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| A still from the Chinese sci-fi comedy "Moon Man," which was adapted from the Korean webtoon titled "Moon You" / Courtesy of Alibaba Pictures, Mahua FunAge |
By Park Han-sol
South Korea's 2016 decision to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery triggered an immediate backlash from neighboring China, which claimed that the anti-missile system's radar could undermine its security interests.
The country responded with economic retaliation against Korea, notably curbing imports of K-pop and Korean movies, dramas and games.
To this day, Korean films still have not been able to gain a footing in the Chinese box office. "Oh! Moon-hee," starring veteran actress Na Moon-hee, was released in December 2021 as the first and only motion picture able to make it into theaters in the country since 2015's "Assassination."
In recent months, instead of screening imported Korean films, the Chinese box office has been witnessing a handful of remakes that have been adapted from Korean webtoons.
The sci-fi comedy "Moon Man," which was adapted from Korean webtoon artist Cho Seok's 2016 "Moon You," grossed over 2.86 billion yuan, or $414 million, as of Monday, according to the country's largest online movie ticketing service Maoyan.
Released on July 29, the film marked the first case of a Chinese motion picture based on a Korean webtoon series. It became the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 in the country's box office so far, after the jingoistic war epic "The Battle at Lake Changjin II."
Cho's "Moon You" centers on a zoologist who, after an asteroid destroys the Earth, is stranded in a lunar research facility. As the "last man alive," he decides to launch an exploration of the lunar surface, only to discover on the way that he may not be alone as he initially presumed. A Mandarin translation of the webcomic was released last November.
The cinematic remake takes a rather heartwarming turn to the original plot filled with wry humor, with an element of romance added between the two main protagonists.
While its end credits state the fact that its plot has been based on Cho's work, production companies Mahua FunAge and Alibaba Pictures have not highlighted this point in their promotional campaigns for the film.
Following the shattering box office record of "Moon Man," another remake adapted from another Korean webtoon will be released in time for the country's Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sept. 9 ― "I Love You," based on another iconic first-generation Korean webtoon artist Kang Full's 2013 series, "The Witch."
The supernatural romance series revolves around a man who falls in love with a woman, who is referred to as "the witch," as every one of her suitors in her life meets a tragic fate. The webcomic was released in China in 2017 on Kuaikan.
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