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.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of upcoming AI and technology events, saying he plans to meet with clients and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) during his visit. After landing at Taipei Songshan Airport, Huang posed for photos with fans and handed out Yakult drinks to reporters and supporters waiting at the scene, saying he has “a lot to do” during the trip. Asked about reports that Nvidia’s planned headquarters site in Taipei’s Beitou Shilin Technology Park could break ground on May 27, Huang said that if the company holds an event, he would
FUKUOKA SITUATION: Japanese media reported that the pathogen is expected to be identified by the summer, while the CDC downplayed the idea that it was hMPV A “mysterious cold-like illness” reported in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture does not seem to be a new disease, but Japanese authorities have been asked about the situation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The Fukuoka Prefectural Medical Association on Wednesday told a news conference that a “mystery cold” that has become a hot topic on social media is “highly likely to be caused by some kind of viral infection,” Japan’s KBC News reported. “Many people are experiencing symptoms starting with a sore throat, followed by a runny nose, phlegm and a severe cough,” KBC News reported, citing association officials. Health authorities are
Carrefour Taiwan is to begin using a new name from the start of July, but it cannot divulge the name until then, the chairman of the supermarket chain's parent company said today. President Chain Store Co chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) was asked by reporters after a shareholders' meeting to confirm whether the company has settled on a new name for the supermarket brand. In March, the government-registered name of two Carrefour Taiwan branches was quietly changed to "Le Chia Kang" (樂家康) in Chinese, raising speculation that has been selected as the name. Lo said that because of local regulations and contractual obligations, the
RSS