Tag - netflix

 
 

NETFLIX

As streaming services like Netflix invest in Japanese content, the hope is to revitalize the nation’s cultural exports and elevate its television landscape.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 9, 2024
Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ reveals some surprising truths
"Tokyo Swindlers" can reveal some home truths — even when they’re presented by a group of fraudsters.
Kim Sang-man’s “Uprising” has attracted significant attention ahead of its world premiere thanks largely to the involvement of  its producer Park Chan-wook, best-known for directing ultra-violent thrillers like 2003’s “Old Boy,” which played a key role in bringing South Korean cinema to the global forefront.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2024
Netflix war epic to open Asia's largest film festival
Streaming-only content has contributed to a significant surge in the global visibility of Korean and Korean diaspora stories.
Netflix has developed more local content for India featuring Bollywood actors over the years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 23, 2024
India probing Netflix for visa violations and racial discrimination, email shows
Netflix has often faced heat in India over its content deemed insensitive by some users, as well as an Indian tax demand since 2023.
Comedian Yuriyan Retriever takes on the role of Japan’s most hated heel, Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, in “The Queen of Villains.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 20, 2024
Yuriyan Retriever is Japan's biggest heel — and proud of it
The comedian takes on the role of Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, a real-life rule-breaking brawler in women’s professional wrestling, in Netflix's “The Queen of Villains.”
A nefarious fraudster (Etsushi Toyokawa, left) and his protege (Go Ayano) engineer a multibillion-yen property scam in Netflix’s “Tokyo Swindlers.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 25, 2024
Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ is this summer’s guiltiest pleasure
The flashy new series about real estate scammers is a ridiculous treat to watch.
Durian Lollobrigida and his co-hosts — actors Megumi and Chiaki Horan, singer Thelma Aoyama and former “Terrace House” panelist Yoshimi Tokui — offer in-studio commentary on the contestants’ footage in Netflix’s new reality dating show, “The Boyfriend.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 13, 2024
'The Boyfriend' host Durian Lollobrigida puts a face to queer joy
Involvement in Netflix's new reality dating show is just the latest success in the Japanese drag queen's rise.
Actors Judge Reinhold and Eddie Murphy attend the premiere of "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, last month.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2024
Eddie Murphy's 'every man' hero returns in 'Beverly Hills Cop' sequel
Forty years after the original, the iconic 1980s franchise revists Axel Foley and his pals while serving old-school action.
Horror artist Junji Ito adds just a dash of comedy to his work, though he aims for it to be understated. “If it’s truly a horror story, the humor must be restrained and more veiled,” he says.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 29, 2024
Fear still matters to Junji Ito
Currently on view at Tokyo's Setagaya Literary Museum is an extensive collection of the horror master's work, the first large-scale exhibition of it's kind in Japan.
Netflix is ramping up local production in Southeast Asia, aiming to boost its subscriber base in the region even as U.S. rivals are pulling back.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2024
Netflix uses ‘Squid Game’ playbook for untapped Southeast Asia
Asia Pacific, accounting for just 11% of Netflix's 2023 revenue may offer significant growth potential due to its large, young demographic.
Joey Chestnut (left) and Takeru Kobayashi compete in the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest in New York on July 4, 2009.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 13, 2024
Netflix to air 'ultimate' hot dog eating contest
The announcement comes a day after the esoteric world of speed eating contests was rocked by news that Joey Chestnut had been banned from a popular New York event.
Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will face the Steelers in one of the two NFL games that will be aired on Netflix on Christmas Day.
MORE SPORTS
May 16, 2024
Netflix reaches deal to air NFL games
Netflix will broadcast two NFL games next season for the first time in a landmark move that comes as the streaming giant bolsters its portfolio of sports-based programming.
The Netflix series "House of Ninjas" partially succeeds in elevating its subject, but there is still room in Hollywood to give ninja the "samurai" treatment.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
May 8, 2024
Shine and shadow: Unpacking favoritism in ‘Shogun’ and ‘House of Ninjas’
When it comes to Japanese archetypes in Hollywood, samurai are like rock stars compared to the less-considered ninja. It's time ninja took the spotlight.
Ryohei Suzuki is plays assassin and detective Ryo Saeba in a new live-action "City Hunter" remake from Netflix.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2024
'City Hunter' manga hero drops the sexism for new live-action film
Lead actor Ryohei Suzuki says production had to strike a balance between his character's reputation and modern sensibilities.
Private detective Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) goes beyond the call of duty to protect a client at a cosplay convention in “City Hunter.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2024
A star turn isn’t quite enough to make ‘City Hunter’ soar
Ryohei Suzuki is in peak form as a lecherous private detective in an otherwise middling Netflix live-action manga adaptation.
“Extremely Inappropriate!” centers on Ichiro Ogawa (played by Sadao Abe), a crude high school teacher who is chain-smoking his way through 1986. He accidentally ends up on a bus that turns out to be a time machine, which drives him to 2024.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Apr 5, 2024
‘Extremely Inappropriate!’ took a big swing. TV is better for it.
The drama — which features a fish-out-of-water protagonist and satirizes social issues — is the most divisive Japanese TV show of the year so far.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024
Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan
"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Mike Tyson was boxing's undisputed heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 8, 2024
Boxing great Mike Tyson to face Jake Paul in exhibition
Tyson said he was looking forward to fighting an opponent who is 30 years his junior.
A group of departed souls trapped in limbo tries to find closure — and finish an uncompleted movie — in Michihito Fujii’s “The Parades.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 29, 2024
‘The Parades’: Glossy afterlife drama is no ‘After Life’
Michihito Fujii’s wistful film is less than the sum of its influences.
Laws governing global e-commerce and the growing tidal wave of data that crosses borders may soon change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024
Streaming a movie abroad may soon come with taxes at the border
It's still unclear exactly how governments would implement digital tariffs.
A group of Pikachu, three riding a Dragonite, play with Woopers, a Bulbasaur and other resort guests in “Pokemon Concierge.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 20, 2024
Pikachu just wants to help you relax these days
On Netflix’s “Pokemon Concierge,” the hyperactivity of the original gives way to soothing sights and tones that can help grown-up fans calm down.

Longform

Akira Oishi (left) and Shinichi Okanobori have taken on the responsibility of surveying the flora and fauna of Mount Tenran and Mount Tonosu in Saitama Prefecture.
Inside Japan's 100-year project to monitor its deteriorating biodiversity