Netflix Acquires Taiwanese Series 'Green Door'

Although blocked in mainland China, the global streamer has been upping its collection of Chinese-language content.


Netflix has picked up global streaming rights to Taiwanese horror-thriller series Green Door.


The six-episode Chinese-language series is adapted from Taiwanese author Joseph Chen's novel of the same title. The show follows troubled psychologist Wei Sung-Yen (played by Jam Hsiao), who returns from the U.S. to set up his own practice in Taiwan, where mysterious patients and uncanny events shed light on his murky past.


Green Door is directed by Lingo Hsieh (aka Xie Tingwei), known for her fantasy-horror movie The Bride (2014), which she co-created with Japanese horror specialist Takashige Ichise. Green Door was adapted for the screen by Hsieh and Li Ting-yu. Ying-Hsuan Hsieh, who won the best actress prize at last year's Golden Horse Awards, co-stars.


The series first aired on Taiwan's Public Television Service earlier this year.


Netflix is unable to operate within mainland China because of Beijing's ban on direct foreign content channels in the country. But the company has been modestly boosting its collection of high-profile Chinese-language content to build its userbase in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as among the large global Chinese diaspora audience.


In recent months, Netflix has acquired global rights to Chinese sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth, teen thriller Animal World and romantic drama Us and Them; and the company pre-bought international rights to Chinese animated feature Over the Moon, set to be directed by veteran animator Glen Keane (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) for Shanghai's Pearl Studio (formerly Oriental DreamWorks). Netflix also scooped up Taiwanese sleeper hit Dear Ex and several mainland Chinese TV dramas, including Youku's detective series Day and Night and iQiyi's remake of Sony Pictures Television’s psychological thriller Chosen.