Taiwanese horror film Incantation (咒) has passed another national milestone since its release in March, after making its way onto Netflix’s charts and becoming the platform’s most watched Taiwanese film.
The movie yesterday ranked fourth on Netflix’s top 10 list of non-English-language films, garnering the attention of gore lovers and horror aficionados around the world.
Netflix data showed that Incantation scared its way into the top 10 by accumulating up to 3.24 million hours of viewership during the week ending Sunday last week.
Photo courtesy of Activator Co Ltd via CNA
Third-party data collection service FlixPatrol said Incantation was Netflix’s eighth-most trending international film.
FlixPatrol said the movie was the platform’s top film in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, and the second-most attention-grabbing in Malaysia and the Philippines.
In Japan, the horror film’s mythical elements even encouraged famous celebrities, such as game designer Hideo Kojima, to help promote the movie to the country’s horror fans.
The film has also attracted considerable hype in South American countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia, FlixPatrol said, citing its Netflix’s top 10 listings in those countries.
Responding to Incantation’s international recognition and success on Netflix, the film’s director, Kevin Ko (柯孟融), said he was surprised and humbled.
“As a director, the achievement didn’t even cross my mind in my dreams,” Ko said. “I thought this would only happen in a parallel universe.”
Ko said that while the film was critically and financially successful in Taiwan, he was initially worried that its culture-specific horror elements would not be understood by viewers in other countries.
However, Ko said he realized that his worries were unnecessary after he saw how people from around the world wrote about the film on social media, saying that its unfamiliar plot elements added a sense of mysticism.
Ko said people should watch his film using headphones to get the most immersive horror experience.
Since its theatrical release in Taiwan, Incantation has raked in NT$170 million (US$5.68 million) at the domestic box office.
The film has accomplished several “firsts,” such as being the highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film and the nation’s first found-footage style horror movie.
Its mockumentary format has had fans and critics comparing it to the first commercially successful movie of that style, 1999’s Blair Witch Project, going as far as calling Incantation the Taiwanese equivalent of the US cult film.
With its characters’ incantation of “Hou ho xiu yi, si sei wu ma,” phonetically designed to be easily repeated by audiences, and its contorted spell-casting gesture aimed at sending chills down the spines of viewers, Incantation is streaming on Netflix in multiple languages.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS