Film Adaptation Research Articles

FROM MANGA LITERATURE TO LIVE-ACTION FILM/TV: MACKENYU'S CROSS-CULTURAL ODYSSEY IN GLOBAL CINEMA

This research examines the career of Japanese-American actor Mackenyu Arata, particularly his roles in live-action adaptations of manga and anime, to understand his influence on cross-cultural narrative integration in cinema. The study focuses on Mackenyu's portrayal of leading and important supporting characters in several high-profile adaptations, including Netflix's One Piece, where he plays Zoro, and others such as Chihayafuru, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Rurouni Kenshin, and Fullmetal Alchemist. Employing qualitative analysis, this paper investigates how Mackenyu strategically navigates away from the shadow of his father, legendary actor Sonny Chiba, to forge an independent identity and career. Data was collected through reviews, audience reception studies, and box office performance, and analyzed to assess thematic consistency and cultural impact across different markets. Experts in film adaptation theory, such as Linda Hutcheon, and resources like The Routledge Companion to World Cinema provided theoretical frameworks for analyzing how narratives are adapted for global audiences and the role of actors in these adaptations. The findings reveal that Mackenyu's choices are not merely artistic but are also deliberate efforts to blend Eastern and Western cinematic traditions, enhancing his appeal as a global actor. His roles often reflect a profound engagement with his bicultural heritage, challenging the notion that he is only a "second-generation star." These roles resonate with global audiences and contribute to the ongoing discourse on cultural integration in film. The study concludes that Mackenyu is a key figure in the realm of live-action adaptations, with a unique ability to transcend cultural and cinematic boundaries.

Words, Characters and Messages in the Queer Romance of Generation Z

Abstract: This article presents an attempt to analyze the structural elements and characters that make Casey McQuiston's debut novel Red, White & Royal Blue so popular with readers, as well as the challenges posed to viewers by director Matthew Lopez and the creative team of the eponymous film, which immediately became a cultural phenomenon with many fans among viewers. The novel and its film adaptation follow the relationship between two young men from prominent families against the constraints of a heteronormative society. The article investigates a pertinent and contemporary issue from a social and intercultural perspective. The primary objective is to identify and examine linguistic and communicative characteristics, including the contextual use of words and expressions, within a specific socio-cultural framework as depicted in two distinct art forms: literature and cinema. The analysis incorporates comparative elements by referencing well-known works that address similar themes related to cultural differences, behavioral patterns, stereotypes, prejudices concerning LGBTQ+, queer, cultural dynamics of Generation Z, and the influence of heteronormative societal structures. This text seeks to delineate the boundaries of a new interdisciplinary research field focused on the concept of difference. It aims to propose potential research methodologies that contribute to the development of a comprehensive methodological framework, free from bias. In accordance with the principles of academic correctness, the novel and the film Red, White & Royal Blue are analyzed. Keywords: Red, White & Royal Blue, RW&RB, new adult fiction, Casey McQuiston, Matthew López, Generation Z, rom-com, LGBTQ+, queer.

The Legacy of Chūshingura: Cinematic Adaptations and Myth-Making in Japan

ABSTRACT Through extensive reproduction and transmission, the story of the eighteenth-century historical vendetta of the 47 samurai-turned-ronin from Akō domain, often referred to metonymically as Chūshingura, became one of Japan’s most beloved cultural myths, believed to exhibit values shared across Japanese society. It is remembered as a tale about heroic men who fought for a noble cause and no personal gain, and who died by performing seppuku, proud to have accomplished what they set out to do. This article, however, argues that more attention should be given to the many variations in Chūshingura adaptations, which give the tale various nuanced meanings. Using selected film adaptations of the tale, I show how the cause for which the heroes are willing to die has constantly changed, reflecting larger sociocultural and political transformations. In other words, these adaptations exhibit transformations in the understanding of heroism and of what it means to be a hero. This adaptability in creating heroes that suit their times is an important element in sustaining the enduring effectiveness of Chūshingura as a cultural myth.

“He would do nothing in the office”: Work and alienation in cinematic adaptations of Herman Melville’s Bartleby.

