Film and TV series from Asia Pacific are set to be embraced by global audiences like never before, according to senior Disney executive.
Jessica Kam-Engle, Asia-Pacific head of content and development at the Walt Disney Company, said this would be the outcome of the meteoric rise of streaming platforms and increased appetite for content, fuelled by audiences more willing to experiment with what they watch.
Delivering the keynote speech at Hong Kong’s Filmart Online (March 14-17), Kam-Engle said: “We are standing on the precipice of a global cultural moment, a shift that is seeing content from Asia Pacific beginning to resonate with international audiences with such scale and momentum and impact.”
The executive pointed to features such as Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning South Korean film Parasite and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese drama Drive My Car, which has been nominated for four Academy Awards, as proof that audiences are ready for more than the “safe bets” from the region.
“International distribution sales, being such a costly exercise, often focus only on a few proven and safe titles like Korean romcoms, Chinese martial arts or Southeast Asian horror,” she said. “These are the safe bets for sales and it then turns out that foreign audiences will be only aware of those few genres from Asia. But is that all we’ve got to offer from here? How much is the world missing out?”
Kam-Engle added that she felt there has “never been a more exciting and pivotal time” to be a content creator in the region.
“The barriers that once prohibited Asia Pacific storytellers to reach a world stage are diminishing,” she stated. “What local content creators need to focus on now is to up their game, hone their craft and increase production values to a standard that is commonly acceptable by international audiences.”
The executive highlighted an ambitious announcement by Disney+ in October last year that it would greenlight more than 50 original productions from Asia-Pacific by 2023. Earlier this month, it stated that Disney’s Korean content slate would feature more than 20 titles and the studio recently revealed a collaboration with Nippon TV to co-produce Japanese dramas, animation and variety shows.
Upcoming Korea titles include romantic melodrama Snowdrop, starring Jung Hae-in and Blackpink’s Jisoo; action thriller Moving; sci-fi thriller Grid; documentary Blackpink: The Movie; and coming of age series Rookie Cops.
“We are ready to collaborate and experiment with our creative partners and share incredible stories from across the region to the world stage,” Kam-Engle added of Disney’s APAC ambitions.
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