Jaejoong Cast in Channel A Drama Adaptation of Jane the Virgin

The story of Jane the Virgin got the most publicity after the US show a few years ago but it was first adapted in Venezuela and based on a source novel. It’s always got a latino flavor and cultural background but now South Korea is giving it a go with cable network Channel A readying a drama adaptation for later this year. The K-drama Jane the Virgin has it’s first cast member and it’s not the titular Jane but her love interest, with Jaejoong on board as the male lead. He’s playing a hotel heir and current manager, handsome with a bit of bad boy vibe. He was married but got divorced soon thereafter and also someone who beat stomach cancer. The drama will of course be a comedy and will air in December 2019.


Comments

Jaejoong Cast in Channel A Drama Adaptation of Jane the Virgin — 12 Comments

  1. Just with his backstory they are changing what makes the original so ridiculously hilarious. How is Jane going to be artificially inseminated by mistake, if there is is no current crazy wife trying to get inceminated.

  2. I don’t know how I feel about this. Jane the Virgin is a telenovela filled with culture and appreciates strong Latina women navigating through life. The reason it does so well in the U.S is that it places Latin-x actors to portray the roles of a Latin-x and white people to potray the role of their race and ethnicity.

    I’m sure they can get creative and I hope they give it a complete different name and don’t use Jane the Virgin to promote it. I can’t exactly say what makes me uncomfortable about using a product of Latin culture to profit in a community that very reluctant to promote diversity.

    • I assume they paid the licensing fee and would be crazy not to use the name unless “virgin” is too much for a Korean tv station. The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, Life on Mars, Mistresses, Suits, Leverage, Entourage all used the original title. It is odd that they often change the title when they adapt from other Asian countries.

      • That’s true but since I’m sure they will have to drastically change a lot of content on the show I feel like they should distance the adaption from the original.

        Many times when Hollywood casts white actors for Asian roles they always use the excuse that the plot doesn’t change or make a difference if you change the characters ethnicity.

        In this case It does on a pretty big scale. Maybe I’m judging it too early. So we’ll see how the drama turns out.

      • the script proposal definitely uses the the same title, “Jane the Virgin” not translated into Korean, just spelled in Hangeul

      • I get it. I haven’t watched JTV, but I was a huge fan of Ugly Betty and the same producers are behind both in the US. But, yeah, they are going to make changes and since there is not a Latino population in Korea (I presume), ethnicity is going to be just one aspect of that.

        The thing is, the US production company didn’t have to license. They could have turned down the $ so I go in thinking they are cool with it. I still always expect the adaptation not to go well though. Safer that way.

    • The Venezuelan telenovela was remade in Poland before the US show and the story translated very well into another rather conservative nation (although the acting was abysmal) so it should do well in Korea. There were also remakes in India, Greece and Israel.

  3. They really must be out of source material, if they have to do a kdrama remake of this. Smh. Not a fan of east-west cross-cultural adaptations, when there’s plenty authentic Asian dramas to be shown. More and more I’m seeing the influence of the west on kdramas, and as someone who went into kdramas to escape western entertainment, I’m not quite sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

    • I get it, but Korean dramas are often stagnating in the tropes that will not die. My least favorite these days is the infamous childhood connection. I have mixed feelings about the adaptations, but I’m not really seeing the “authentic Asian dramas” as often as I would like. I think the ideas are there, but they are either not getting made or not getting made well because of the godawful live shoot system.

    • There are still good kdramas getting made with a uniquely Korean flavour, stuff like My Ajusshi or even Arthdal Chronicles or Hotel del Luna would never have come from a western writer no matter how much Netflix tried to shoehorn it to their format.

      Even some of the JTBC/OCN dramas, like Hand/The Guest, Sky Castle, Age of Youth, etc…they don’t at all feel like they could be written by a westerner. The public broadcast channels surrendered to cliche long ago but there are still dramas out there that feel rooted in Korea.

  4. I entered kdrama land to Watch something different but i still Watch western dramas too. But i’m realy curious to see how they are going to make this one . ROGeLIO de La Vega..! Madre de dios ! They must contact him , no one can replace him ! He won’t tolerate it !

  5. I am amused that they chose to change the cancer from testicular to stomach when it’s the underlying principle behind why Jane was artificially inseminated and hence why Jane was a pregnant virgin but hey, whatever floats your boat.

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