It’s unlikely people will forget about 2020. The year will be most remembered for the pandemic, quarantine, and the politics of it all, but months of isolation and social distancing also made it a big one for pop culture.
With theaters shut down and movies left unreleased, many stayed home and turned to films and TV shows to help them get through long days. In many parts of Asia, that means Netflix. As 2020 comes to a close, here’s a time capsule of sorts rounding up what people in the region loved to watch in a most unusual year.
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K-Dramas
Korean dramas have been popular in Asia for decades but for many clueless folks, the pandemic became the unlikely catalyst that turned them into fans. According to Netflix, viewing of Korean content increased by four times or more across Asia in 2020, as compared to last year. It’s also the genre that rose the most in popularity in the United States, Canada, Portugal, and Spain, with 2.5 times more viewing.
It all started with Crash Landing on You, a love story that begins with a paragliding mishap that brings a South Korean heiress (Son Ye-jin) to North Korea, where she falls in love with an army officer (Hyun Bin). The plot sounds crazy on the surface, but the romantic aesthetics and chemistry between the two leads actually made the show the gateway K-drama for many. It ended in February, just as more cases of the coronavirus started to spread around the world, and was bingeable by the time countries went on lockdown in March.
The most popular Korean shows throughout 2020 also have elements of gripping drama and romance. Season two of the historical thriller Kingdom was the most watched Korean title in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand. The King: Eternal Monarch was the most popular title in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, while It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, and Start-Up were big in Taiwan, Japan, and Indonesia, respectively.
The King: Eternal Monarch
A modern-day Korean emperor (Lee Min-ho) passes through a magical portal and finds himself in a parallel world — present day Seoul. There, he meets a feisty police detective (Kim Go-eun). The pair team up to close the door between both worlds.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
Moon Kang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) is a caregiver who works in a psychiatric ward. He meets successful children’s book author Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji), who has antisocial personality disorder.
What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim
Kim Mi-so (Park Min-young) is the secretary to Lee Young-joon (Park Seo-joon), an ambitious vice chairman of a major corporation. When she breaks the news that she wants to resign after nine years of working with him, Young-joon does everything he can to get her to stay by his side.
Start-Up
Soo Dal-Mi (Bae Suzy) dreams of becoming a successful CEO. But when she joins Sandbox, a tech startup based in Seoul, she soon finds herself in the middle of a messy love triangle with genius programmer Nam Do-san (Nam Joo-hyuk) and Han Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho), a venture capitalist.
Kingdom Season 2
With hordes of zombies relentlessly going after Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) and his people, they are left with no choice but to escape to one of the last few cities safe from the zombie invasion.
Reality TV
There’s something undeniably cathartic about watching people living their lives in the outside world while stuck at home, so it comes as no surprise that reality TV was huge in 2020. Netflix reported a rise in popularity for the genre in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea. Viewing reality shows was higher between March – July, when lockdowns were at their peak, than in January – February.
Dating game show Too Hot to Handle was the most watched reality series across Asia this year. The premise: keep your hands off each other and win $100,000. Other popular titles include the memeable Indian Matchmaking, isolation-friendly Love is Blind, romance-ridden Heart Signal, travel show Twogether, and family show Floor is Lava.
Too Hot to Handle
A group of young sexy people meet and mingle on a beach. But to win the cash prize of $100,000, they’ll have to keep their hands off each other and give up sex.
Indian Matchmaking
Matchmaker Sima Taparia guides clients in the United States and India through arranged marriages.
Twogether
This travel documentary follows the adventures of Lee Seung-gi and Jasper Liu, who travel to destinations suggested by fans. There, they must complete missions together even though they do not speak the same language.
Heart Signal 3
A panel of celebrities and experts weigh in and predict who will end up with whom as they spectate a group of eight people living together for a month, mingling and going on dates.
Floor is Lava
It’s your favorite childhood game turned into a gameshow, and there’s only one rule — don’t touch the floor.
Love is Blind
Men and women go on dates with each other and they fall in love. The twist? They can’t see each other. They’ll only meet face-to-face when one proposes to the other.
Strong Female Leads
For many, life in isolation has been dull and mundane, so it’s nice to live vicariously through badass main characters. In Asia, it looks like people love a strong female lead, as many watched shows like Enola Holmes, The Queen’s Gambit, and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl.
Enola Holmes
When her mother goes missing, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) is left under the care of her brothers Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin). But instead of going to finishing school as per their wishes, Enola embarks on a journey to find her mother.
The Queen’s Gambit
Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is an orphan chess prodigy on a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world. But it proves to be no easy task as she struggles with her drug and alcohol dependency along the way.
