Turkish Korean Remakes That No One Knows

Yes, they do and not just one or two. There are loads of Turkish dramas that fully or partly adapt Korean stories.

I am Turkish, but you can be sure of my objectivity as I am a Korean Drama Fan of 8 years!

Some of these dramas I did watch, some I couldn’t bear to watch, and some I didn’t even know existed either because the story was completely altered so I couldn’t recognize it or because the drama was a failure so it vanished as soon as it was out there.

I'm Sorry, I Love You = Bir ask Hikayesi

I didn’t watch the Korean drama for this one, but I did watch the Turkish version. I knew it was a remake before I watched it. This one was one of the first popular remakes and it caused a lot of outcry among the Turkish K-drama lovers. 

There are a million reasons why remakes never work in Turkish format, but why this drama struggled was because Turkish dramas are 90 to 100 minutes per episode and last for 3-4 seasons if the drama is a success. Yes, they are so long that the story gets dragged longer than it should be, and there are strange long stares and unnecessary filler episodes that want you to hang yourself.

But all in all this drama had a serious fan base in Turkey and was loved by many even though I heard it struggled with ratings through the end. Sadly, I couldn’t follow the drama after like 25 episodes, but it wrapped up at the end and was not a complete embarrassment to Turkish people.

Overall rating: 7/10

   

First of all, horrible title. Second of all, one of my all-time favorite K-dramas and even if they had done a 100% perfect job at it, I would still not be satisfied. Call me biased, I don’t care.

But this is a good adaptation nevertheless. I watched both the Korean and Turkish version and I must say that the idea could have worked, but the Turkish version failed to create the perfect cast that made the Korean drama a success despite the budget cuts it went through.

Overall rating: 6/10

Boys Over Flowers = Günesi Beklerken

Okay, okay, I know what you are thinking. There is an American remake being made and I know how you are gonna react, but before that, this is not a full adaptation. This is not even officially an adaptation, but let me tell you why everyone thinks this was based on BoF.

The story starts differently, but nevertheless our hero is a girl whose mother went bankrupt and had to move to a big city and change schools and so far only the being poor part resembles BoF. The resemblances only begin and actually exist in 2 places of the plot. First of all, as she enters the high school she gets picked on by the son of the owner of the school and her school life becomes hell itself.

She starts liking the best friend of the boy who makes her life hell. He loves reading in his hideout (which she finds out by accident while she was escaping from the other hell-boy) and is kind and elegant and the perfect package. 

When she gets this perfect boy at the end though, she decides that she actually is in love with the hell-boy and leaves the perfect package for the hell boy.

And I must mention that according to Turkish standards, these two dream boys are hot, handsome and every fangirl's dream.

This is as far as the resemblance is going for me. While BoF is a fun drama mixed with a cute love story, Günesi Beklerken is a teenage drama that kind of reminds me of One Tree Hill. 

While Günesi Beklerken is a big hit in Turkey, after the first 5-6 episodes it went its own way with its story and became a completely different drama.

Overall rating: 7/10

A Moment to Remember = Evim Sensin  

(trans: You Are My Home)

This is a movie that brought many women to tears and envy for such a love story. This is a movie adaptation of the movie A Moment to Remember.

I watched both movies. The story in general is not my cup of tea, but if we are talking only about adaptation, well the Turkish version had a lot of logic gaps and the male actor was just too old for the girl…

Overall rating: 8/10