This paper analyzes the representation of the office workplace in filmic adaptations of Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. Following a brief overview of film adaptations of Melville’s short story, this article will discuss Miro Bilbrough’s (2001) and Gerard Amsellem’s (2013) short films, Andreas Honneths (2010) experimental interpretation as well as Laura Naylor and Kristen Kee’s (2017) stop-motion movie. By, for instance, analyzing how the movies try to replicate the first-person narration, find visual images for Melville’s uncinematic descriptive prose, or underline the thematic importance of writing by incorporating different forms of written text, I will firstly examine techniques of intermedial transposition. Since the filmmakers deploy the setting to reimagine or modernize the story, the set design is to be regarded as an essential part of the adaptation process. Paying particular attention to the usage of space, the visual presentation of physical and metaphorical walls, as well as the utilization of non-human entities as ‘actors,’ I will seek to demonstrate how the movies under study reflect contemporary office environments and dynamics of work culture. Updating the nineteenth-century quills and inkpots to modern office technology, for example, allows the directors to reflect upon how electronic communication can cause or reinforce isolation. Different concepts of alienation serve as an essential theoretical framework for the movies. The adaptations concern themselves with social disconnect, engage in questions of ecological alienation, or focus on a political and socioeconomic interpretation of Bartleby’s passive resistance to productivity and consumption.

Makronisos as a Lieu De Mémoire: Filmic versions of the island’s landscape

Among the Greek islands that served as places of exile in the 20th century, Makronisos holds a prominent position due to its unique history. During the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s, a ‘rehabilitation’ camp was established on the island under army control. Physical and psychological torture was the primary method for implementing rehabilitation, aiming at ‘reforming’ young recruits and civilians who were under the sway of communist ideology. When the Civil War and its traumatic impact on postwar Greek society became the subjects of public debate during the Metapolitefsi (restoration of democracy), Makronisos remained a widely discussed case, and in 1989 it was officially proclaimed as a historical site. The contribution of cinema to the construction of the island as exemplary lieu de mémoire (‘realm of memory’) is significant. Making extensive use of archival material, filmmakers have constructed visual narratives and drawn a new mapping of the island’s natural and symbolic geography. This article examines four films about Makronisos produced over a span of nearly forty years, from 1975 to 2012, and explores the way in which each film represents the island’s status as memory place. It discusses how the different versions of the traumatic memories of the Civil War are recorded on the natural and architectural landscape of the island and how each director discovers, interprets and brings to the fore its haunted topoi, mapping anew the geography of collective memory, through the insisting presence of traces that the camera discovers, and transforming each film itself into a lieu de mémoire.

The power of space opera: energetic melodrama and the ecologies of Dune

ABSTRACT This essay examines the history of space opera and melodrama through the lens of science fiction and especially Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, with recent film adaptations by Denis Villeneuve (2021, 2024). Drawing on scholarship that explores the imperial and energy imaginary of science fiction, it argues that space opera is a subgenre of science fiction which amplifies melodrama’s ideological and structural critique of domestic and colonial power and the energetic regimes that produce them. As an energodrama, Dune deploys contemporary ecosystem science, with its tracing of energetic flows and circuits of resource interdependence, to detail the impact of resource extraction on ecologies and colonial territories, reading this pattern across a range of contested histories, from the guano wars of Peru, to the first Arab Revolt of WWI, to the nuclear brinksmanship of the cold war. Recent film adaptations of Dune restore the visual and sonic texture of this critique, amplifying the melodramatic texture of the novel and providing new sonic and visual ecologies that bring the viewer and auditor into visceral contact with those histories and the territories they remade.

From Literary Breakthrough: The Relationship Between the Original and the Film Adaptation — The Case of Raise the Red Lantern

From Literary Breakthrough: The Relationship Between the Original and the Film Adaptation — The Case of Raise the Red Lantern

Joker stages: popular performance and theatrical sensibilities in Joker comics and film adaptations

ABSTRACT Clown, performer, entertainer. The Joker’s stage identities and innate theatricality have many facets. This article explores the violent clown’s theatrical sensibilities across a range of Joker comics and films with the aim of opening up a conversation between the present and the past – between contemporary Joker ‘stage performances’ unfolding in comics and a powerful mix of historical contexts and cultural continuities that, we argue, continue to inform Joker stages in comics and film. The Joker’s theatrical sensibilities, this study shows, are influenced by the aesthetics and cultural backgrounds of three intertwined phenomena: (un)happy comic performers from fictional films, stage hypnotists, and ‘theatres of pain’. From these three phenomena emerges a dialogue with historical precedents of comic performance, hypnotic spectacle and the representation of violence (sometimes with comedic elements) that not only refers back to the late nineteenth century, but continues to shape the Joker’s identity and stories, and helps us to better understand the character’s aesthetic achievements and cultural power.

