Korean and Japanese Hit Dramas Cross Borders in New Remake Wave

Television producers in South Korea and Japan are deepening a two-way exchange of drama formats, with a new group of courtroom and medical remakes set to reach viewers across both countries and on global streaming platforms.

Japan’s “Extraordinary Attorney Minami,” an adaptation of the Korean hit “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” is scheduled to premiere on Kansai TV and Fuji TV on Oct. 19. Mana Ashida plays Minamida Minami, a rookie lawyer on the autism spectrum whose name, like that of the Korean series’ protagonist, reads the same forward and backward. The Japanese production has even recreated the original character’s palindrome-based introduction with locally recognizable words.

The Korean original, starring Park Eun-bin, aired on ENA in 2022 and remained in Netflix’s global Top 10 for 21 weeks during its run. The Japanese remake is also due to be distributed worldwide through Netflix, giving the localized version an audience beyond its domestic television debut. Ashida said she had been a fan of the original and wanted to preserve its blend of courtroom storytelling, relationships and emotion.

The flow of adaptations is moving in the other direction as well. SBS has launched “Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia,” a Korean remake of TV Asahi’s “Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon,” which ran for seven seasons beginning in 2012. Kim Ji-won stars as Gye Su-jeong, a freelance surgeon who confronts a corrupt university hospital establishment. The Korean version retains the central character’s defining confidence and the catchphrase, “I never fail.”

TvN is also developing a Korean version of the 2018 Japanese medical mystery “Unnatural,” with a premiere targeted for next year. Lim Yoona is set to play a forensic pathologist investigating unexplained deaths at a fictional autopsy center affiliated with the National Forensic Service. The role represents a shift for the actor, who has been strongly associated with romantic comedy.

Cross-border remakes were once dominated by romance and melodrama, but the success of Japanese adaptations of Korean series such as “Signal” and “Good Doctor” in 2018 helped move the market toward genre-driven stories. Courtrooms and hospitals offer recognizable settings, while case-by-case plots make the shows easier for audiences to enter without following one continuous storyline.

Drama critic Yun Suk-jin said the exchange allows each industry to draw on different strengths: the everyday detail associated with Japanese dramas and the dynamic storytelling and varied structures often found in Korean productions. He said the decisive challenge is cultural translation, because legal and medical problems may be universal while each society interprets them differently.