Film viewership among Netflix‘s APAC subscribers grew by nearly 20% in 2024, said Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s head for APAC content (excluding Korea).
Speaking at the streamer’s APAC showcase in Tokyo, Kim added that more than 100 APAC films peaked in Netflix’s global top 10 list for non-English films throughout 2024. These have included titles like Korea’s Uprising, Indonesia’s The Shadow Strays and Japan’s City Hunter.
Overall, Netflix members globally watch an average of seven films a month.
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Kim also highlighted the expansive cultural impact that the streamer’s film slate has produced across Asia. For example, when Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the popular “City Hunter” manga series premiered in April last year, sales of the original manga, including both digital and hard copies, went up by 900%.
Looking ahead, the streamer is set to expand its offerings across Asia this year, which includes two original zombie films from Southeast Asia and Netflix Korea’s first-ever animated film.
While the zombie genre has long been dominated by English-language titles — and in recent years, by Korean projects like Train to Busan, All of Us Are Dead and Kingdom — Netflix said that it is hoping to add Southeast Asia’s offerings to the global mix. With a track record of success in Indonesia and Thailand already with the streamer’s horror titles, Netflix is also set to launch two original zombie films from these countries, titled Elixir and Ziam.
Malobika Banerji, the Netflix’s senior director for Southeast Asian content, said that the Indonesian and Thai teams working on Elixir and Ziam consulted with some of the team members who worked on Korean zombie series Kingdom, with the Korean team offering advice in areas like make-up and effects.
Over in Japan, the streamer is launching its tentpole film Bullet Train Explosion on April 23. The film is a reboot of the original 1975 movie The Bullet Train, which inspired the Hollywood blockbuster Speed.
Shin Takahashi, Netflix’s head of Japanese live-action films and series, said that this film marked an unprecedented scale of collaboration with Japanese railway company JR East. The production managed to secure access to film one of the company’s real-life bullet trains on several trips.
“We were able to rent an entire bullet train and film it in motion seven times, travelling back and forth from Tokyo to Aomori,” said Takahashi. “This was not possible in the original The Bullet Train and remains unparalleled in Japanese film production to this day. Typically, even if a train could be borrowed, filming would be limited to one or two times, making this an extraordinary level of cooperation in Japan.”
“The big difference this time is the time we took to convey the story, creative vision and intent to JR East. We were able to work with them through repeated discussions and time we spent with them during pre-production,” added Takahashi.
Netflix Japan will mark its 10-year anniversary this year. Other titles on the streamer’s Japanese slate include the recently-premiered Demon City, as well as 10Dance, a film about the competitive dance world, set to release later this year.
Ruchikaa Kapoor Sheikh, who leads films for Netflix India, shared that nearly half of the country’s Netflix viewership comes from film, which is one of the highest globally. In the past year, at least one Indian film featured in Netflix’s global Top 10 non-English list every week.
One of the streamer’s Indian titles this year is Toaster, which stars Rajkummar Rao, who also serves as producer alongside his wife, Patralekhaa. This is the first title from Kampa Films, a production company run by Rao and Patralekhaa.
“When we read a one-pager of Toaster, I thought that this story was very unique, so we developed it into a script,” said Rao. “The writing has to be very good for comedy-genre films. The situation has to be funny, so you can just be authentic and react to the situation.”
Rao said that he only realized that he was good at comedy in 2017 when he starred in Newton, which later won Best Feature Film at India’s National Film Awards. “If you always just react to a specific situation, it will come across funny. That’s what I try to do. I try not to be funny while doing comedy, which is a very difficult task, because sometimes you get greedy, thinking that you can do more, which can ruin the scene. You actually have to be very controlled when you do comedy,” added Rao.
In Korea, where the streamer has seen record-breaking success over the last few years, the focus for this year is to diversify its offerings, said Vincent Taewon Kim, Netflix’s director for Korean content. This year’s slate includes its first-ever animated film, Lost in Starlight. Q3 will see the release of Wall to Wall, while Good News, The Great Flood and Kill Boksoon spinoff Mantis are set to premiere in Q4.
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