3.16 - A Conversation with Professor Ernabel Demillo

We’re in between seasons 3 and 4! Today, Joanna has a conversation with 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. We talk about:

• The many different genres of K Dramas.

• The K Dramas we’re watching now: Tomorrow, Business Proposal, The Glory.

• What Ernabel thought about Mr. Sunshine, including the cinematography, the characters, the music, Korea history, and culture.

• The process that Sung Hee and Joanna use to create our episodes.

• The K Drama elements that we find in most K Dramas, e.g., umbrella scene, piggyback ride, back hug, deep lean.

• How Asian American Life is still the only monthly magazine show on broadcast TV devoted to the Asian American diaspora.

• How Asian American Life explores social issues through the Asian American lens, but also celebrates Asian-American achievements and milestones.

• The themes that “Asian American Life” covers: identity, Asian-American “firsts,” food, entertainment.

• How Asian American Life covers the rise in hate and crimes against Asian-Americans in the US.

• The Hallyu wave.

• Netflix’ investment in K Dramas.

• 25, 21, the K Drama that K Drama Chat will recap and analyze in Season 4.

Next week, Sung Hee, Joanna and Jeanie (Sung Hee’s sister) will talk about K Drama elements, Korean language, and why subtitles on K Dramas often don’t quite match what’s being said. 

After next week, we will begin our analysis of 25, 21, so please start watching or come back and rewatch episodes with us!

References:

• Asian American Life on CUNY-TV

• Asian American Life on YouTube

• Asian American Life on Instagram

• Ernabel on Instagram

• Professor Ernabel Demillo on the St. Peter’s University website

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K Drama Chat is a weekly podcast where we take one Korean (K) Drama each season and and recap and analyze each episode. K Drama Chat is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.