K Drama Chat Weekly

In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 2 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix from 2020. Sang Tae attends a book signing by Meun Young and gets in trouble when he touches a kid wearing a dinosaur costume. Gang Tae comes to his rescue and Meun Young intervenes, causing a huge scene when she gets mad at the child’s parents. While waiting for Sang Tae to calm down, Meun Young asks Gang Tae to be her safety pin. She ends up pushing a book critic, further jeopardizing her career. We also find out that Gang Tae and Sang Tae’s mother was murdered and Sang Tae says it was the butterfly that killer her. Jae-soo and Gang Tae realize it’s time to move again, before the butterflies appear. Sung Hee comes back as our guest! We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We talk about our first impressions of the show and what we loved about the first episode. We discuss: The song Breathe by Sam Kim, a Korean-American singer, songwriter, producer and gui...

In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 1 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix from 2020. In this first episode, we get introduced to celebrity children’s book author Koo Meun Young (Seo Yea-ji), compassionate caregiver Moon Gang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun), the talented, autistic Moon Sang Tae (Oh Jung-se), and the long suffering nurse Nam Joo-ri (Park Gyu-young). The characters intersect when Meun Young does a book reading at the hospital where Moon Gang Tae works, and when Joo-ri travels to Seoul to get Meun Young’s signature for surgery that her father needs. We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We talk about our first impressions of the show and what we loved about the first episode. We discuss: You’re Cold by Heize, one of the songs from the OST The 18 elements that seem to exist in most K Dramas, specifically: Beautiful actors Crying, by both women and men Gorgeous OSTs (original sound tracks) Food; there's lot of eating in K Dra...

We’re still on break after wrapping up with Hotel Del Luna. In this episode, Joanna and Jen have a conversation with Professor Professor Ernabel Demillo, Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV. Ernabel talks about: Her K Drama journey Why she thinks K Dramas are so addicting Whether and how the popularity of K Dramas and KPop are affecting American perceptions Asian Americans and Asian culture How Asian culture is not monolithic How the colorful outfits in K Dramas make her think of bouquets of flowers The high production value in K Dramas and how filmmakers and actors in Korea take their crafts very seriously How Jokoy is about to release his new movie, “Easter Sunday” The newly-designated Little Manila in Queens The recurring theme of identity in her show Asian American Life, and so much more.  We laughed nearly the entire episode; come laugh ...

We’re taking a short break between seasons after wrapping up with Hotel Del Luna. In this episode, we have a conversation with a couple of friends: Sung Hee, who was our guest in Episode 6, and cousin Linda, who we have mentioned so many times! Be prepared to laugh with us as we discuss our love of K Dramas! We cover: Our individual K Drama journeys What makes K Dramas so addicting The invention of the Korean language, Hangeul, and our own languages journeys with Hangeul Our favorite shows and actors Our favorite K Drama OSTs Are Korean men really that amazing? What it’s like to be Asian-American and Korean-American at a time when KPop, K Dramas and Korean culture are so popular What we thought about Hotel Del Luna What we think about our choice of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay as the next K Drama that we will recap and analyze Listeners, next week, we will have another special guest: Professor Ernabel Demillo is Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Pe...

In this episode, we recap and analyze Episode 16, the finale, of Hotel Del Luna. In this episode, all of the staff resolve their grudges and move on to the afterlife. Bartender Kim overcomes his shame over being labeled a lewd scholar when Man Wol and Koo Chan Sung convince the author to write a novel about a fictional, but honorable, Kim Si-ik. Guest manager Seo hee learns that the daughter of the eldest grandson in her husband’s family will carry the mother’s name, thus ending the family line. Hyun joong’s sister dies and is reunited with her beloved brother.  Man Wol and Koo Chan Sung realize that they met nearly 1,300 years ago, when Man Wol became an orphan and Koo Chan Sung and his dad found her and adopted her into their family. Man Wol is able to muster her courage to go into the tunnel to the afterlife, but only after Mago grants their wish of seeing winter together. We see Man Wol, Chan Sung, Bartender Kim, Seo hee and Hyun joong reunite in what might have been a dream or...