[Herald Interview] Love for Ok-drama, meals brings defines ‘Secret Ingredient’

Southeast Asia’s largest streaming platform Viu’s authentic “Secret Ingredient” is an adventurous try.

The collection, which Viu labels a regional drama collection, is a singular collaboration between a lot of nations, that includes a Filipino showrunner, Korean director and a Korean author in addition to Korean, Filipino and Indonesian actors.

The six-part romantic comedy follows Ha-joon, performed by Lee Sang-heon from Netflix’s hit high-teen romance collection “XO Kitt,” as he units off on a journey to reunite with Maya (Julia Barretto), his childhood sweetheart and an aspiring Filipina chef.

The idea for this multinational collaborative collection — a uncommon initiative within the drama business — originated from its financier, Unilever Vitamin SEA and Indonesia, because it sought modern methods to advertise its meals merchandise to ladies throughout Southeast Asia, defined Corinna Vistan-Takahashi, the chief producer and showrunner of the collection. Unilever Vitamin SEA and Indonesia is a shopper items firm working a lot of meals manufacturers within the Southeast Asian area.

“(Unilever) knew that this goal demographic was fascinated by and cherished Korean dramas. And whether or not they’re ladies in Indonesia, ladies within the Philippines or ladies in Malaysia, what all of them had in widespread was this shared love for Korean dramas,” mentioned Vistan, throughout a video-call interview with The Korea Herald on Oct. 18.

Vistan defined that Unilever aimed to discover a recent advertising and marketing strategy by seamlessly integrating their merchandise right into a collection that embodied the “taste and really feel” of Ok-dramas and included Southeast Asian parts, together with well-known actors from the Philippines and Indonesia.

“I feel that these days what Unilever has come to study this new technology of viewers is that they do not wish to be bought to and so they need it as subliminal as potential. They do not need direct promoting,” mentioned Vistan.

Unilever wished to promote to a younger technology that doesn’t watch TV commercials and would not wish to be bought to.

In response to Vistan, the answer was to create an immersive food-themed drama that naturally included Unilever’s merchandise all through the storyline.

A particular function of “Secret Ingredient” is its use of a number of languages. The characters communicate in Tagalog, Indonesian and Korean, whereas seamlessly switching to English when interacting with people of various nationalities.

Vistan defined that the choice to showcase numerous languages was a deliberate effort to cater to the wants of target market.

“Southeast Asian audiences, which this present was made for, are so used to watching Korean dramas and watching them with subtitles,” mentioned Vistan.

“I feel it was very thrilling to see Southeast Asian actors in a Korean drama the place individuals are talking Korean — that actually did excite us,” she mentioned.

“It was actually sort of taking possession of your identification and saying, ‘Oh, that is my language up there with the Korean and all of that,” she added.

Going ahead, Vistan says she thought the viewers might acquire additional enjoyment in seeing romances going transnational, as multicultural romances spotlight the similarities and variations between cultures.

“It is at all times entertaining to point out a mirror to the viewers about what their tradition is like for good and for unhealthy,” she mentioned.

“I feel the proper strategy to present (that’s) … once they have an outsider marry into or fall in love with that tradition,” she mentioned.

“There are such a lot of humorous and superb tales which you can get out of that, and on the finish of the day it is mixing cultures and seeing what are the variations, however extra importantly, what are the similarities between the cultures,” she mentioned.

All six episodes of “Secret Ingredient” are at present obtainable on Viu.