Comparison of Personality Dimension of Alexander as Depicted in the Films Alexander (2004) and Alexander the Great (1956) with Persian Poetic Iskandarnāmas, Especially Shāhnāma, Niẓāmī’s Iskandarnāma, and Āyina-yi Iskandarī

Abstract Alexander the Great, the world conqueror who brought the Achaemenid dynasty to its knees, has attracted the attention of many Iranian poets and writers. There are numerous poetic and prose works entitled Iskandarnāma (Treatise on Alexander). Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāma and Niẓāmī’s Iskandarnāma are among the most well-known poems narrating Alexander’s life. In addition, several films have been made about Alexander’s life in the West, the most famous of which are Alexander (2004) by Oliver Stone and Alexander the Great (1956) by Robert Rossen. The present descriptive study identifies different dimensions of Alexander’s character in Shāhnāma and Iskandarnāma and compares them with those portrayed in the above-said films. The results show that Alexander’s complex character is composed of four distinct dimensions. Alexander is sometimes an ordinary human being entangled with fear, prone to misjudgment, and an avid lover of love and elaborate festivities. He is an envoy and a warrior. He is also compassionate, generous, resourceful, and politically quite apt. Finally, he has at times the qualities of a prophet and is pious to no end. The films didn’t behoove Alexander’s mysticism or benevolence and focused most tersely on his pillage, murder, and plunder. The literary Alexander of Iran represents a far more dramatic persona than does the film adaptation.

Invisible Borders and Trauma in The Joy Luck Club Between Amy Tan’s Novel (1989) and Wayne Wang’s Cinematic Adaptation (1993)

This research paper is an analytical, comparative study of Amy Tan’s twentieth-century diasporic novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989). It investigates the impact of invisible borders on both mothers and daughters in their cultural fluctuation between Chinese roots and American novelty. The boundaries that separate the two worlds can become so blurred out when one decides to move beyond topographical and physical terrains. In a Chinese-American milieu, there is the heavy weight of cultural limitations and taboos that are unspoken of in the midst of the immigrants’ hybrid lives. While the differences between book and screen adaptation have previously been described as minor sub-plot deviations, these changes still hold great significance in how Western societies perceive other cultures. The aim is to assess the level of intergenerational trauma Tan’s characters have sustained through a set of socially imposed borders and the ways they have decided to deal with it in both novel and film adaptation. The research relies on Hannah Arendt’s socio-cultural theory of the seemingly stateless identity and its correlation with the immigrants’ intergenerational trauma to examine how this kind of pressure put upon the characters affects their lives in the United States.

Warhol’s Lessons for the Publishing Industry

What, if anything, can the publishing industry learn from Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith? In this Article, I will focus on three key areas that the Warhol Court touched on in its decision—transformativeness, commerciality, and market harm—to see what questions were answered and what questions were left for another day Publishing is, of course, the original copyright industry. The world’s first general copyright law, Great Britain’s Statute of Anne, exclusively protected “books.” The primary focus of the first copyright law in the United States was also books, though the law also covered maps and charts. Today, the U.S. publishing industry is diverse, ranging from major commercial book and journal publishers to small, non-profit, university, and scholarly presses, as well as leading publishers of educational materials and digital learning platforms. Further, it remains vital to society. In 2022, the U.S. book publishing industry generated $28.1 billion in revenue. Beyond its economic contributions, a healthy and independent publishing industry supports the nation’s political, intellectual, and cultural systems. Indeed, the free operation of the publishing industry in a nation cannot be separated from the free exercise of democracy. Copyright continues to serve as a critical legal foundation for the work of publishers. This includes both an appropriately balanced fair use doctrine, which publishers rely on regularly in the course of their work, and a meaningful derivative works right. Helping courts correctly distinguish between the two is what motivated the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the national trade association for U.S. publishers, to file an amicus brief in support of Lynn Goldsmith. AAP’s concern was not that courts were generally not getting it right, at least in cases involving books and other publications. The concern, rather, was that there was a lot of room for the Supreme Court to get things wrong and undermine the derivative works right through an unbalanced conception of the transformativeness doctrine. The amicus brief observed that “[p]ublishers rely on the derivative works right daily, including to justify the use of a license for a film adaptation of a novel, translation of a novel into another language, or recasting of a novel into an ebook or audiobook—all of which are quintessential examples of derivative works.” Publishers in the educational space also rely on the derivative works right to protect supplementary materials, instructor solution manuals, and other adjuncts to the textbooks and course materials they create and distribute. From the perspective of book publishers, then, the Court got it right. It recognized the tension between transformativeness and the derivative works right, explaining that “an overbroad concept of transformative use, one that includes any further purpose, or any different character, would narrow the copyright owner’s exclusive right to create derivative works." If the Court did nothing beyond shining a light on this tension, it would be considered a good outcome for publishers.

