'Kill Mobile' and others: From adaptation to localization

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"Kill Mobile," a Chinese adaptation of the 2016 Italian film "Perfetti Sconosciuti" (Perfect Strangers), opened in Chinese theaters on December 29, 2018.

The drama-comedy revolves around seven friends playing a party game which involves players revealing their phone call details, text messages, and WeChat messages which sets on a series of disasters.

According to reports, "Kill Mobile" got the copyright of the original "Perfect Stranger" at the 2016 Venice Film Festival.

After purchasing adaptation rights of the film, Chinese crew started to localize and remake the Italian high-rating movie. The Chinese version comes with a new title and revised structure of the original version for better localization, although the original story became a trending social topic three years ago.

The Chinese version, named "Kill Mobile," is more of a fresh story than an adaptation. Although, it is still an underlying story about phones, social media, and personal secrets while identities, professional backgrounds, and relationships of the seven characters have been changed in the Chinese version.

In short, while "Kill Mobile" retains some parts of the original Italian version, it also tries to experiment with original dialogues and personalities of the seven figures.

But, the film is not just a warning to mobile phone addicts, it's also a fable reflecting on those who hide their darkest secrets in their devices, China.org said in a report.

This is not the first time a foreign movie has been localized to serve Chinese movie lovers.

In 2015, "12 Citizens" was released in China, from a film based on Hollywood epic "12 Angry Men."

A poster of "12 Citizens." /VCG Photo

Like the 1957 U.S. version, the Chinese adaptation featured seasoned stage actors. In another similarity, as the American version was the feature film directorial debut of Sidney Lumet, "12 Citizens" was also a debut movie by theater director Xu Ang.

The film won the Marco Aurelio Prize at the International Rome Film Festival in 2014.

Another remake, "20 Once Again," a 2015 Chinese comedy film which was directed by Leste Chen and featured Yang Zishan and Lu Han, was an adaptation of South Korean flick "Miss Granny."

"Lost, Found," a 2018 Chinese drama film was also a remake of 2016 South Korean film "Missing."

The still from "20 Once Again." /VCG Photo

According to a report by People's Daily, "20 Once Again" gained good response after its release in 2015, since local flavors were added to the movie to surprise the Chinese audience.

As a film based on women's role in Chinese society, the story of "Lost, Found" was compact. According to a Xinhua report, the film did not gain an edge in its initial days of screening but after receiving critical praise the film gained wide attention in mainstream media and garnered nearly 200 million yuan (29.4 million U.S. dollars) at the box office.