K-Content News

From play to webtoon to novel... and now, moving overseas:The story of [The Purloined Book]

The trend governing the contents industry today is ‘IP Convergence.’ Today, content that would previously have had a single use is being transformed into various genres, including movies, records, animations and publications. The expandability of the contents industry is dependent upon a competitive source story.

[The Purloined Book], which was published as a novel early this year, is considered a prime example of IP convergence contents. The author, film director You, Sun-dong, is a graduate of the Department of Theater and Film at Hanyang University, who has built up a strong career as script writer and drama producer. His creative passion has resulted in efforts spanning numerous genres, and finally he has set foot in the realm of novels.

Director You made a name for himself in the movie industry with the short film [VS], which he directed. [VS] received the Minister of Culture and Tourism’s Award at the ‘First Annual Digital Film Festival in 2001’, the grand prize in the amateur film category at the ‘Second Annual Korean Film Competition,’ and the Director's Award at the 21st Annual Black Maria Film Festival in the United States in 2002.

Director You began working as a script writer early on. He made his debut as a scriptwriter with [Arahan] (2004), a film directed by Ryu Seung-hwan. His directorial debut came with (2005), starring Han Suk-kyu, which earned him rave reviews for his sensible and witty production ability. As a director he went on to make films such as , television dramas including [Vampire Prosecutor (Season 2)], and also wrote the scripts for works such as the movie [Shoot me in the heart].

Like its author, [The Purloined Book] has had quite a career. The original work received an award for excellence in the ‘Korean Storytelling Competition’ hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KOCCA in 2011. The story was subsequently produced as a play and a webtoon. The play , the story of a blockbuster scriptwriter who goes missing on the day of the film awards, has been a regular at the likes of Chungmu Art Hall and Dongyang Arts Center since its premiere in 2014. Breaking away from conventional performance syntax and with a bulletproof theatrical structure, the play became known through word of mouth and was even ranked among the most popular plays in online ticket reservation sites. Described as ‘a psychodrama disguised as a thriller,’ the work naturally attracted the country’s most talented actors, furthering the hype surrounding the play.

[The Purloined Book] was also popular as a mobile webtoon. The webtoon version was produced by veteran cartoonist Lee Gyu-hee, the artist behind the storyboards of numerous films and television dramas. This ensured the webtoon was even more thriller-esque than the original. The sensationally immersive webtoon, which combined well-constructed characters and a thrilling plot, was published as a 3-volume paperback series by Haksan Comics. Director You commented “Some actors rose to stardom after starring in the play, and a lot of already-famous actors appeared in the productions, ensuring that the work was well-received by audiences.” He added, “While the webtoon and comic book weren’t massive commercial successes, I appreciate the fact that so many people sympathize with the story.”

Director You also told us a unique story about the birth of the title for his work - a story that would horrify most bookstore owners. ‘Book’ in the title refers to a script, not a normal book or magazine. Scripts are commonly referred to as ‘books’ in the film world. You explained “I heard the term comes from the fact that the only ‘books’ people in the film industry read are scripts.” He added, “Ultimately, it comes down to a story about a book being stolen, and in the beginning I was thinking about modeling it after the atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter.’ I was considering the title ‘the stolen book’ in the beginning, but the novelist Jeong Ie-hyun suggested ‘The Purloined Book,’ and that stuck.”

On the heels of the play and webtoon, the thriller novel [The Purloined Book] (Book In Hand Publishing) was published. The novel fleshes out aspects that the webtoon and play glossed over, stimulating readers’ imaginations beyond the original work and providing an even more intense thriller-esque euphoria. Other strong points include a quick, to-the-point story progression like one would find in a movie, a realistic story that could very well happen in real life, and witty lines. Professor Cha Seung-jae of the Dongguk University Graduate School of Film, former president of the Korean Film Producers Association and producer of masterpieces of Korean cinema such as [Memories of Murder] and [The War of Flower], lauded the work as follows: “[The Purloined Book] reaches new heights for Korean thrillers; it is a work that does not let you go until the very last page.”

Recently, an agreement to publish the work overseas was signed. Director You explained “We will be publishing the book in Indonesian through a publishing company that owns a number of book stores in Indonesia - we signed an agreement for the synopsis, and once we have our sample translations ready, we expect to see more export opportunities.”

Despite his spectacular career, Director You calls himself “an everyday guy.”

“Well, the arts aren’t really a priority in survival - they’re not a matter of life and death or putting food on the table. My dad was a shoemaker, and watching him work I realized the trade of shoemaking was every bit as sublime as scriptwriting. I don’t think we need to think of the arts as anything too special.”

Regarding the charm of creative activity, Director You says, “Doing a shoot until 6 in the morning, then going out for drinks and talking about the shoot until the sun’s up is always a fun thing; also, being able to sit down and watch the European Champion’s League when everybody else has to get up and go to the office is a bonus.”

He adds, “The story I wrote is not a so-called blockbuster in terms of its size and space. My philosophy about my work is that what matters is how easily people can relate to it. It's really rewarding when people sympathize with my stories in movie or play form, and I enjoy seeing how readers of the novel react as well. It's a special feeling when I see my scripts turned into movies, and when the cast does the lines I wrote exactly how I envisioned them.” We hope to see Director You's creative efforts bear further fruit in the future.