Screen, stage adaptations of Han Kang's works likely after Nobel win

Han Kang's Nobel Prize victory has sparked expectations that her literature will be adapted for the screen and stage.

Nobel Prize winner Han Kang speaks during a press conference in 2023. [YONHAP]

Han Kang's Nobel Prize victory has sparked expectations that her literature will be adapted for the screen and stage. A play adaptation of her novel "The Vegetarian" (2007) was under discussion for a joint production with the National Theater Company of Korea and Belgium's Théâtre de Liège by Belgian director Selma Alaoui in 2020 but was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Given the positive relationship between the author and director Alaoui, resuming these discussions would be relatively straightforward, provided the production conditions align,” a theater source told Yonhap News Agency on Friday. Han's works have been adapted into film and theater in the past.

"The Vegetarian" was previously adapted into a film of the same name in 2009, directed by Lim Woo-sung. Lim also directed the 2011 film “Scars,” based on the short story “Child Buddha” from Han's collection “The Fruit of My Woman” (2000).

Official poster of 2011 film “Scars,” an adaptation of the short story “Child Buddha” from Han Kang's collection “The Fruit of My Woman” (2000). [KINO EYE]

Han Kang's 2014 novel ″Human Acts″ [CHANGBI PUBLISHERS]

Another of Han's works, “Human Acts” (2014), which delves into the aftermath of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, was adapted into a play titled “Human Fugue” in 2019.

Produced jointly by the Seoul Institute of the Arts performance creation group “Ttwida” and Namsan Arts Center, this production employed the musical form of a fugue to mirror the novel's structure of interconnected suffering.

"Human Fugue” was selected as one of the “Best Three Plays of the Year” by the Korean Association of Theater Critics. However, “Human Acts” has yet to be adapted into a film.

Han, the first Korean author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, began her literary journey in 1993 with poems published in the magazine “Literature and Society.”

Her prose debut came in 1995 with the short story collection “Love of Yeosu.” She gained international recognition in 2016 when she won the Man Booker International Prize for her flagship work, “The Vegetarian.”

BY YOON SEUNG-JIN [yoon.seungjin@joongang.co.kr]