Korean webtoon artist lists pros, cons of screen adaptations
MANILA, Philippines — The benefits and concerns of adapting from the page to the screen apply to webtoons, says manhwa illustrator and writer Lee Yun-chang, often for the better.
Yun-chang was in Metro Manila for the 2026 Korean Film Festival hosted by the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines, with the film adaptation of his webtoon "My Daughter is a Zombie" being in this year's lineup.
"My Daughter is a Zombie" stars Jo Jung-suk of "Hospital Playlist" fame as a man caring for his daughter infected by a zombie virus. In the cast with him are "Parasite" stars Lee Jung-eun and Cho Yeo-jeong.
The movie, like the original webtoon, was well-received and became the highest-grossing Korean film of 2025. It won one of seven Blue Dragon Film Award nominations and scored a Best New Actress nod for Choi Yu-ri at the Baeksang Arts Awards earlier this year.
Philstar.com spoke to Yun-chang before a screening of the film in a Taguig mall for his thoughts on whether screen projects can be truly faithful adaptations of webtoons or manhwa, given that they are different media.
Yun-chang used "My Daughter is a Zombie" as an example and recalled how director Pil Gam-sung enjoyed the webtoon and tried to reflect the artist's identity in the movie out of respect.
He acknowledged that some internal details had to be altered, such as how the zombies talked or danced. In the webtoon, it comes off as a gag, but not so much in the movie.
"[Gam-sung] tried to keep the tone of my comic style. Of course, it's possible in a comic but hard to put it in a video," Yun-chang continued in Korean. "Nevertheless, it led to good reviews."
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The artist also admitted that there was sadness and disappointment the film didn't fully look into some themes from his original webtoon.
He noted how the movie highlights Jung-suk's Lee Jung-hwan role as a father, but the manhwa dives more into Jung-hwan as an individual.
The webtoon sees Jung-hwan giving up his youth, relationships, marriage, and sometimes birthdays to raise his sister's child Lee Soo-ah, whereas in the film Soo-ah (the young Yu-ri) is Jung-hwan's actual daughter.
"In my work those things were resolved but in the movie, they were completely erased," Yun-chang lamented in Korean as webtoon readers actually understood Jung-hwan's struggles. "I know that it was a choice to be made not to depict it in a two-hour movie."
The illustrator remains optimistic though as the screen adaptation gave a wider audience for his work, letting him feel like he's doing well at his craft.
He expressed gratitude that the movie revived his webtoon five years after it was first published, humorously comparing it to zombies coming back to life, and that he profitted from the film's massive earnings.
"'My Daughter is a Zombie' is like my own child that makes me proud for giving me so much," Yun-chang ended in Korean.
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