The Korean film industry marked a turning point this season, for cinema remakes of cartoons.
The drama "The War Of Flower" at movie theaters nationwide is encouraging more films to be adapted from comic books.
Son Heekyung reports on the trend.
It's packing the moviehouses this season.
But this gambling flick depicting the underground world of Korea's professional card players was born not as a screenplay, but as a comic book.
Korean directors have drawn upon cartoons in the past, but this autumn marks a watershed for this remake genre.
SON HEEKYUNG, REPORTER: "The drama "The War Of Flower" by director Choi Donghoon is a case in point and is going strong at movie theaters across Korea having attracted more than six million moviegoers nationwide. So why the sudden interest in cartoon remakes "I was able to experience something new by watching 'The War Of Flower'. Though the film had some brutal scenes, because I enjoyed it so much I'm now reading the original comic book".
One foreign expert on movies made in Korea says there are certain advantages to adapting cartoons into films.
MOVIE CRITIC: "You may already have a group of fans of the comic who would be interested in the film. So it's easier to market the film to audiences. If we look at the examples of Japan and the US, for many years they've been adapting comic books into films and they've had great success with that, and so there is no reason to expect that the same thing couldn't happen in Korea as well".
Not all Korean films based on popular comics have found success.
Both the horror flick "A.P.T", and the teenage comedy "Dasaepo Naughty Girls" ("Dasepo Girl") failed to win over moviegoers.
Each lured around 600 thousand theatergoers nationwide.
Even with this genre's bumpy start, some industry executives note that it makes solid business sense.
FILM DISTRIBUTOR: "We decided to distribute 'The War Of Flower' because it's less risky for the producer as we, the distributor, don't need to worry about whether the public will like the film".
Huh Young-man (Heo Yeong-nam), cartoonist of "The War Of Flower", has since penned another popular comic, this one about a chef in a cooking competition.
As for its reincarnation on screen.
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