Join Us
Seven years. That is how long fans of Asian fantasy have been waiting for Agent from Above to actually land on a screen. Announced in 2019, the Taiwanese Netflix fantasy series finally premiered on April 2, 2026. Weeks after its debut, it is still ranking on Netflix’s global charts. Here is everything you need to know.
Agent From Above Plot
Agent From Above, known in Mandarin as Chi Shen, is a Taiwanese fantasy thriller series adapted from The Oracle Comes, a popular novel series by Taiwanese author Teensy (pen name Xing Zi). It is set in a world where gods, demons, and humans coexist in everyday life, not as a distant mythology but as an active, present reality.
At the center of the story is Han Chieh, a young man with a troubled past. He is a former criminal and drug addict who becomes a spirit medium and divine agent after making a pact with the Third Crown Prince, a powerful god who has descended into the modern world. Bound to serve the Third Crown Prince as atonement for a grave childhood mistake, Han Chieh is tasked with investigating and resolving supernatural disturbances threatening the balance between realms. He is armed with mystical artifacts and a reluctant sense of duty.
Trending
Along the way, he is joined by Yeh Tzu, a university student living with blood cancer who is haunted by ghosts, and Chang Min, a police officer with the rare ability to see spirits. Together, this unlikely group finds itself standing between the mortal world and a growing darkness of the return of a demon king whose influence is spreading through the city in increasingly terrifying ways. The antagonist is Wu Tien-chi, a wealthy heir with ambitions that extend well beyond the mortal realm.
Agent From Above Cast
Agent from Above is led by Kai Ko, best known internationally for the 2011 blockbuster You Are the Apple of My Eye. Wang Po-chieh plays the Third Crown Prince, Buffy Chen plays Yeh Tzu. Johnny Yang, Kuo Tzu-chien, and Sonia Sui round out the ensemble cast. The series is directed by Donnie Lai.
View this post on Instagram
Why Should You Watch Agent From Above?
The show’s performance on Netflix has been striking. After release, it ranked sixth on Netflix’s Global Non-English TV series list for the week of March 30 to April 5, recording 1.4 million views and 8.1 million hours viewed, and broke into the weekly top 10 across six countries, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Dominican Republic. It has a 6.5 rating out of 10 on IMDB.
The most consistent point of agreement across both critical and audience reviews is this: Agent from Above works best when you engage with it on its own terms. It is not trying to be a Western fantasy. It is rooted in Taiwanese folk belief, Taoist mythology, and a specific cultural sensibility that gives it a distinct identity unlike anything else currently on the platform.
The project was first announced in December 2019, when Singapore’s mm2 Entertainment and Taiwan’s CaiChang International and Good Films Workshop confirmed the series was in development. It was originally slated to premiere in 2023. Then the COVID-19 pandemic shut down global productions. Then Kai Ko’s drone injury halted filming in 2022. Filming finally wrapped in March 2023, and the post-production cycle took nearly three additional years.
View this post on Instagram
With a reported budget of over NT$180 million, Agent from Above is among the most expensive drama productions ever undertaken in Taiwan, as noted by What’s on Netflix.
It is one of the most visually ambitious Taiwanese productions Netflix has ever funded. A lead performance from Kai Ko that carries genuine emotional weight. And a supernatural mythology of spirits coexisting with city life and divine agents navigating traffic and convenience stores that is genuinely unlike anything currently dominating the fantasy genre on streaming. If you enjoy Asian fantasy that takes its folklore seriously, or if you are simply looking for something that feels different from the usual streaming landscape, Agent from Above is exactly where you should be spending your weekend.
All eight episodes of Agent from Above are now streaming globally on Netflix.
Agent From Above Trailer
Advertisement
Check out our recommendations on What to Watch
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Google News