Gunjan Saxena: Kargil Girl
Inspired by true events, Gunjan Saxena (Janhvi Kapoor) achieves her childhood dream of becoming a pilot, but has to put up with sexism in a field dominated by men. She goes on to make history by becoming the first female Indian Air Force officer to fly in a combat zone during the 1999 Kargil War.
Anime
According to Netflix, people in Asia watched Anime two times more in 2020, compared to last year. Japan’s most watched anime of the year is Japan Sinks 2020, while Malaysia, Singapore, and India watched Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution the most. Thailand and the Philippines got lost in the fantastical worlds of Howl’s Moving Castle and Weathering with You, respectively, while Taiwan got its fix of adventure with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. A Whisker Away was popular in both Hong Kong and Indonesia.
Japan Sinks 2020
Life turns upside down for a family of four when a disastrous earthquake strikes Japan. With their world crumbling around them, they must band together to survive the catastrophe.
Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution
A science experiment leads to the most powerful Pokemon in existence being unleashed onto the world. Mewtwo is out to destroy humanity and it’s up to Ash and his friends to stop him.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Sophie’s life changes when an evil witch turns her into a 90-year-old woman, and her only chance of breaking the curse lies in a wizard who lives in a magical flying castle.
Weathering with You
A high school boy runs away to Tokyo and befriends a girl who has the ability to manipulate the weather.
A Whisker Away
A little girl transforms into a cat in hopes of getting the attention of her crush. But things get a little confusing for her once she realizes that living life as a cat may not be such a bad thing after all.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
After his family was slaughtered by demons, Tanjiro sets out to become a demon slayer to avenge his family and cure his sister, who survived and is slowly turning into a demon herself.
Documentaries
Netflix has seen viewing for documentaries double or more in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan. But these documentaries come in all sorts of genres.
With BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky, viewers get a taste of what it’s like to be in one of the most popular K-pop girl groups today. The film reigns as the most watched documentary in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand. In Japan, ARASHI’s Diary Voyage was the most popular, while American Murder: The Family Next Door and Bad Boy Billionaires: India were popular in the Philippines and India, respectively.
BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky
With behind the scenes footage and interviews, this documentary gives viewers a glimpse into the life of K-pop group BLACKPINK and how they rose to fame.
ARASHI’s Diary Voyage
This film follows the lives of Arashi members, 20 years after their debut as a boy band.
American Murder: The Family Next Door
This true crime documentary examines the disappearance of Shannon Watts and her children, and the horrifying events that followed.
Bad Boy Billionaires: India
This documentary exposes the truth behind major corruption scandals involving four prominent business magnates in India.
Action
This year, Sam Hargrave’s directorial debut Extraction became the most watched Netflix Original movie ever, with nearly 100 million views in the first four weeks of its release. It dominated the list of most watched action films in Asia, along with The Old Guard and Project Power. Asian films also had viewers on the edge of their seats, including Malang from India, Necromancer 2020 from Thailand, and Hitman: Agent Jun from South Korea.
Extraction
A black market mercenary (Chris Hemsworth) embarks on the deadliest mission of his life to rescue the kidnapped son (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) of an imprisoned international crime lord.
The Old Guard
A covert team of immortal mercenaries with special abilities fight to protect their freedom once their secret identities are exposed.
Project Power
A former soldier (Jamie Foxx) and a cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) team up to find the people responsible for a mysterious new pill that gives users temporary superpowers.
Malang
Advait (Aditya Roy Kapur) meets Sara (Disha Patani) at a rave party and the two eventually fall in love. But their story takes a turn for the worse when their lives get entangled with two cops.
Necromancer 2020
After losing his family and surviving a black magic attack, Win (Prin Suparat) sets out to avenge his family but soon finds himself in trouble with a sinister cult.
Hitman: Agent Jun
Former secret agent Jun (Kwon Sang-woo) who has become a full-time webtoon artist lands himself in trouble when he drunkenly creates a web comic containing classified information about his past life.
Zombies
Horror movies will never get old. The eerie music that builds up to a jump scare, the watching from behind a pillow, the unsettling spooky feeling that sinks in once the movie is over. It’s even scarier when you’re home, alone. This year, it looks like Asia loved a zombie flick, in particular. The most popular film in the genre was the South Korean ‘quarantine horror’ #Alive, which dominated horror viewing across the region and made it to the top 10 list in over 90 countries.
#Alive
When a mysterious virus starts turning people into flesh-eating zombies, Joon-woo (Yoo Ah-in) fights to stay alive while staying alone in his apartment complex.
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A weather balloon, not a drone. (Photo: NASA)
