Netflix Just Dropped Two Fan-Favorite Gangster Classics — Cancel Your Plans
Netflix just dropped two Taiwanese gangster crowd-pleasers: Gatao (2015) and Gatao: Big Brothers (2025), the fifth and latest chapter in the franchise, now streaming.
Netflix just did something very Netflix: it grabbed the first and the newest entries of a long-running Taiwanese gangster franchise, leaving the middle dangling. If you have been meaning to jump into Gatao, you can now stream the 2015 original and the brand-new 2025 installment, Gatao: Big Brothers. The second film is still MIA, which is a choice, but we will take what we can get.
What lands on Netflix
The 2015 Gatao kicks off the saga with Qing Feng, a steady right hand to boss Yong. Three years earlier, his friend Xiong did prison time to protect him. When Xiong gets out, Yong elevates him fast, and that brotherhood starts to crack. Meanwhile, on the rival side, Michael returns to Taiwan after a U.S. education and inherits his late father’s outfit. He operates like a cold-blooded CEO, targeting a juicy property development, and makes eliminating Yong part of the business plan.
Gatao: Big Brothers (2025) picks up with Michael in a new firestorm. With his lieutenant Scorpion at his side, he is drawn into a turf war tied to Michael’s father, Ko. The fight in Taipei turns into a showdown between old-guard codes and a next-gen, profit-first approach. It is an expansion play, but every step up the ladder comes with knives out.
The franchise at a glance
This series has always been about the push-pull of loyalty, power, and survival inside Taiwan’s organized crime world. Each film focuses on a different cluster of characters, so you can follow the thread without needing every prior chapter (though it helps).
- Gatao (2015) — now on Netflix
- Gatao 2: Rise of the King (2018) — not on Netflix (for now)
- Gatao: The Last Stray (2021) — on Netflix
- Gatao: Like Father Like Son (2024) — on Netflix
- Gatao: Big Brothers (2025) — now on Netflix
Who is behind it
The throughline behind the camera is writer-director Jui-Chih Chiang, who has been the constant across all five movies. On screen, the franchise has cycled in a deep bench of familiar faces, including Jack Kao, Sunny Wang, Alien Huang, Wang Shih-Sian, Rexen Cheng Jen-Shuo, Tsai Chen-Nan, Harry Chang, Peng Sun, Tai Bo, Nikki Hsieh, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Jieh-Wen King, and Collin Chou.
Why this drop matters
Netflix now has four of the five Gatao films, which makes diving in pretty painless, even with that odd gap where the second movie should be. If you want the origin point and the latest escalation, the first film and Big Brothers make a clean, high-contrast double feature: the franchise’s foundation and its current, more corporate-flavored bloodletting.