Militarizing and Colonizing Outer Space as a Video Game. Ender’s Game and Astroculture

The author of the article analyzes Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, focusing her attention on the relationship between the key motif of the novel – gaming – and the tendency to militarize and colonize outer space highlighted by astrocultural scholars. Card’s novel follows the astrocultural pattern of setting future wars in space, but introduces an important novelty: games of various kinds, including video games, become a mediating element between the characters and the real experience of space war. The theoretical framework for the analysis is provided by the insights of astrocultural scholars such as Alexander Geppert, Tilmann Siebeneichner and Alice Gorman. In analyzing Ender’s Game and, to some extent, its 2013 film adaptation, the author examines the protagonists’ relationship to space, which is shaped by the game’s setting. It is here that military and colonial themes are most prevalent. The first part of the paper presents the main contexts of the motif of the militarization of outer space and its close relationship with video games. These contexts provide an important background for the analysis of the motifs of games and outer space in Ender’s Game. Selected reflections from the field of ludology are helpful in interpreting Card’s use of video games not only as a theme, but also as a structural principle of his novel’s settings. In the last part of the paper, the author considers the transformation of the militant motif taking place in the novel’s finale into a narrative focused on the colonization of outer space, as well as the transformation of this narrative that occurred in Gavin Hood’s film adaptation. The goal of such an interpretation is to show the story created by Orson Scott Card as entangled in a dynamic relationship with the video game medium that was developing at the time of its creation and with the changing trends of astroculture.

Feature Film as a Literary Work

The relationships between feature film and literature are typically conceptualized from the perspective of film adaptations. Although numerous shared points between them are noticeable, typically feature films are not treated as literary works tout court.The paper focuses on the difference between the medium and literature, which allows us to look at any feature film as literature in the film medium. “Empirical media studies” (U. Saxer, W. Faulstich) provides the methodological foundation for the paper, and three representative examples are discussed. The first two are extremely different from each other: a feature film preceding a novel (Alien by R. Scott and Alien by A.D. Foster), and the opposite variant, i.e. a feature film based on a novel in the book medium (Barry Lyndon by S. Kubrick and The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon by W.M. Thackeray). The third example (Love Story by A. Hiller and Love Story by E. Segal) is intermediate: the feature film and the novel were released at the same time (Segal wrote the novel based on his ownscenario during the production of the film). The examples analyzed, together with theoretical considerations, show that it is not the so-called “language of film” that makes a film a work of art, but its “literary-logical continuum” (Faulstich), which supports the thesis that all literature is mediated, and that traditional considerations regarding film adaptation should include the issue of literary media to a greater extent.

How Film Adaptations Make the Original Poetic

Abstract This essay argues that film adaptations make the original poetic because the mode of expression changes from “telling” to “immersion.” The author refers to Walter Benjamin’s translation theory to discuss the nature of adaptation and makes use of several widely celebrated novels and their film versions as examples.

From Mater Dolorosa to Mater Degenerata: Sacrifice and Subversion in Deledda’s Cenere and Duse’s Film

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore the presence of positivist and proto-Eugenic discourses in Grazia Deledda’s novel Cenere (1904) and the eponymous film adaptation by Febo Mari and Eleonora Duse, Cenere (1916). I introduce the term ‘mater degenerata’ as a trope that shows a direct influence of Lombrosian ideas on Italian literature and early Italian cinema. I argue that both authors are obsessed with the mother’s body, and their work reflects a diffused anxiety in Italian culture regarding unfit mothers. The essay has two main parts. In the first part, I introduce the ‘mater degenerata’ trope. In the second part, I offer a comparative analysis of Grazia Deledda’s novel and Febo Mari and Eleonora Duse’s film and highlight how Lombrosian positivist imageries were used in early twentieth-century Italian literature and cinema to depict the degenerate mother and to express social concerns regarding motherhood, reproduction, and national identity in liberal Italy.

Research on the Deletion and Restoration of Literature Works in Film and Television Drama

Film and television adaptation of literature has become the mainstream of current film and television works, but literature and film and television, as two different art forms, the adaptation process is very complicated. This paper deeply discusses the various forms of adaptation of original works and the reasons behind them through case studies and qualitative analysis. At the same time, the article points out that there are significant differences between the original literature and the adaptation of film and television, and analyzes the reasons and techniques of adaptation. Meanwhile, taking the film and television adaptations of the Four Great Classical Novels and Sherlock as examples, it specifically analyzes the content and plot changes presented after the adaptation, and points out that the purpose of film and television adaptation is to improve the viewing quality and satisfy the needs of modern audiences.

