Chinese film 'Buddy Bath' accused of copying Korean webtoon

Seen are a still of “God of Bath,” left, a popular Korean webcomic on Naver, and the poster for Chinese film “Buddy Bath” by director Yi Zhenxing

'China's Wanda stole our film,' says Korean production company

By Park Ji-won

China's Wanda Media has been embroiled in controversy over its recent film “Bath Buddy,” or “King of Bath” in Chinese, after its former Korean partner company claimed the Chinese media giant copied “God of Bath,” a popular Korean webcomic, without consent.

According to MoonWatcher, a Korean production company founded in 2008, Wanda Media and the film's director Yi Zhenxing violated copyright laws and committed business negligence.

The Korean production company said in a statement Friday, “We will continue to fight against Wanda and director Yi Zhenxing for business negligence and violating copyright laws. For the development of Korea-China cultural cooperation, the case should become a good reference.”

The remarks came after the Chinese company released the controversial film on Friday. The Korean company claimed the Chinese production company agreed in 2018 to jointly produce a film based on the Korean webcomic series released on Naver, and decided on Yi Zhenxing as its director in July of the same year while starting to write the script targeting Chinese audiences.

However, the Chinese company allegedly canceled the joint production contract with the Korean company and started its own production based on the Korean webcomic, withdrawing the investment plan in October last year, it added.

It tried to complain about co-production and copyright issues in April against Wanda and the director, but the two sides failed to come to an agreement.

Wanda is allegedly claiming that there is no copyright issue in this case as it came up with a new script.

“It took some eight years for me to make God of Bath into a film. Fate made the sad situation that I cannot call my child as my child. But I would like to congratulate the release of the film God of Bath which is titled King of Bath,” Yoon Chang-Eop, CEO of MoonWatcher, wrote in a statement.

“I know the Chinese government is trying to come up with laws and regulations to protect intellectual property rights. Things already happened, but I hope this case would be a good reference to make things right.”