Korean thriller 'Badland Hunters' tops global Netflix charts

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- South Korean thriller Badland Hunters topped the global Netflix charts within two days of its release, according to the streaming tracking site Flixpatrol.

The movie, directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, was No. 1 most popular Monday in a total of 38 countries, including Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

In the United States, it stood at fourth as of Tuesday.

The dystopian film describes Korea's capital Seoul gone lawless following devastating earthquakes. In the aftermath, a fearless huntsman appears and rescues a teenager kidnapped by a deranged doctor.

Unlike other hit Korean movies on Netflix, Badland Hunters does not feature zombies, although it does show some genetically mutated creatures.

"Badland Hunters is a unique action flick, which is not related to any other action blockbusters," Heo said at a press event in Seoul earlier this month.

"We tried to depict characters all striving to survive in extreme situations and facing bad guys. This makes the action scenes somewhat rough," he said.

The show stars mostly Korean actors and actresses, including Ma Dong-seok, Lee Hee-jun, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui and Anh Ji-hye.

As the main character, Ma displays his signature action style by beating up and killing one bad guy after the other.

Ma, also known as Don Lee, came into the spotlight with his performance in the 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan. In 2021, Ma made his Hollywood debut in the cast of Marvel Studios' film Eternals.

Badland Hunters was produced by Korean company Climax Studio, which is also responsible for such hit Netflix shows as Hellbound and D.P.

The former is a 2021 dark fantasy series, while the latter is a military action series that featured in 2021 and 2023. Both of them were hugely popular with Netflix fans.