Asia’ Producer On How Manny Pacquiao Was The “Inspiration Behind The Whole Franchise”

Netflix‘s nation-on-nation battle in Physical: Asia is heating up, with half the season’s episodes now released. Future U.S. and Italian spinoffs are also on the horizon.

Physical Asia has already soared to the third spot on the platform’s Top 10 Global Non-English series list, with two new episodes premiering every Tuesday. Series producer Jang Ho-gi, who also helmed the first two record-breaking seasons of Physical: 100, sat down with Deadline to talk about how famous boxer Manny Pacquiao joined without hesitation, why he would like Brazil to compete in future editions of the series, and how Physical: Asia required a uniquely large interpretation team to facilitate production.

From the first season of Physical: 100, Jang tells Deadline the goal was to eventually develop and shoot a “Physical: World” at some point.

“The whole tagline of the show is to transcend race, genders and borders, so we always wanted to expand,” says Jang.

“We started very Korean-centered, but our entire goal was to slowly expand to other countries, with our spin-offs in the pipeline for Physical: US and Italy. We thought that instead of going for Physical: World from the get-go, maybe it’s better to start off with our neighboring nations first, which is how we came up with the idea of Physical: Asia.”

Casting the legendary Manny Pacquiao

Eight countries were selected to be part of Physical: Asia — Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Australia, Turkey, The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Jang highlights that legendary Filipino boxer Pacquiao — who is a world champion in eight different divisions in boxing — was the “inspiration behind the whole franchise.

“I always wanted to work with him, so whenever I had the chance, I would go to see him when he comes to Korea, or I would contact him,” says Jang. “He invited me over to his house in the Philippines, so I switched flights to get to General Santos, where I went to his house and saw him train. He also treated me to a whole meal. I ate together with him and played games with his sons.”

Jang then went to Pacquiao’s home office and saw that he had an episode of Physical: 100 playing on the television.

“He told me that he enjoyed watching both seasons of Physical: 100 and I said that we would love to invite him for the next season. He was very willing to take it,” adds Jang. “We were very worried, because he’s already been there, done that, and it would be a big challenge for him to participate, because he’s not very young and he’s already done everything.

“But he didn’t hesitate. He was like, ‘I want a challenge, and I want to show everyone what I’ve got.’ We were very pleasantly surprised that he took it right away.”

Jang insists that the eight countries were not selected in a bid to target key growth markets for Netflix, but instead for their “traditional sports games” and large sports fanbases.

For example, Mongolia’s team featured Bokh wrestler Bayarsaikhan Orkhonbayar, Thailand’s selection included Muay Thai fighter Superbon and Turkey’s squad starred traditional oil wrestler Recep Kara.

“There are prejudices and biases that Asian people are smaller,” says Jang. “But we wanted to show everyone out there that Asian people can be very strong, and they have their own very strong traditional sports games.”

For casting, Jang says that he aimed to find the “traditional sports legends of each country” to become the anchor of each team, before then aiming to balance each team out with athletes that could show different athletic strengths and personalities.

“There were a lot of agencies and staff in different countries that would help us contact them and help us meet up with them,” says Jang, about finding the right members to join Physical: Asia.

However, Mongolia’s inclusion in the show came through a different process.

“It was a little bit special, because after maybe season one or two wrapped, we were meeting with a lot of different people, including Mongolian government officials. They proposed to me that it would be fun to have 15 Mongolian athletes and 15 Korean athletes [compete], like Korea versus Mongolia. I said that it would be fun, but what’s more fun would also be having more countries and an Asian version.

“After we finalized that we were doing Physical: Asia, they helped to recommend us some of the athletes and people who would be great contestants,” adds Jang.

Jang shares that while Korea may seem to have a slight tactical advantage with all the team members starring on an earlier season of the show and being familiar with the format, many athletes on the other Physical: Asia teams had experience being on similar survival or game shows in their home countries. They had all also closely watched both seasons of Physical: 100 before joining the show.

“I don’t think it’s enough to shake up the result or give them a really big advantage in playing the games,” says Jang. “Contestants from other countries also had experience of being on similar survival shows.”

