Thai joint venture, True CJ Creations, is charting a new path for scripted and non-scripted content in Asia, blending Thai practices and tastes with Korean skills and values. CEO Apicha Honghirunruang talks about creative journeys and his ambitions to create a unique brand of original stories.
 

True CJ Creations – the Bangkok-based joint venture between Thailand’s True Corp and Korea’s CJ ENM – moved into the second half of 2020 ahead of its original production targets, with a slate of Thai adaptations of Korean dramas and reality/competition programmes, its first home-grown original Thai IP adapted and on air in China, a special interest in YouTube channel Online Station, a multi-platform distribution strategy and a mega effort to carve a space of its own in the premium series landscape. Chief executive, Apicha Honghirunruang, also says that while the four-year-old company has open-door access to CJ ENM’s formats, he’s determined to create original shows from scratch using the learnings from some of the best Korean dramas around.   

True CJ Creations is four years old. The initial aim was to have 10 productions by 2021. How are you tracking against that? “We’ll deliver more than expected. By the end of 2021, we should deliver more than 18 IPs, including series and variety.” 

Thailand is a very competitive non-scripted market. Where does a show like hip-hop competition Show Me The Money Thailand, currently in season two, fit in? “In Thailand, most of the non-scripted programmes we have are game shows, music or cooking programmes. Show Me The Money is totally different”. The first season was successful, but the hip hop community has really embraced the second season... “We’re not talking about TV anymore, we’re talking about multi access channels, OTT, internet and social communities.”

Reality show Cuteboy Thailand is True CJ’s first original IP. The Chinese version premiered on Mango TV at the end of August. What does this mean for the company? “True CJ joined with Thai artist management company Copy A to produce Cuteboy Thailand, which is not only our first original IP, but also our first step for us to open untapped markets like China. This milestone is a good sign. We hope for more series-led culture to be expored in the near future.”

Your drama series have included Thai versions of Voice, Oh My Ghost, Tunnel and Unlucky Ploy (Another Miss Oh). Why these particular series and what space are you trying to carve out in Thailand? “Firstly, we pick scripts that match with the local market and then we discuss how they can be adapted and whether it will engage Thai audiences. Unlucky Ploy, for instance, takes place in an office setting, which is normal, everyday life... The series is a romantic comedy, which means it’s easy to engage young Bangkok urban audiences. That’s the key.” 

Four of your dramas have premiered on TrueID and on Netflix. Was that the intention from the beginning? “From the beginning, we aimed to produce and export our content internationally. The four dramas on Netflix worldwide are Oh my Ghost, Tunnel, Voice and Unlucky Ploy, which was the top show on local streaming platform TrueID and also rose to the top show on Netflix in Thailand in September.” 

What’s your thinking on exclusivity versus inclusion on multiple streaming platforms? “We believe our target audience (Bangkok Urban) set their their own primetimes, which is why we should premiere across multiple platforms, like TrueID and Netflix. In addition, Netflix and TrueID serve different markets, so we partnered with both of them for Unlucky Ploy and launched the series at the same time and got good feedback from both platforms.”

Is this the distribution strategy for all your series? “We try. For Voice, we worked with True4U, which is digital TV, and Netflix and True ID. But this time (Unlucky Ploy), we worked with a premiere launch on pay TV platform TrueVisions first and after that on streaming with TrueID and Netflix.”

Do you own all the rights to the programmes that you adapt from CJ ENM? “Yes”.

As a joint venture between CJ ENM and True, are you able to work with other production partners? “Yes we can... There are no restrictions and we are open to doing anything as long as the projects are interesting and make sense.” 

There’s a lot of pressure when you remake a high-profile Korean series in that audience have a certain expectation of what the Korean original was. Is the adaptation easier if you choose series that are not as well known? “Adaptation is not easy whatever you do. Firstly, Korean series production quality is so good. Not only the script, it’s the cast, the team, camerawork, art design... it’s all superb. When we pick a title to adapt, we have to work hard and do a lot of homework... we want to build Thai content production quality and we’re lucky to have a partner like CJ ENM. There’s a lot of knowledge we’re gaining from them.”

What do you find are the main areas of difference that you have to work on in adapting Korean stories for Thailand? “Korean series are a bit faster than normal Thai drama. We have to understand and be clear about each character that the scriptwriter designed for the series. The cultures of the Korean and Thai people are different, what they feel about the characters are different. So we have to redesign the characters, the situation, the location but still keep true to the concept. Some Korean characters can be drawn with only one or two actors, but in Thailand, we may have to add more supporting roles to bring out the main characters. So we have to design differently. In terms of production, we cannot compromise with the quality because now we are not only serving Thai audiences, we are also going to other markets.” 

What about subject matter? “Scripted Korean series tend to be about normal life, regular lifestyles, of say, doctors. And then it’s the quality of acting... that’s what i learned from Korea. It’s not only one element, if you want to make quality content, you have to ensure every part of production goes the same way. So the actors/actresses are doing very well, but if there’s no support to the cover design and art, you cannot get that high quality you seek.” 

What’s been your biggest success so far? “We have a lot of fan community increasing since we launched Voice [the story of a detective whose wife is murdered and a policewoman with psycho-acoustic skills whose father was killed]. Most of the comments say we are no. 1 in terms of Korean remake, no. 1 quality production in terms of Korean remake in Thailand. This means that the fans accept and love the way we tell the story to them. They accepted the quality of production that we’ve spent a lot of time on to study and learn to produce for the audience.” 

What’s next for True CJ Creations? “We are trying to develop original scripts in Thailand. We have started working with Korean scriptwriters already. When we started the company, CJ ENM insisted that we need to develop our own scripts. But we still need time. We need to understand how to do it.”

Where have you had to devote the most energy? “In terms of production and research, we have to make it clear that Thai directors and talent understand the characters. When we decide on the team, we have to make sure everyone is moving in the same direction. It doesn’t always happen and in the end, it shows in the product. We do a lot of workshops, make sure all the talent across the board fully understands the script, the idea, the design.” 

What are you working on now? “We have many projects on hand right now, original scripts and localised adaptations. We have a series related to doctors, which is very new in Thailand, we have a series related to teachers. We want to build a series that can motivate teachers and spread the message on how important they are to the country and to the students.”  

Published in ContentAsia's Issue Three 2020, October 2020