FEATURES
Formats: Thailand
11 November 2021
Asian drama influences continue in Thailand, which is proving to be a fertile – if nascent – environment for scripted formats from Korea, Japan and China.
When Switch On (Game Rak Salub Miti) – the Thai remake of Korean romantic/fantasy drama W – Two Worlds Apart) premieres on Friday, 19 November, Thailand takes another step beyond its predominantly home-grown stories and into a future of blended influences.
The remake, which airs in a blocktime deal by Century UU Entertainment Thailand on free-TV network Channel 3, follows Thai versions of Korean, Chinese and Japanese dramas such as Bring It On, Ghost (CJ ENM, Korea), Mother (Nippon TV, Japan) and Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Tencent Video, China), among others.
Produced by Century UU Entertainment, the Thai version of Switch On stars Aom Sushar Manaying (Yes or No, Bangkok Breaking) as Nisa, the surgical resident who gets entangled in a murder mystery after entering the virtual world of a webtoon called W, created by her father.
Gee Sutthirak Subvijitra (Classic Again) is cast as the video game character A-Kin, who is on a quest to avenge his father’s death.
The original Korean series, aired on MBC in July-September 2016, stars Han Hyo Joo as Nisa and Lee Jong-suk is cast as the fictional character in a webtoon world called W. The series was produced by Chorokbaem Media (The Penthouse: War in Life, Memories of the Alhambra).
The Thai remake switches things up by moving the setting from the original webtoon comic world to a video game world, called Better World. The rest of the storyline follows the original format.
Switch On joins a host of Thai adaptations, generally dominated by game shows. 2021/2 titles include Project Runway Thailand, Korean comedy/romance drama series Bring it On, Ghost and Let’s Eat, and Japanese cooking competition Iron Chef.
According to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for the first half of this year, Thailand aired/commissioned 15 formats – 21 titles less than we counted in the first six months of last year.
This put Thailand in third place (behind India and Vietnam) among t...
Asian drama influences continue in Thailand, which is proving to be a fertile – if nascent – environment for scripted formats from Korea, Japan and China.
When Switch On (Game Rak Salub Miti) – the Thai remake of Korean romantic/fantasy drama W – Two Worlds Apart) premieres on Friday, 19 November, Thailand takes another step beyond its predominantly home-grown stories and into a future of blended influences.
The remake, which airs in a blocktime deal by Century UU Entertainment Thailand on free-TV network Channel 3, follows Thai versions of Korean, Chinese and Japanese dramas such as Bring It On, Ghost (CJ ENM, Korea), Mother (Nippon TV, Japan) and Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Tencent Video, China), among others.
Produced by Century UU Entertainment, the Thai version of Switch On stars Aom Sushar Manaying (Yes or No, Bangkok Breaking) as Nisa, the surgical resident who gets entangled in a murder mystery after entering the virtual world of a webtoon called W, created by her father.
Gee Sutthirak Subvijitra (Classic Again) is cast as the video game character A-Kin, who is on a quest to avenge his father’s death.
The original Korean series, aired on MBC in July-September 2016, stars Han Hyo Joo as Nisa and Lee Jong-suk is cast as the fictional character in a webtoon world called W. The series was produced by Chorokbaem Media (The Penthouse: War in Life, Memories of the Alhambra).
The Thai remake switches things up by moving the setting from the original webtoon comic world to a video game world, called Better World. The rest of the storyline follows the original format.
Switch On joins a host of Thai adaptations, generally dominated by game shows. 2021/2 titles include Project Runway Thailand, Korean comedy/romance drama series Bring it On, Ghost and Let’s Eat, and Japanese cooking competition Iron Chef.
According to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for the first half of this year, Thailand aired/commissioned 15 formats – 21 titles less than we counted in the first six months of last year.
This put Thailand in third place (behind India and Vietnam) among the 18 markets tracked for ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook.
In the first half of 2021, game shows totally dominated Thailand’s formats count with 47% of the total, followed by cooking, dating and drama (neck and neck at 13% each). The remaining 14% is split between modelling and singing formats.
Published in ContentAsia November 2021 Magazine
Previous
Next
