I addressed this a bit in my last blog written in February 19th.  However, I saw Juno for a second time this weekend and noticed that Diablo Cody (a pseudonym, to be sure), the writer of Juno, won an Oscar for the screen play so I thought that the subject deserves its own, expanded entry.

Juno was filmed in Canada with American talent and financing.  It had a modest budget of $6.9 million, but is expected to gross over $120 million in just its domestic theatrical run.  An excellent return given the initial investment and we are not even talking about international sales and DVD sales.  On top of that, it's got a lot of critical acclaim too and has been nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Picture.  It has won one Oscar for best original screenplay.  However, is Juno really and Original Screenplay and should it have been considered as an Adapted Screenplay instead? 

Fox Searchlight's biggest hit of the year...

In 2005 a movie came out in Korea called "Jenny / Juno"about exactly the same topic, unexpected teen pregnancy.  Like the American Juno, it's a romantic/comedy with sweet, intelligent and likeable characters who have to make difficult decisions on both life and love.

Jenny/Juno which came out in Korea in 2005

Onthe surface, the two movies appear similar.  However, the two films differ in some big ways.  First, in Juno the girl decides to give the baby up for adoption, whereas in Jenny/Juno, the young couple decides to keep the baby.  The adoption theme in Juno is a major subplot (although there is a smaller adoption angle in Jenny/Juno involving Jenny's older sister in America).  Juno is driven by an almost "Gilmore Girls" brand of wit whereas Jenny/Juno moves along with an almost saccharine-sweet, Hello Kitty type of cuteness.  Juno in the American movie is the girl's name.  In the Korean movie Juno is the male lead's name and the girl's name is Jenny.  Juno's tone is a little more serious with more dry wit. Jenny/Juno is more light-hearted and innocent.  Booth are heavily steeped in their host cultures' mores and attitudes, which are of course, vastly different.  For example, hiding the pregnancy for aslong as possible is a major subplot in Jenny/Juno whereas in Juno, the parents are told pretty early on.

            
Both movies are diven by cute, witty and highly likable couples

               
Bleeker and Juno (male character) just moments before they are told they are daddies!  Both are adorable and sincere characters.   Both have that "deers in the headlights" look...

However, there are also a lotof interesting similarities, the ones I've noticed which I have listed below (in rough chronological order):

1.   In the opening credits in Juno, the female lead walks through town to get to the drug store to buy a home pregnancy test, the opening credits end and Juno takes the test in the store's bathroom.  Just before Jenny/Juno's opening credits, Jenny takes the home pregnancy test in her bathroom, and once the credits roll, Jenny rides a bike through town.

2. In the opening credits for both movies, the fonts appear to be written with crayons.

3. Both Juno and Jenny take the over-the-counter pregnancy test exactly three times.

4. Essentially, both movies start in the same narrative time perspective and the actual "deed" that creates the pregnancy is told in a flashback, not in the linear order of the story telling.

5. In Jenny/Juno, part of what helps Jenny make up her mind is a pro-life book written in Korean.  In Juno, part of what affects Juno's decision is a Pro-Life advocate who happens to be an Asian girl.

6. Contrary to what many may think, there is a theme of adoption in Jenny/Juno also.  It's much smaller and hardly a subplot, but fit's what's considered acceptable in Korean society.  Koreans believe in intra-family adoption, but not yet in inner-family adoption.  Jenny's mother was going to send Jenny to America, where her older sister, married, would adopt Jenny's baby.

7. In Jenny/Juno, the male lead writes in chalk for Jenny “I love you Jenny” In “Juno," the female lead writes in chalk on Bleeker's front step “Check the mail Bleeker” and what's in the mail box is a sign that Juno loves him.

8. There is a scene in Jenny/Juno where the male lead runs track for PE class and shows how much of a goof he is by comically bumping into a post.  Something that showed a striking stylistic similarity to Juno's boyfriend in that he's both a goof and on the track team.

9. Both movies have a girl who's interested in the male leads at about midpoint in the movie and this creates an intense, but short burst of jealously by the female leads.

10. Bleeker runs track competitively (apparently breaks a state record) and the Korean Juno plays a video game in a high level competition, different but similar theme of showing that the male leads have talent in something.

11. Both films have a cute, geeky male lead and are subordinate to dominate women. 

12. The male leads appear indecisive and weak in the beginning but have inner strength that's appreciated later. 

13. In Jenny/Juno, the boy asks to carry the female lead's backpack and she refuses, same thing in Juno.

14. Both movie have primarily seven major characters that drive the story and appear in the majority of the movie.  In Juno that would be Juno, Bleeker, Juno's dad and step mother, Juno's best friend and the adoptive parents.  In Jenny/Juno the major characters are Jenny, Juno, Jenny's parents, Jenny's older sister and Juno's parents.

15. Both Juno and Jenny ride bicycles. Jenny rides the bike in the beginning of the movie and Juno rides hers at the end. 

Diablo Cody... giving credit where credit is due?

Some of comments on the Internet Movie Database are telling and I've included two of the more intelligent comments below:

by thebubblewrapguy  (Fri Feb 8 2008 10:57:42)

"I have no doubt that "Juno" (USA) was inspired by "Jeni, Juno" (Korea.)There are too many similarities to pretend otherwise. It is an adaptation for certain, but likely enough was changed that the producers were not legally bound to credit "Jeni, Juno" as a source. Itmakes perfect sense to not credit it, as there would be costs involved.And it made perfect sense to Americanize it, changing the plot and characters as needed to make it resonate with the audience.

The only tragedy here is that the script of "Juno" may very well win Best Original Screenplay, when in fairness it should have been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Or perhaps it falls into neither category, as it was obviously inspired by another source even if it did not follow it so closely as to be an adaptation."

by mijoki-1  2 days ago (Sat Feb 23 2008 06:57:41)

"I saw Juno just a while ago and even though it was not as funny as I was hoping it would be, I still had a nice warm feeling when it was over. I happened to run accross the whole plagiarism idea in anotherforum and decided to check it out...after all it is nominated for an academy award. The first few minutes I was like " oh craap..." it was similar. They both start with the girls taking the tests...there is this guitar music and the main characters are being followed by the camera...still, what really made me think it was indeed a copy was the style. I thought Juno was cute since it had this way of writing things in the intro and through out the movie, how can I explain this...the letters were made funky, like they were made with colour spray, which was used in both movies..."