Netflix Showcases Deep Asian Movie Lineup in Tokyo

Yahoo

29-04-2025

After a raft of project announcements earlier this year, Netflix has offered a closer look at its 2025 film lineup from the Asia Pacific region at a special content showcase in Tokyo.
Netflix's recent big-budget Hollywood film output has had its detractors, but the streamer's Asian film production has been on something of a critical and cultural hot streak in the last few years, with the likes of Unlocked (Korea), The Call (Korea), Kill Boksoon (Korea), The Shadow Strays (Indonesia), Hunger (Thailand) and the just released Bullet Train Explosion (Japan) all breaking out of their home markets and finding a global audience, with one or two even topping the streamer's worldwide charts.
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Presented by Netflix's top APAC executives from Japan, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia, the showcase proved to be an opportunity for the streamer to flex its regional muscle and show off a diverse slate of genre movies, comedies, anime and drama features.
The event was kicked off by Minyoung Kim, Netflix's vice president, content Asia (ex-India), who revealed in her opening remarks that 'the average Netflix member watches seven movies every month' on the platform, and that this fact was a key driver behind the company's commitment to original feature production. Kim added that in 2024, APAC films appeared in Netflix's non-English film weekly Top 10 'more than films from any other region' and that APAC subscribers' film viewing grew by nearly 20 percent last year.
The first of the regional slate deep dives was provided by Malobika Banerji, Netflix's senior director of content for Southeast Asia. Banerji talked up the success of The Shadow Strays and Hunger, the latter of which hit No. 1 worldwide, but also was keen to stress the company's firsts for the region, notably producing Outside, the first Filipino zombie movie that was released in 2024. And it's more zombies from SEA in 2025 for Netflix, as Banerji as gave glimpses of the streamer's big bets for 2025 — the Indonesian zombie drama The Elixir and Ziam from Thailand.
Directed by Kimo Stamboel — one half of The Mo Brothers collective, with the other being The Shadow Strays filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto — The Elixir is both Indonesia's first zombie movie and also one of the country's largest film productions ever. Netflix showed off the first trailer of the film, which centers on an industrialist who makes herbal elixirs and how he and his dysfunctional family come under attack from the undead. Netflix also showed off a short teaser of Kulp 'Tent' Kaljareuk's Ziam, which appeared to be a more conventional zombie action movie, featuring a Muay Thai fighter as the central protagonist.
Then followed the slate presentation by Netflix Japan's director of live action content Shinichi Takahashi. Much of the Japanese portion, understandably, was dominated by Shinji Higuchi's Bullet Train Explosion, which was set for release just days after the showcase. Takahashi was at pains to stress that the film, a sequel to the 1975 disaster classic The Bullet Train, was made in cooperation with the East Japan Railway Company, heightening the verisimilitude of the film with real Shinkansen trains, stations and uniforms. The filmmakers and VFX artists behind Bullet Train Explosion were also on hand to explain how they created some of the thrilling action setpieces.
Outside of Bullet Train Explosion, Takahashi also discussed the recent success of Japanese original feature Demon City (released in February), which he said had ranked in Netflix's global top 10 for four weeks in a row. And he revealed a trailer for the ballroom dance drama 10Dance. Based on Satoh Inoue's popular manga series, the film features two competitive male dancers (played by Ryoma Takeuchi and Keita Machida) who work together to win a competition, but begin to have feelings for each other.
After Japan, Korea followed, with Netflix's Korea director of content Vincent Taewon Kim presenting the most diverse slate of films of all the APAC regions. Kim said the streamer would release seven original Korean films in 2025, including features from Yeon Sang-ho (Hellbound and Parasyte: The Grey) and Byun Sung-hyun (Kill Boksoon) as well as films from Netflix newcomers Han Ji-won and Namkoong Sun.
Kim opened the showcase talking up Yeon's Revelations, a film he said topped 'the Netflix top 10 non-English film chart for two weeks and was also among the top 10 titles in 65 countries.' He then introduced Netflix Korea's first animated feature project, Han Ji-won's Lost in Starlight, a coming-of-age love story that has echoes of Makoto Shinkai's Your Name and Suzume. Lost in Starlight tells the story of an astronaut named Nan-young and a musician named Jay, who embark on the longest-ever long-distance relationship.
Then followed a trailer for an intriguing psychological drama Wall to Wall, director Kim Tae-joon follow up to his debut feature Unlocked. The film tells the story of a man living in an apartment who is driven mad by mysterious noises from neighboring floors.
There was also a first look at Love Untangled, Namkoong Sun's period high school-set romcom about a girl with frizzy hair who is trying to attract the attention of her crush, and Lee Tae-sung's Mantis, the action spinoff of assassin movie hit Kill Boksoon.
The Korea slate was wrapped up with trailers for Byun Sung-hyun's period plane hijack drama Good News and a clip of Kim Byung-woo's disaster movie The Great Flood; both movies debut at the end of the year.
The APAC film showcase ended with India. Ruchikaa Kapoor Sheikh, Netflix's director of original films for India, introduced the streamer's slate for the country and stressed the importance of movies for the company in India. Sheikh revealed that for Netflix In India, 'nearly half of the viewing is from film, which is one of the highest globally.' Sheikh added that, 'in the past year alone, an Indian film was featured in Netflix's Global Top 10 (Non-English) list every single week.'
Sheikh said 2025 would see Netflix's most diverse slate of Indian films, with original features coming in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. A first look trailer for Vivek Soni's romcom Aap Jaisa Koi (loosely translated as Someone Like You) was shown, which tells the story of a 40-something everyman who's had no luck with women his whole life, who becomes discombobulated when he meets a beautiful woman during a speed dating event who is actually interested in him.
Netflix India also showed off a teaser of Chinmay Mandleka's Inspector Zende, a 1980s-set drama about the police manhunt for the notorious international criminal Carl Bhojraj, also known as the 'Snake.' The film appeared to have echoes to the Charles Sobhraj case, even down to the nickname of the antagonist.
Finally, Sheikh showed off a trailer for Vivek Daschaudharys' Toaster, the black comedy starring Rajkummar Rao, in what will be his fifth project with the streamer. The actor, who was introduced as the 'Rajkummar of Netflix' by Sheikh, was present at the showcase to discuss more about the film and also revealed that the feature was the first project from Kampa Films, the production banner he launched with his actor-producer wife Patralekha.
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