Exercising Intercultural Performance in Adaptations: Regional Kerala Myths and Rituals used as tool in Shakespeare film adaptation in Kannaki and Karmayogi

Integral to the concept of "interculturalism" is an appreciation and knowledge of many cultural backgrounds. The major emphasis of intercultural performances is the equitable and meaningful interchange of performance standards and conventions. The timeless universal truths about mankind found in William Shakespeare's plays ensure that they remain relevant and influential even in our own day. Shakespearean plays are more amenable to adaptation into any genre because of their adaptability and flexibility as well as their inherent humanism. There is a lengthy history of retelling great stories in Malayalam film. The literary shifts, thematic echoes, and cultural subtleties that set apart the two film versions of Shakespeare's tragedies, "Hamlet" and "Antony and Cleopatra," from one another are the subject of this research. The exotic customs of Kelipathram and Poorakkali from Kerala have been included into the film to emphasize the cultural superiority of the Orient over the Occident. Shakespeare's Cleopatra continues to evoke mixed feelings in modern audiences; some see her as a manipulative force, while others find her aesthetically pleasing. Whatever your opinion, it's clear that Cleopatra defies categorization within patriarchal society's narrow definitions of women. The film's director gave Kannaki a mysterious air. Kannaki successfully achieves the characteristic of cinematic appropriation by meticulously blending mythological, cultural, geographical, and semiotic aspects within the narrative realm of Antony and Cleopatra. As a result, the director alludes to Antony and Cleopatra's politics inside Kannaki's oriental poetics.

Penggambaran Peran Gender dalam Keluarga di Film Noktah Merah Perkawinan

This study aims to examine the depiction of gender roles in the 2022 film version of Noktah Merah Perkawinan, which is a remake of the 1996 television series. The focus of the film is the dynamics of the marriage of a couple who have been married for 11 years. This research employs a qualitative approach with text analysis methods. The analysis technique used is Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis technique which consists of three stages, namely denotation, connotation, and myth. Meanwhile, the theory used in this research is symbolic interactionalism theory which emphasizes the concepts of roles and values. The data used include documentation of film scenes that meet the predetermined analysis criteria as well as related published journals. The results show that the depiction of gender roles in this film is still not ideal. Although both men and women are portrayed in domestic and public roles, domestic roles are predominantly held by women. This is due to the persistent traditional stereotypes, where women are seen as responsible for the domestic sector, while men are encouraged to take responsibility in the public sector. In conclusion, this film still maintains traditional stereotypes in the depiction of gender role distribution.

Analisis Framing Film Tuhan Izinkan Aku Berdosa

The film "Tuhan Izinkan Aku Berdosa" is an interesting work to be analyzed from the perspective of moral and religious framing. Hanung Bramantyo's film adaptation of Muhidin M. Dahlan's novel "Tuhan Izinkan Aku Menjadi Pelacur" offers a complex and controversial framing analysis. In this movie, themes of morality and religion are explored through a complex narrative and deep characters. The moral framing in the movie highlights the complex moral dilemma faced by the main character, who tries to balance between his religious faith and a complicated personal life. Religious framing in this context addresses the way the movie portrays religious teachings, religious practices, and their influence on the character's life. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method. George Lakoff's framing theory and framing theory in media studies provide a foundation for understanding how the selection of visual and narrative viewpoints can influence audience interpretation. The research is based on an in-depth literature study, including analysis of several related journals and books that discuss the role of framing in film. Through this approach, the movie "God Permits Me to Sin" is explained not only as a visual narrative, but also as a work of art that uses framing techniques to explore the psychological and social complexities in the story. .

To Render a Black World

Abstract: This essay takes Kevin Quashie’s formulation of a black world as the summons and seeding of my engagement with Barry Jenkins’s filmic adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk to speculate upon how a black world might be rendered in visual, multimedia, and cinematic arts. To do so, I reckon with the inherent dangers of black visuality, and of black publicness, within a carceral landscape saturated by ever more invasive, data-driven biometric technologies of surveillance and penal capture. My critical engagement with Jenkins attends to how his evasive and deconstructive cinematic experiments enact a mode of black poesis in line with Quashie’s formulation of a black world in poetry. In so doing, they undermine the constancy (and presumed transparency) of black visuality, along with its affiliated perils in a racist carceral society. Ultimately, this essay theorizes how black visual arts innovate expressive techniques, within a visual field structured by the antiblack semiotics of epidermalization and spectacularization, to render our world in everyday, living black splendor.