Korean Hit Movies Remade in Indonesia, Ever Watched?

The Korean Wave fever has spread to Indonesia. One of its products, films from the Ginseng Country, is not only distributed in its original form but also remade.

The film remake scheme allows Indonesian production houses to purchase official licenses for South Korean films, then adapt them to the cultural, social, and emotional context of local audiences.

Data from CGV Indonesia and various sources show that Miracle in Cell No.7 was a booming film in South Korea, attracting 12.81 million viewers during its 2013 release.

The remake of that film in Indonesia also garnered 5.8 million viewers in 2022—considered very high for a remake and becoming the highest-grossing drama film in the country that year.

The film tells the story of a father with a mental disability (Lee Yong-gu in Korea/Dodo in Indonesia) who is accused of kidnapping, raping, and murdering an official's child. He is imprisoned and separated from his young daughter (Ye-sung/Kartika). The inmates help "smuggle" his daughter into cell number 7, where the father is serving his unjust sentence.

Then there is the film Sunny, estimated to have reached 7.45 million viewers in Korea during its 2011 release. In Indonesia, this film was remade under the title Bebas, but its viewership only reached 513.33 thousand people. This film tells the story of high school friendships.

Another film is My Annoying Brother (2016), which sold 2.98 million tickets in Korea. However, in Indonesia (2024), according to Cinepoint, it only reached 269.97 thousand viewers.

There's also Pawn (2020), watched by 1.71 million people in Korea, while its Indonesian version titled Panggil Aku Ayah (August 2025) reached 880 thousand viewers.

Intellectual property rights, especially for Korean film products, continue to grow and are even very well received by Indonesia. However, how can Indonesia maintain its own creative innovation space?

Speaking to reporters, Sun-cheol Kim, Senior Manager of CGV Indonesia, revealed at least four ways to maintain innovation and creativity for Indonesian filmmakers. He shared these views during a discussion with the Korea Foundation and the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) in South Jakarta on December 2, 2025.

First, Indonesia must strengthen its human resource capital or the capacity of its creators.

Second, develop international cooperation and co-production. "This is complementary, not competitive," Kim said.

Third, strengthen community and cultural mechanisms. And fourth, utilize technology and data. This last step is to strengthen analysis, understand audience behavior, and optimize product distribution.