Philippines’ director, Concepcion “Connie” Macatuno, and Thai executive producer, Thiti “Teddy” Sutthikulphanich, talk about their challenges and choices in adapting U.K. scripted series, "Doctor Foster", for their markets.

"The World of the Married", Korea’s blockbuster 2020 remake of BBC Studios’ scripted drama "Doctor Foster", has been followed by award-winning versions in India ("Out of Love", 2019, 2021) and the Philippines ("The Broken Marriage Vow", 2022) by ABS-CBN Entertainment/Dreamscape and, most recently, in Indonesia as "Mendua" by Screenplay Films and in Thailand ("Game Rak Torrayod"/"The Betrayal") by production house Juvenile for broadcast network BEC World/Channel 3’s June 2023 schedule.

The interpretations of the original 10-episode one-hour U.K. premium drama about a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair could not – of course – be more different. Dig a bit, and it turns out that the 18-episode Korean series played as much, or more, of a role in shaping some of what came next in Asia as did the 2015 U.K. original. 

In Thailand, Juvenile executive producer, Thiti “Teddy” Sutthikulphanich, found his way to "Dr Foster" via Korean broadcaster JTBC’s 16-episode 2020 blockbuster, "The World of the Married", which soared from a nationwide audience share of 6.260% for its first episode in March 2020 to 28.371% for its finale seven weeks later. In between, with a broad streaming footprint that kicked off on regional platform Viu, it was all anyone with Korean drama on their radar could talk about.

The path for "The Broken Marriage Vow" director Concepcion “Connie” Macatuno, was via her mentor, who brought her the project. Her primary guide was the original BBC version, although she watched “a little” of the Korean series. “I stopped watching because I didn’t want to muddle the story... I wanted to stay faithful to the U.K. original. That became our bible and the basis of our translation into the Filipino setting,” she says, going on to describe a journey that took the team deep into detail, from bleeding hearts and pines to durian and roast suckling pig.   

In both Thailand and the Philippines, the scripted format shows up in different lengths to either the U.K or the Korean versions.

In Korea, episodes are around 90 minutes. The Philippines’ version ran as a half-hour drama stripped on weekdays for 107 episodes/two seasons; “It’s a habit... how we like to watch our soaps, an everyday thing,” Macatuno says. Currently in production, the Thai version is 16 episodes of about 70 minutes each. 

The family unit is also elastic. In Thailand, the original mother-father-son family was reframed to include a second child, which made sense in a social context. “Wealthy Thai families like to have two children – a boy and a girl,” Sutthikulphanich says. Adding a child allowed writers to explore the impact of parents’ relationship on children of different ages/genders. The daughter in the Thai series is 10. “What is interesting about a 10-year-old girl is that she’s not yet a teenager but she’s also not a child,” he adds. 

The Thai version changes "Dr Foster" from a medical doctor to a psychiatrist. Speaking in the early days of production, Sutthikulphanich says the team felt that changing the lead role to a psychiatrist levered up the jeopardy. “From our research, we found that psychiatrists have an image as people who are really smart and good at fixing other people’s problems. We thought it would be very interesting to see how she goes about fixing her own problems. How she deals with the morals and the ethics of her situation... Can she cross lines personally that she cannot cross as a psychiatrist?”.

"The Betrayal" also includes more background to the characters than the U.K. version, “so viewers understand why they make certain decisions. “We did a lot of research to make sure everything Thai audiences see makes sense to them,” he adds. 

To symbolise the loneliness and isolation of the main character, the Thai production team chose Phuket as a backdrop. “It’s a close community. She’s always an outsider,” Sutthikulphanich says. 

For "The Broken Marriage Vow", ABS-CBN and Macatuno chose Baguio/Benguet in the Cordillera Central mountain range in northern Luzon as a backdrop. “The doctor was uprooted from where she grew up, taken out of her comfort zone,” she says. There’s a second reason. “In the Philippines, everyone has been to Baguio. We wanted to present a different scenario so that they would want to revisit, to explore the area.”

Elements of Baguio were infused elsewhere. The doctor’s office, for instance. Macatuno describes the office as “quaint, with a vintage vibe, but there’s a lot of fresh greens because Baguio is a city of pine. So there’s a lot of pine trees in the background and a lot of succulents that grow organically in the place”.     

Macatuno was as deliberate about including other details that would contribute to showcasing the Philippines to a larger audience. “The dream for me as a storyteller is to showcase the Philippines, to push forward our Filipino identity in a global context,” she says.

