Chinese film and television circles are scrambling for Japanese IP, but the road to "Sinicization" is too bumpy

Japanese copyright owners attach too much importance to their own IP and control it beyond our imagination, limiting the effect of our localization.

original title: picture and text: Chinese film and television industry grabs Japan's IP

the biggest news in the film industry this week is the release of the creative lineup of the Chinese version of the film "worry-relieving grocery store" based on the famous Japanese writer Keigo Higuo's best-selling novel of the same name: the famous writer and director Han Han is the artistic director and Jia Zhangke's "Love Apprentice" Han Jie is the director. Wang Junkai of the TFboys group and Dili Reba, the popular "Huadan", take the lead.

at the same time, another work of Keigo Higano, the kidnapping Game, has also been bought by Chinese film and television companies and will be made into an online drama. The Chinese version of the movie "Hunt" and the Chinese version of "late Night Canteen" are also about to meet with Chinese audiences. In addition, more than a dozen Japanese classic TV dramas are about to be remade by Chinese "financiers". In the Chinese film and television circle in the next two years, the wind will blow to IP in Japan.

strong > Japanese IP has become the starting point of the latest hot item / strong >

looking back on this Japanese IP rush buying trend, "good tiger" Alec Su seems to have contributed a lot. When he announced a remake of suspect X's dedication last year, the heated discussion among netizens made sensitive industry insiders start thinking about the value of the Japanese classic IP.

since then, this value has been highlighted by the popularity of the Chinese version of the TV series "late Night Canteen". Although the hero played by Huang Lei was scolded by netizens, a series can become a hot search word for as long as half a month, and its "Qian Jing" is self-evident.

coincidentally, Huang Lei's first film "trouble Family" released this year is also adapted from "Family suffering" by Yoji Yamada, a famous Japanese director of IP--. Huang Lei said in an interview with reporters that Yamada Yoji is second only to Akira Kurosawa in the hearts of Japanese movie fans. He chose to remake Yoji Yamada's classic works because he believed in the current value of this Japanese IP.

also believes in the value of Japanese IP, also directed by John Woo. The Chinese version of Hunt, directed by John Woo and starring Zhang Hanyu, Fukuyama Yaji and Qi Wei, has been selected into the non-competition section of this year's Venice Film Festival and will be released nationwide next Spring Festival.

and more film and television companies have gone on a buying spree for Japanese film and television IP rights. It is reported that a large wave of Japanese classic IP, such as "problem Restaurant", "the most perfect divorce", "long Holiday", "5cm per second", "Love letter" and so on, have sold Chinese remake rights, coupled with the introduction of "proposal Battle", "dating, what is Love", "problem Restaurant" and so on. The "Japanese style" in Chinese film and television circles is indeed very strong in the past two years.

strong > the road to "Sinicization" of Japanese IP is too rugged / strong >

A senior screenwriter in the circle told reporters that the crazy purchase of Japanese IP in the circle is to take shortcuts to borrow the popularity of the original IP, and second, there are few good IP left in China, and the price is ridiculously high. "for a Gong Dou novel that is far from being well-known, the author's offer of 20 million yuan is cheap. There is no shortage of hot money in the circle. If you cannot afford it, other families can immediately pay cash."

in this context, it is a good idea to buy Japanese IP. In particular, Japan has strict controls on the copyright output of film and television works, which avoids the sky-high price of copyright fees to a certain extent.

but can you make good localized works by buying the copyright of a good IP? At present, the answer is no. In the Douban scoring system, among the Japanese IP works that have been broadcast or released, except for "the dedication of suspect X", all the other works have failed, with the Chinese version of the series "late Night Canteen" as low as 2.3.

Why is the road of "Sinicization" of Japanese IP so difficult? The marketer of Huang Lei's version of the late Night Canteen poured some grievances on the reporter. "the Japanese copyright authorities attach too much importance to their IP and control it beyond our imagination, limiting the effect of our localization, so sometimes netizens scold us for not remaking but translating, in fact, we are also very bitter in our hearts."

and Zhang Luyi, the leading actor in" the dedication of suspect X ", also revealed to reporters that Yuigo Higano has put forward a lot of requirements for the adaptation of the Chinese version, such as the plot used in the Japanese and Korean version can no longer be used, and the Chinese creator cannot make subversive changes.

in addition, the cultural gap between China and Japan is also an important obstacle to the adaptation of IP. For example, what on earth is the Japanese TV series dating, Love, which is highly sought after by young netizens? the character setting in the original version is very normal in Japanese culture, but it becomes ridiculous after it is changed into a Chinese version. How to fight with copyright owners for adaptation details while making localization accurate and credible should be the problem that dozens of Chinese investors who buy Japanese IP most need to solve.

Edit: mary