 These two very successful and trendy Netflix shows actually have Asian male lead love interests in them. So guess what? Does that mean we're going to watch them? Yeah, we got to at least talk about it. We're talking about ExoKitty, which is for a younger demographic, almost like an in English K drama for high school international students. And then we're talking about for an older demographic, a tourist guide to love, which is actually set in Vietnam. And the guy is falling in love with Rachel Leigh Cook from She's All That. Freddie Prince Jr., 90s. Hey, Vietnamese guys, getting some love. All right, guys, we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about if it's good for Asian male representation. We're going to dive into the comments section. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hop Hop Boys. Maybe Pan-Asian men are trendy right now. Yeah, I would say, man, from silly to serious, you could say this is silly. But after all the false starts, Andrew, of in the 80s and 90s, where Asian guys thought they were about to get on and then got pushed down by, you know, mainstream media. Maybe this movement is in the serious category now. Let's get into the comments section. Somebody said, yay, I love Exo Kitty because it finally explains the complexities of being Hoppa because basically she, I believe the actress is half Chinese and half Irish, but she's playing half Korean. And she's going back to her motherland. But then actually there's a love triangle with Minho. Yeah. And obviously it's a spin off of to all the boys I love before. And I do feel like David, there's a sense that this show is using Asian male leads in South Korea to kind of make up for the fact that there wasn't a lot of Asian male leads into all the boys I love before. Yeah. Do you feel like that was the leadership or the producers going, OK, OK, well, we got to give us, you know, give them one because we kind of caught a lot of flak for that in the press. And they do have some legitimate arguments. So let's give them this one. Yeah, I don't know if that was the whole reason. I definitely think that that was a factor. But of course, they're also factoring the whole South Korean wave, the Hallyu, the K-pop, K-drama wave. So this show kind of fits into that. And not only that, I believe there have been several articles that came out in like CNN and other publications recently where there's actually a lot of sex tourism or dating tourism of non-Asian women going back to South Korea to get with South Korean men. So it's almost like believable enough they could totally sell this plot line. Yeah, I am a South Korean man. Somebody said dramas, K-dramas set in high school are all about grades and parents and filial piety and soft love. The American ones are way more spicy and edgy and deal with way more adult themes. Oh, my gosh, compare this to euphoria. Obviously, you can't compare everything to euphoria. Euphoria would be like the 10 out of 10. Let's just say XO Kitty is at like seven out of 10. But most Asian all across Asia in general, high school dramas are at like a three or a two out of 10. But here's the truth, Andrew, life over there, especially at a high school level is not the same as high school over here. Andrew, even in our public high school, I remember, you know, I'm not saying this too brag because this is unfortunate. Suicides. I know somebody who got killed in high school in the streets. All types of X rated things going down on school grounds, all schools, grounds, illegal substances being sold. All these things are not allowed in high school in Asia. Well, not only that, but this show also takes place. I believe at an international high school. So it's probably going to be a lot nicer. I'm pretty sure the teen pregnancy rate is a little bit lower there. But I would say that an international high school would have craziness, would still be more crazy than a local high school in South Korea. That's probably true. That's true. Somebody said I watched for the Korean culture, but it's only about K-pop, and it's not super deep. I feel like it was written by a Korea boo who's, you know, loves and sort of obsesses over Korean culture but doesn't really know it all the way through. Yeah, it's interesting that this show kind of is using some of that Korea boo culture, but it might not satisfy the people who are actually into true traditional Korean culture where maybe it doesn't deal as much with the family and stuff like that. It's more of just on the surface level, adolescent, you know, younger generation. Right, I'm sure there's a lot of egg-yo and these sort of pop cultural themes. What do you think about this, Andrew? Because in America, people have always been writing martial arts flicks with, it's not that they don't understand anything, but obviously they don't understand the culture through and through. So people are writing something kind of like with a general idea, but not all the details fleshed out. Is this just natural of a Western piece made in Asia? Like, is this just like expected? Cause of course it wouldn't be fully fleshed out through and through. I guess just like Asian pieces filmed in America would not understand American culture to its core. Yeah, it's actually an American show but takes place in South Korea. Does it even actually take place in South Korea? I'm sure they shot part of it. I don't know