Local designers were tapped to create the wardrobe and much thought went into the food that appears on screen. “For me, the clothing, the accessories, the fashion... are another layer of our culture,” Macatuno says, speaking about design communities that work in traditional embroidery, beads, hand looms, weaving...  “That’s what we wanted to showcase... how do we, as Filipinos, introduce ourselves in an Asian scenario, or in a global context.”

The show’s success has had a positive impact on local crafts communities. “There’s a feeling that they’re being appreciated and noticed... they never imagined this kind of look could be created and it encourages them to continue their traditions... all the skills handed down through the generations,” she says. 

The dishes in the series are distinctly Filipino. The Philippines “is big on roasting”, Macatuno explains. Cue lechon (roasted suckling pig), which, along with durian, stars in the high-drama dinner scene where Dr Jill discloses her husband’s infidelity to Lexy’s family. 
Dr Jill’s gift to Lexy’s family is a durian, “which is really stinky and a symbol for the stinky relationship”. But she can’t have it smell in the car because David would get the reference, so she wraps it up carefully to keep her intentions a secret. “Durian is a well-considered gift in the Philippines,” Macatuno says. “Dr Jill wants to tell Lexy’s parents that their daughter is sexually active with her husband and it stinks, just like a durian”. That’s not all. “Eating durian the traditional way is to put the entire seed in your mouth, and let it stay there. So that in itself, the way that you eat it, with a context of something sensual, is what I wanted to represent”. 

The other loaded dish is the roast suckling pig, which is traditionally “cut” with a plate. “That suckling pig is Lexy and he smashes it with a plate, which is just really visceral,” Macatuno says. “The daughter is pert, young, delicious, unlike Dr Jill... the bones that are being broken in that suckling pig is a metaphor for Lexy being broken in front of her beloved people, her family.” 

Two others scenes are handled differently across the adaptations. The first is when Dr Jill finds the hair on her husband’s scarf, kicking off the drama, and the second is when he attacks her in front of their son.

Macatuno says the scarf chosen for "The Broken Marriage Vow" was embroidered with a Bleeding Heart plant pattern. “The scarf is a turning point... the bleeding heart is called Cadena de Amor in the Philippines. I wanted to bring it there because their kind of love is something that makes you bleed, it’s intense,” she says.  

The second scene is “very intense”, for actors as well as everyone on set. “It actually stayed with them for two days because of how we mounted it... I wanted to show how ugly it is to be violated by the person you trust and love. It wasn’t a glamorous scene. I wanted it to be in your face, where it starts out that she has the upper hand and she’s provoking him and then in the middle it becomes him having the upper hand and he strangles her, throws her, and then realises what he has done,” she says. 

The third element of the scene is that the son witnesses the violence. “I saw that he [Gio, played by Zaijian Jaranilla] wanted to hit his dad. I saw his look... I asked him, ‘do you want to do something to your dad?’ and he goes ‘no’. He was denying it, but of course I saw the body language, and said, ‘if you want to do something to him for this take, let me see how you would do it’. I didn’t want to give him ideas on how because I wanted it to be natural... this is always our agreement, do it when you are compelled by your character to do it, otherwise don’t... He was crying and he approached his dad and he pummeled him saying, ‘What did you do? What did you do?’. 

“For me, it’s heartbreaking for a mother to see her son, who loves and adores his father, turn away from him, which is exactly what the scene is about, a turning point in the family. It really is heartbreaking,” she says. 

Macatuno did not sugar-coat the domestic violence. “Once you’ve connected to the character, you ride along with what goes on in her life. And you want to see her empowered... Her triumph is the audience’s triumph, her heartaches, her trials that she’s going through are the same troubles that the audience goes through”. 

With "The Betrayal’s" premiere still months away, Sutthikulphanich steers clear of spoilers. But he’s no stranger to producing intense, emotional entertainment. His credits include Thai adaptations of Nippon TV’s "Mother" and "Abandoned", both for Line TV. “Mother is all about motherhood. The key message is that a mother doesn’t have to be the person who gives birth to you. That is something easy for audiences to understand. Abandoned is about children who don’t have a mother or father. So it’s also a family drama and the theme is universal. These stories haven’t been told in Thailand before.” Which is, at the end of the day, the whole point. 

Published in ContentAsia's December 2022 magazine for ATF