{"id":8095,"date":"2017-08-08T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2017-10-24T16:50:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T20:50:47","slug":"tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/","title":{"rendered":"A Case Study in Scripted Adaptations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executives from Nippon TV and Medyapim give<\/em> TV Drama\u00a0insight into turning Japanese scripted successes into Turkish drama hits.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2010, Nippon TV in Japan aired an 11-part drama about an elementary school teacher who takes it upon herself to rescue a student who is being abused at home. Mother <\/em>was a hit domestically and notched up a number of broadcast slots within the region, but a global rollout eluded it at the time. Now, the Turkish version of the series has landed placements on broadcasters in some 80 markets worldwide\u2014in addition to driving ratings for Star TV domestically.<\/p>\n

After collaborating on Mother<\/em>\u2014which is being sold by Global Agency\u2014format holder Nippon TV recently clinched a second deal with prolific Turkish production houses MF Yapim and Medyapim. An adaptation is currently underway on Woman\u2014My Life for My Children<\/em>, which ran on Nippon TV in 2013. The award-winning show focuses on a woman who struggles to make a life for herself and her two young children after the sudden death of her husband. It hails from the same team as Mother<\/em>, including producer Hisashi Tsugiya, who says he wanted to tackle the issue of women in poverty in Japan. “I wanted to feature that theme through my drama because \"***Image***\"at that time in Japan no shows were focusing on that subject,” Tsugiya tells TV Drama<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story in Woman<\/em> is really great; it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” says Fatih Aksoy of Medyapim. Aksoy and his team are currently working on the script for Woman<\/em>. TV Drama\u00a0<\/em>was able to sit in on his first face-to-face meeting with Tsugiya to talk about the adaptation, providing an unfiltered look at the challenges of remaking drama series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge gap between the cultures of Japan and Turkey,\u201d Tsugiya acknowledges, which means that adjustments need to be made in terms of the characters\u2019 lifestyles. He is, however, optimistic about how Woman<\/em> will translate given the success of the adaptation of Mother<\/em>. \u201cThe theme was right there,\u201d he says, \u201cthe message I wanted to portray was the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, there are issues to contend with. During their recent meeting\u2014conducted in English via a translator, with a Turkish translator also on hand\u2014Aksoy and Tsugiya talked about the choices made by the lead character in Nippon TV\u2019s Woman<\/em>. After the death of her husband, Koharu finds herself in dire financial straits with two young children to support and estranged from her own mother. Aksoy wanted to understand from Tsugiya why Koharu wouldn\u2019t seek out help from her family. \u201cWe are trying to find a real reason not to go ask for the mother\u2019s help,\u201d Aksoy says. \u201cWhatever happened in the past, [if you\u2019re in trouble] you would go to your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very good point,\u201d Tsugiya responds, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s not that she\u2019s not asking for help. It seems that she cannot. That\u2019s why people can relate to her. She was deserted by her real mother. She raised herself. So when she faces poverty, she still does not want to reach out to her mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is very understandable if you are alone,\u201d Aksoy responds. “But if you have two children and you’ve lost your husband, and there is nobody around, for the sake of your kids, wouldn\u2019t you ask for your mother\u2019s help?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted my viewers to ask, Why doesn\u2019t she ask her mother for help?\u201d Tsugiya says. \u201cHer real mother was not a mother to her. She doesn\u2019t want that impure essence in her pure life. And then she finds out that her mother has another daughter. And she also feels like she doesn\u2019t want to destroy this new family, this new life the mother has now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aksoy notes that the nature of Turkish drama\u2014with 35 to 40 two-hour episodes in a season\u2014adds a further complication to the adaptation process and requires that the producers provide more explanation about a character’s choices and motivations than would be necessary for a shorter-run show. “In 11 45-minute episodes [the duration of the Japanese original] you can’t go deep into every detail,” Aksoy explains. “In a Turkish episode, we have 120 minutes. [The Japanese version] had 30 minutes of [the character experiencing] poverty. In our case, we have to show 100 minutes of poverty, which is a lot! After 100 minutes of poverty, people will think, she has a mother, why doesn’t she go there? This is one difficulty we have to face.”<\/p>\n

Aksoy notes that the producers were able to address similar challenges when adapting Mother<\/em>. In its 20th episode, for example, the storyline jumps forward by a year and a half and introduces a new character not in the original\u2014a baby sister for Melek, the child rescued by the show’s lead character, Zeynep. \u201cWe have to create new stories,\u201d Aksoy explains. \u201cWith Mother<\/em>, we skipped the second episode [of the Japanese original], and then we mixed the fourth and fifth. And in nine episodes we finished the original story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aksoy is hopeful that Woman<\/em> will also reach the 35- to 40-episode mark for season one. And as the writers and producers devise new stories and new characters, Aksoy is eager to continue the dialog with Tsugiya and the team at Nippon TV. \u201cIt is very helpful\u201d to talk to the original producer, he says. \u201cSo we know what the weaknesses are, where the problems are, in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Execs from Nippon TV and Medyapim discuss turning Japanese scripted successes into Turkish drama hits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":8096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[2047,2048,2046,1400,1296,2049],"class_list":["post-8095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-fatih-aksoy","tag-hisashi-tsugiya","tag-medyapim","tag-mother","tag-nippon-tv","tag-woman","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nA Case Study in Scripted Adaptations - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Case Study in Scripted Adaptations - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Execs from Nippon TV and Medyapim discuss turning Japanese scripted successes into Turkish drama hits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-08T13:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-24T20:50:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2015\/09\/2017-08-07-NipponTV-Woman-Main-Visual-2017-FL.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/\",\"name\":\"A Case Study in Scripted Adaptations - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-08T13:00:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-24T20:50:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/tokyo-to-istanbul-a-case-study-in-scripted-adaptations\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Case Study in Scripted Adaptations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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