When questioned on the countries he would like to see take part in future editions, Jang singles out Brazil as one that he will be most excited about.

“I get the most amount of messages from Brazilian fans, saying that they want to see a Physical: 100, Brazil version,” says Jang. “I would love to see it too, because they are a sporting powerhouse and are big sports lovers.

“I also get a lot of people telling me that they want to see a Physical: 100 in the African region.”

Behind-the-scenes of ‘Physical: Asia‘

Behind the scenes of filming Physical: Asia, Jang says that unique to this edition of the show was the extensive team of interpreters they had on set. Interpreters were also required when the cameras stopped rolling, to accompany the visiting athletes around while they were in Korea.

“We had eight different countries coming together, so we had at least eight interpreters on set,” says Jang. “Apart from the eight interpreters when they’re not filming, they also need interpretation because they’re staying in Korea. There were about four or five interpreters per country per team. We had a lot of people supporting them.”

He also points out that he was happy to show a bit of Korean culture through the “referees” that appear in some scenes of Physical: Asia, wearing the traditional Korean “gat” (hat) — which coincided with wider attention on this traditional hat through the Saja Boys, who appear in Sony and Netflix’s global hit K-Pop Demon Hunters.

“I didn’t copy the Saja Boys but I thought it was important that we infused cultural aspects to the show, and traditional clothing was one that really stood out to me,” says Jang.

“They’re actually wearing the clothes of the Royal Guard, and also infused with the grim reaper of Korea. They’re all black, and they have the ‘gat’.

“When we wrapped filming, K-Pop Demon Hunters just blew up, and everybody was going wild over this hat, so it was a nice coincidence… If you keep watching the episodes to come, there are more cultural aspects, Korean and Asian cultures, that are infused in the set.”

Jang says that there were six to 10 referees for each game, but he had to control how often they appeared in each scene.

“While they do a very important job in the show, I thought that if you see too much of the referees on screen, that is going to stop yourself from immersing in the game, so sometimes we had to erase them out during post-production,” says Jang. “They’re also there as safety personnel.”

Jang adds that they also picked a studio that had a big hospital nearby, and the production always had at least three ambulances on standby, and more than 10 medics on set.

Learning new lessons

Jang takes many lessons with him from the first two seasons of Physical: 100, into building Physical: Asia. One of them was to have the right balance between rigidly enforcing rules, while also adapting on set to new issues that pop up.

“We try not to play it by ear because if we just play it by ear and change the rules accordingly, then that might not be fair to the players, so we try not to adapt too much,” says Jang. “But we do tell them in advance of playing the game that if things are not going as planned, or if games keep going into rematches, then we might tweak the rules. If there are just too many rematches, and this is just the first game, we don’t want to wear them out.”

Referring to the second episode, where there were several rematches for Korea and Japan, Jang says: “For the Korean and Japanese rematches that were going on forever, we thought that it had just exceeded the time too much, so we talked with the heads of the two teams and said, ‘You guys can propose to us how you want to change the rules.’ That’s how we worked that out among ourselves to decide the new rules.”

Jang also acknowledges that the format of countries competing against each other will inevitably surface more sensitive moments among both athletes and viewers, but he hopes that everyone will enjoy the show in the spirit of which it was created.

“With different countries coming together under their national flag, there is national pride, and people can get a little bit sensitive about the games, but I just hope that people understand that it was like a big festival for all of us, coming together with different traditions, different traditional sports and different physiques.

“We had a lot of fun filming, and I hope that people don’t get too sensitive. They can just keep rooting for the team that they root for, and see it as like a new type of fun Olympic Games,” adds Jang.

Jang’s excitement comes at a good time as Netflix backs the next wave of unscripted hits from Asia.

Korean content director Kihwan Yoo told us, “we are seeing a growing global cultural momentum around our Korean unscripted programming.

“With the recent premiere of Physical Asia, and adaptation of formats like Physical 100 progressing in the US and Italy, these formats have immense potential to showcase diverse multinational culture for a broader audience,” he adds. “As we gear up for the return of the loved unscripted titles such as Culinary Class Wars this December – we’ll remain focused on delivering authentic stories and compelling experiences.”