SINGAPORE – South Korean film-maker Kim Byung-woo, director of South Korean fantasy Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy, was not going to let a passionate fan base paralyse him creatively.

His first concern was making a good movie rather than worrying about whether followers of the source material – the popular web novel Omniscient Reader (2018 to 2020), with more than 200 million views globally – would cry foul if it failed to be a faithful adaptation.

“If I think about too many elements of the web novel, then the film wouldn’t be good or meaningful. My first priority was to make this a very entertaining film for the audience,” says Kim, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

He was speaking through an interpreter to The Straits Times at a press event at Marina Bay Sands on July 29. He and lead actors Ahn Hyo-seop and Lee Min-ho were in town to promote the film, which is showing in cinemas.

Positive fan reactions can push a live-action movie derived from a webtoon, web novel, anime or manga to box-office success, as with South Korean fantasy film Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds (2017) and its 2018 sequel. They were adapted from a 2010 webtoon. 

The opposite happens when fans rally to pour online scorn. That fate met Hollywood’s 2017 take on the seminal manga Ghost In The Shell (1989 to 1991), with celebrated anime versions already existing. It also happened to Netflix’s live-action adaptations Death Note (2017) and Cowboy Bebop (2021), both sourced from anime and manga. 

While the quality of the films was judged to be poor by most viewers, the fervent online campaign waged by fans of the source materials helped put a nail in the coffin of the idea of sequels.

Kim, 45, says he did what he felt was best for his movie adaptation. 

“I know that there could be some concerns from fans of the original web novel when adapting a story into a screenplay, but just because we have the screen adaptation of the novel, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to undermine or change anything abou...