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Anytime a Netflix series spends its first weekend in the streamer’s Top 10 is a good sign that the stars have aligned at catching viewers’ attention. This past weekend revealed a promising future for new Thai drama “Mad Unicorn” since the seven episode limited series that dropped on May 29 spent the weekend in the #1 spot for series in Thailand. And while that news is very good for Thailand and the Apac region, Netflix is clearly looking at an opportunity to bring more eyeballs to Thai productions. The series dropped in over 190 countries and was viewed by 1.6 million households, ranking fourth in the streamer’s weekly top 10 for non-English shows.

The high-adrenaline series focuses on ambitious entrepreneur Santi (Ice-Natara Nopparatayapon), a native of Thailand’s low-income mountainous Chiang Mai region, who comes to Bangkok with lofty dreams of lifting his family out of poverty. Santi soon comes up with a billion-dollar...

Netflix has revealed its slate of original titles from Indonesia and Thailand set to premiere in 2025, including a series from the team behind box office phenomenon How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

Thai series Mad Unicorn follows a reformed rural street thug who dives into the express delivery industry to challenge a business mogul who once betrayed him and goes on to become the country’s first “unicorn” startup.

It marks the series directorial debut of Nottapon Boonprakob, who co-wrote Sundance 2021 award-winner One For The Road, and is executive produced by Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak – the team behind...

Netflix Thailand is adding a rags-to-riches series exec produced by the team behind How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies and a feel-good movie about snow sculpting to a nine-strong originals slate for 2025.

The streamer has unveiled one new series, one returner and six movies. As revealed last week, it is also putting a February 27 launch date on its upcoming series Dalah: Death and the Flowers.

The slate comes at a delicate time for Netflix Thailand, which this week saw originals chief Yongyoot Thongkongtoon exit for “personal reasons,” according to trade title Content Asia.

On the series front comes Mad Unicorn and the returning faith and finance drama The Believers. Mad Unicorn is from Thai studio Gdh 559 and is notable as the series directorial debut of Nottapon Boonprakob, a writer for One for the Road. Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak, who were behind the megahit film How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies,...

Netflix has revealed its slate of original series and films from Thailand and Indonesia set to premiere throughout 2025, as the streaming service continues to invest in Southeast Asian content at a time when “the competition is pulling back,” according to Minyoung Kim, VP of Netflix Content.

The Thai slate features nine titles, following what Kim describes as “eight groundbreaking local productions that captivated audiences across Thailand and beyond” in 2024. The Thai lineup kicks off with “Dalah: Death and the Flowers” on Feb. 27, a high-society murder mystery starring Urassaya Sperbund. The series, helmed by directors Thanika Jenjesda and Alisa Pien, follows a mysterious floral designer who becomes entangled in the suspicious murder of a prime minister candidate on the eve of his wedding, with executive producer Prabda Yoon overseeing the production.

Genre offerings feature prominently in the Thai slate, including “Ziam,” a zombie action thriller directed by Kulp Kaljareuk, starring Prin Suparat...

Filmmakers had called for a boycott over the rule change.

The organisers behind Thailand’s Suphannahong National Film Awards have dropped a rule that would effectively disqualify independent features from nomination following a major backlash.

A recent rule change by the National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations (Mpc) stated that theatrical releases in five regions of Thailand and a minimum of 50,000 cinema admissions were required for a film to be considered for nomination. These regions include Bangkok, Chiangmai (the north), Chonburi (the east), Nakhon Ratchasima (the northeast) and Nakhon Si Thammarat (the south).

It meant that, earlier this week,...

Organizers of Thailand’s Suphannahong National Film Awards on Friday evening reversed an earlier rule change that had caused several filmmakers to call for a boycott.

Earlier this week it emerged that a recent rule change effectively disqualified independent or low-budget titles. The criteria stipulated that, to qualify for nomination, movies must be shown in cinemas (direct to streaming titles do not qualify), must have had a release in at least five regions or big cities, and attract audiences of at least 50,000 spectators.

At least, one local media report said that the rules were introduced in 2019. But the change had little impact in the intervening years due to low levels of film production.

This week the rules caused controversy among fans and members of the indie film community. The hashtag #BanSuphannahong has been prominent on Twitter since Thursday.

“Anatomy of Time” which premiered at the Venice festival in September last...

For his sophomore feature, the Thai documentarian Nottapon Boonprakob changes his focus drastically. Whereas his debut “2,215” is an inspirational documentary focusing no the 55-day charity marathon run by one of Thailand’s most recognisable singers, Athiwara Khongmalai, “Come and See” is about the clash between the influential non-orthodox Theravada Buddhist temple Dhammakaya and the Thai military government helmed by Prayut Chan-o-cha. The movie was shot between 2016 and 2017 when the antagonism between the two sides was at its highest and peaked in a lockdown of the temple with many a devotee inside, resulting in two deaths.

“Come and See” is Screening as Part of Asian Pop-up Cinema Season 12

Though ostensibly about the trials of the government to persecute Dhammajayo, the abbot of the Dhammakaya temple on numerous charges, from the opening quote taken from the new Constitution of Thailand, we learn that the antagonising of the school is mostly on religious and political terms.

Somewhere in Bangkok, Aood (Ice Natara) sits alone in a car listening to the radio. Meanwhile in New York, Boss (Tor Thanapob) yuks it up with the ladies as a bartender. If nothing else, the ostentatious camera movements drive home the fact that this guy really is—wait for it—a boss. It’s not until much longer that he gets a call. It’s Aood. The two were best friends, and Aood has called to let him know that, like his own father beforehand, he has terminal cancer.

Boss flies back to Thailand; the two hit it off like nothing’s changed. As expected, they wax nostalgic about their pasts. Also as expected, they ride around visiting Aood’s old flames, among them a dance instructor (Ploi Horwong) and an actor (Aokbab Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying). As for another thing to be expected? It seems Aood has something up his sleeve...

The overloaded Thai equivalent of one of those YA weepies where terminally ill teens scramble to fulfill their bucket lists before expiring at a young age, all-the-feels buddy movie “One for the Road” is determined to leave audiences both shaken and stirred. Your mileage may vary as director Baz Poonpiriya (“Bad Genius”) packs this concoction with a lifetime’s worth of romances, breakups and reconciliations; a cancer diagnosis; a cheek-tweakingly adorable kid; all sorts of overdue apologies; several family surprises; and one of those scenes where the music swells as someone’s ashes are scattered to the winds.

Seeing so many emotions squeezed into 137 minutes surely explains why Sundance Film Festival programmers picked this broadly appealing international selection as one of half a dozen films to screen on opening night of the 2021 virtual edition. Well, that and the fact it was produced by Wong Kar Wai, whose blessing gives this...

The Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, celebrates bold, creative, and distinctive voices. The upcoming 2021’s edition will offer an online platform featuring seven days of premieres, events, artist talks, and cutting-edge Xr exhibitions. It will also be partnering with independent cinema communities across the U.S. to safely host in-person events. From January 28 through February 3, adventurous audiences and indie film lovers everywhere will come together to be the first to discover exciting new creative visions that people will be talking about all year.

This year the Festival will downsize to 72 feature films (from last year’s 128) but still including a 50% of the total of female directors, more than 50% of the total of filmmakers of color and a number of genderqueer artists.

The full line-up includes few interesting Asian titles. Here they are:

“Fire in the Mountains“

a searing portrait of the power dynamics...