[Herald Interview] Love for K-drama, food defines 'Secret Ingredient'

Southeast Asia's largest streaming platform Viu's original "Secret Ingredient" is an adventurous attempt.

The series, which Viu labels a regional drama series, is a unique collaboration between a number of countries, featuring a Filipina showrunner, Korean director and a Korean writer as well as Korean, Filipino and Indonesian actors.

The six-part romantic comedy follows Ha-joon, played by Lee Sang-heon from Netflix's hit high-teen romance series "XO Kitty," as he sets off on a journey to reunite with Maya (Julia Barretto), his childhood sweetheart and an aspiring Filipina chef.

The concept for this multinational collaborative series -- a rare initiative in the drama industry -- originated from its financier, Unilever Nutrition SEA and Indonesia, as it sought innovative ways to promote its food products to women across Southeast Asia, explained Corinna Vistan-Takahashi, the executive producer and showrunner of the series. Unilever Nutrition SEA and Indonesia is a consumer goods company operating a number of food brands in the Southeast Asian region.

"(Unilever) knew that this target demographic was fascinated by and loved Korean dramas. And whether they're women in Indonesia, women in the Philippines or women in Malaysia, what they all had in common was this shared love for Korean dramas," said Vistan, during a video-call interview with The Korea Herald on Oct. 18.

Vistan explained that Unilever aimed to explore a fresh marketing approach by seamlessly integrating their products into a series that embodied the "flavor and feel" of K-dramas and incorporated Southeast Asian elements, including well-known actors from the Philippines and Indonesia.

"I think that nowadays what Unilever has come to learn about this new generation of audience is that they don't want to be sold to and they want it as subliminal as possible. They don't want direct selling," said Vistan.

Unilever wanted to sell to a young generation that does not watch TV commercials and doesn't want to be sold to.

According to Vistan, the solution was to create an immersive food-themed drama that naturally incorporated Unilever's products throughout the storyline.

A distinctive feature of "Secret Ingredient" is its use of multiple languages. The characters speak in Tagalog, Indonesian and Korean, while seamlessly switching to English when interacting with individuals of different nationalities.

Vistan explained that the decision to showcase diverse languages was a deliberate effort to cater to the needs of target audience.

"Southeast Asian audiences, which this show was made for, are so used to watching Korean dramas and watching them with subtitles," said Vistan.

"I think it was very exciting to see Southeast Asian actors in a Korean drama where people are speaking Korean -- that really did excite us," she said.

"It was really kind of taking ownership of your identity and saying, 'Oh, that's my language up there with the Korean and all of that," she added.

Going forward, Vistan says she thought the audience may gain further enjoyment in seeing romances going transnational, as multicultural romances highlight the similarities and differences between cultures.

"It's always entertaining to show a mirror to the audience about what their culture is like for good and for bad," she said.

"I think the perfect way to show (that is) ... when they have an outsider marry into or fall in love with that culture," she said.

"There are so many funny and amazing stories that you can get out of that, and at the end of the day it's mixing cultures and seeing what are the differences, but more importantly, what are the similarities between the cultures," she said.

All six episodes of "Secret Ingredient" are currently available on Viu.