iQiyi, the Asian entertainment streaming leader today unveiled its latest international slate including four new Korean Original productions, two Originals from the Philippines along with new exclusive content from Thailand and Malaysia at this year’s Asian Contents and Film Market.
At the virtual showcase, Kuek Yu-Chuang, iQiyi’s Vice-President of International Business said, “Over the past year, we’ve seen a very positive trend of international viewers consuming more Asian content as a whole. As the leading global streaming player rooted in Asia with a global footprint, iQiyi will double down its investment in introducing premium pan-Asian content to the world. We are excited to play a crucial role in putting Asian content front and center in collaboration with top-notch creators and talents from Korea and the Philippines to bring compelling Original stories to our users in 191 territories.”
First Local Originals Out of Southeast Asia
As part of iQiyi’s move to expand their Southeast Asia content catalogue, the streamer locked arms with ABS-CBN, one of Philippine’s leading media and entertainment companies, to produce two original Filipino series for the global audience. Starring top Filipino talents, the two titles Saying Goodbye and Hello, Heart are iQiyi’s first local originals in the Southeast Asia region.
Saying Goodbye is headlined by Andrea Brillantes and Seth Fedelin whose acting careers as a couple on screen took off from their highly successful TV drama Kadenang Ginto in the Philippines. The two stars will meet once again to breathe life into their unforgettable roles to the delight of millions of SethDrea fans. “Saying Goodbye” is a story about celebrating life despite all the challenges life throws at us. The series will follow the story of Ricky and Elise, an unlikely pair brought together by their love for music and adventure.
Hello, Heart will star multi-talented Gigi De Lana, known for her acting skills and her viral music videos that’s been hitting millions of views, alongside talented actor Gerald Anderson. Hello, Heart is a romantic comedy that tells the story of Heart and Saul. Heart, a beautiful, perky, hard working but very unlucky woman, finally meets her lucky charm, Saul. Saul, the emotionless, business-as-usual man, hires Heart to pretend to be his wife to please his grandmother with dementia.
Saying Goodbye and Hello, Heart are set to premiere worldwide this year on iQiyi International exclusively.
Four Korean Original Productions Coming Soon in 2022
In Crazy Love, a genius math tutoring center CEO (played by Kim Jaeuck), receives a death threat and tries to seek out the murderer by pretending to suffer memory loss. He even enters into a sham marriage with his introverted secretary Lee Shin Ah (played by Krystal Jung), who is diagnosed with terminal illness. Between them, a scary yet sweet romance blossoms. The show is directed by Kim Jung Hyun who was behind the popular romantic mystery drama series Awaken, and produced with leading studio Story Hunter Productions.
Us At One Point, produced by GTist, is a drama production company behind multiple hit series like Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Hotel Deluna. The tragic love story is centered on reincarnations and a couple trying to save each other from a curse where they have to endure the pain of being unable to be together no matter how many times they have met.
My Oppa Is An Idol is an Original produced with STUDIO N, a production company owned by South Korea’s largest webtoon publisher. It follows an amusing story of chaos ensuing when a fussy entertainment agency representative, a famous idol and the idol’s loyal fan started living together under the same roof.
Weekday Wife is an upcoming romantic comedy, where a woman groomed as a rich heiress radically rejects her arranged marriage by her adopted ‘jaebul’ family and turns this into her major career. This production partnership with STUDIO605 will draw into the studio’s deep expertise in art direction and creating memorable romance scenes.
iQiyi also teased audiences with an exclusive glimpse of the highly anticipated iQiyi x Studio Dragon co-productions: Director You Sun Dong greeted fans from the set of Bad and Crazy, drumming up excitement for the heroic theme show that will premiere in December starring Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Jun; along with Shooting Stars table read joined by Lee Sung-kyoung and Kim Young-dae as the production begins.
All iQiyi originals will be available in 191 territories, in up to 4K resolution and Dolby Audio via the iQiyi international app and iQ.com.
