Chinese film adaptation of
Midnight Diner also flopped, so it seems
Midnight Diner may be best left in Japan.

After the success of
Meteor Garden, Taiwan produced a slew of idol dramas based on manga. Among these early classics are Vic Chou's
Poor Prince and
Mars. Aired right after
Meteor Garden in 2001, the former is based on
Morinaga Ai's
Yamada Tarō Monogatari about a poor, princely-looking youth with a big family. TBS later adapted the manga in 2007 into a
Japanese series that's memorable for its casting of two Arashi members,
Ninomiya Kazunari and
Sakurai Sho. As for
Mars based on
Soryo Fuyumi's manga, the angsty 2004 Taiwan series reunited Vic Chou and Barbie Hsu as two emotionally repressed souls who forge a connection.
Mars got adapted again in 2016 into a
Japanese series with Kis-My-Ft2's
Fujigaya Taisuke,
Iitoyo Marie and
Kubota Masataka.

The romantic manga
Asunaro Hakusho,
Nodame Cantabile and
Absolute Boyfriend have all been adapted thrice with mixed results.
Saimon Fumi's
Asunaro Hakusho, about the relationships of a group of college friends over time, was first adapted by Fuji TV in 1993. One of Japan's biggest TV hits of the 90s, this
series starred
Ishida Hikari and
Tsutsui Michitaka, and paved the breakout of
Kimura Takuya as an actor.
Though less well-known than other titles of the same period, the wistful 2002 Taiwan adaptation
Tomorrow is one of the early classics of idol dramas, notably serving as a launching pad for the careers of
Rainie Yang,
Shawn Yue,
Eddie Peng and
Christine Fan. Taiwan remade the story again in 2019 with
Brave to Love. Featuring rising stars
Gingle Wang and
Chang Ting Hu, this series has generally been the most well-reviewed amongst the recent Taiwan reboots of early idol dramas.

The Japanese live-action
Nodame Cantabile starring
Ueno Juri as the quirky pianist and
Tamaki Hiroshi as the perfectionist conductor is a fan favorite that has been praised not only for its cute romance and pitch-perfect portrayals, but also for its classical music recordings. In comparison, the Korean and Chinese adaptations – 2014's
Nae Il's Cantabile starring
Shim Eun Kyung and
Joo Won and 2020's
Symphony's Romance starring
Jelly Lin and
Zhang Xincheng – disappointed audiences due to their muddled narrative development and depiction of the characters.

Similarly, Fuji TV's 2008
Zettai Kareshi series about a young woman (
Aibu Saki) who gets a perfect robot boyfriend (
Hayami Mokomichi) ranks as a minor classic amongst 2000s romantic J-Dramas. However, Taiwan's
Absolute Darling with Jiro Wang and Ku Hye Sun and Korea's
My Absolute Boyfriend with
Yeo Jin Goo and
Bang Min Ah both underperformed in ratings, though they at least fared better than the
Nodame Cantabile adaptations.

Two notable non-romantic manga that inspired successful live-action dramas in both Japan and Korea are
Liar Game and
Dragon Zakura.
Kaitani Shinobu's
Liar Game about a college girl and a swindler pulled into a high-stakes gambling tournament spawned a live-action franchise in Japan with
two TV seasons and two feature films starring
Toda Erika and Matsuda Shota. Going in a different direction than its Japanese predecessors, the 2014 Korean adaptation offers one of the most successful examples of remaking with dramatically different original elements. tvN's mystery turns the underground game into a reality show and fleshes out
Shin Sung Rok's antagonist into an intriguing character that rivals the presence of the protagonists played by
Kim So Eun and
Lee Sang Yoon.
Norifusa Mita's
Dragon Zakura about a teacher who uses unconventional methods to prep a special remedial class for the university entrance exam was turned into a hit
TBS series starring
Abe Hiroshi in 2005. Even amongst Japan's many school dramas, this is a fairly legendary title thanks to its class of future A-listers (
Yamashita Tomohisa,
Nagasawa Masami,
Aragaki Yui).
Dragon Zakura's story and themes traveled easily to Korea, where exam and academic pressure is similarly intense, in the 2010 KBS adaptation
Master of Study. This version also gathered a famous teen cast for its troubled students (
Yoo Seung Ho,
Ko Ah Sung,
Lee Hyun Woo,
Ji Yeon), with funnyman
Kim Su Ro as the teacher.

Aside from manga adaptations, some original Japanese dramas have been remade multiple times as well. The 2007 time-slip romantic comedy
Proposal Daisakusen starring Yamashita Tomohisa and Nagasawa Masami is about a man who goes back in time to key moments of his ambiguous relationship with the girl who got away, and tries to change the course of their unrealized love. This hit series got remade five years later into the Korean drama
Operation Proposal starring Yoo Seung Ho and
Park Eun Bin, and then another five years later into the Chinese drama
Operation Love starring
Lay Zhang and
Chen Duling. Despite decent initial buzz, neither remakes left much of an impact.

NTV's acclaimed 2010 series
Mother starred
Matsuyuki Yasuko as a teacher who impulsively runs off with an abused student to protect her. Along the way, she recalls her own mother who abandoned her as a child. The moving story was remade into the Turkish drama
Anne in 2016, the Korean drama
Mother in 2018, and the Chinese drama
Imperfect Love starring
Zhou Xun in 2020. Of these, the Korean version starring
Lee Bo Young has become an acclaimed work in its own right, winning prizes at the 54th Baeksang Arts Awards and the 13th Seoul International Drama Awards.
Two other classic, female-led ratings juggernauts that have been remade in Korea are
The Queen's Classroom, which starred
Amami Yuki as a mysterious, poker-faced teacher, and
Kaseifu no Mita, which starred
Matsushima Nanako as a mysterious, poker-faced housekeeper. Both were turned into high-profile Korean dramas in 2013, with
Ko Hyun Jung headlining MBC's
The Queen's Classroom and
Choi Ji Woo headlining SBS's
The Suspicious Housekeeper.
Besides the aforementioned, quite a few Japanese dramas have gotten the K-Drama remake treatment in recent years, including
The Man Who Can't Get Married,
Rich Man, Poor Woman,
Hundred Million Stars from the Sky,
Hirugao: Love Affairs in the Afternoon and
Saiko no Rikon. Meanwhile, China has also remade
Date,
Mondai no Aru Restaurant and
My Pretty Proofreader.
In
Part 2, we cover remakes of Korean, Chinese and Western dramas!
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Published August 28, 2020
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