if they shot the whole thing there, but it's not a South Korean production. Right, somebody said, let's be real here. How did Minho find Madison the red-headed girl attractive? How come Asian male leads always have to take a discount when it comes to non-Asian women? Basically, this comment was saying that Minho, the actor or some of these guys like Day, which I guess there's another Korean Chad, South Korean Chad called Day, like they wouldn't get, they're taking a looks discount when it comes to the non-Asian women that they're dating versus the hotness of a girl that could get that was also Asian. Dude, this is a really funny comment. I mean, without getting too much into it, people, I think that it's kind of part of the process and I think that any time you are dating, if you're from a foreign country and you're dating someone from the Western world, the- Because the Western world ranks higher globally, right? The higher ranking world than sometimes you take a discount on looks. It's kind of like a lot of, you know, typically you would say you see some Asian women who are better looking than they're like white or European counterpart. Right, because they're taking a discount too, but for the guy. Exactly. And the guy is getting a better deal. Yeah, I guess like as far as looks, why is a better deal? For sure. So of course, yeah, I mean, I think I know some guys who kind of talk about this on the internet. First of all, I don't think that the actress is bad-looking. I don't think she typifies like a super beautiful bombshell girl, right? Right, that ain't the hop of the people who are thinking about when they're thinking of a hop. No, but she's cute, she's cute, but yeah, I mean, obviously, yeah, this is a conversation that you're gonna find. I mean, this is a real societal dynamic. I would agree with, to be honest, but it is what it is. Somebody said, you know, Itaewon class is a hundred times better. Why would I watch Exo Kitty when I can just watch Itaewon class? Shout out to Park Sojun, one of my doppelgangers. What do you think that people like, is this a fair comparison or is this right? Is it wrong? Is this actually opening up the market for more K drama consumption as a little like wedge in the door or are people viewing this wrong? I think it's totally possible that the Korean made shows are better on average. Because they put so much effort into it. Like, I mean, we could go on and on about why the Korean shows maybe are better made, but yeah, I don't doubt that they have better storylines. Somebody said, Asian men have finally made it. We are the money makers. Positive Asian male rep is here. Somebody said, you gotta calm down, bro. We were down by 50 points and now we're only down by 25 points in the basketball game. Yeah, it's great to cut the lead by 25 points, but we're still down by 25. Hey man, progress is progress, but shout out to the Southeast Asian guys. You know, David growing up in Seattle, I always thought our Southeast Asian friends, especially the older ones that I knew, they were the Swab Asians that we knew growing up. They were the Swag Asians. No, but even Swag and Swab with women, like the Filipino guys and even some of the Vietnamese guys, they were like better talking to girls at that time growing up. I knew a super hood Cambodian with braids that had a pretty hot blonde girlfriend from West Seattle. Yeah, because they just acted different. They just didn't act like the compressed Asians. Like they definitely did not act stereotypical. That's what might be a Seattle Bay area thing though. It's very regional depending on what you're saying. I heard there's that same thing in Canada as well. Somebody said, this is good to get a win for Southeast Asian males because typically representation is East Asian or even more specifically either Korean or Hapa. That's actually true. For sure. And mostly Hoppas and Koreans get on, but this kind of leads us to another comment where somebody said, man, Chinese guys are never gonna get on. All right guys, about the Chinese guy representation. First of all, there are plenty of Chinese guy actors, Seamoo's getting on. We can go down the list, people who are even part Chinese. But I will tell you this, that the geopolitical tensions and the trade tensions with China right now doesn't make it any better. They are not basing any shows in Shanghai or Beijing. There's no Beijing love story, tourist guide to love in Chengdu. But hey, shout out to that one movie with Hayden Penetri and Ken Lern, though. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that was the Shanghai kiss. Or was that Daniel Henning? Yeah, Shanghai kiss or whatnot. Anyways, there are some shows in the background, but what I'm saying is that obviously currently right now and it's gonna be hard to do a in China romantic comedy show. Right, right. Like it's just not- You're saying we're the guys like, yeah, welcome to Beijing. I want to show you the beauty of the Hutong. No, no, no, maybe the show is like the Chinese guy, no, the woman gets sent over there as like the daughter or as a diplomat and falls in love with one of the CCP's like officials. Yeah, no, there could be some good geopolitical layers with some spy- Oh, that guy is the translator. He's like Xiaoping is the translator for- Oh, come on, his name wouldn't be Xiaoping. Give him a better-looking name than that. I'd be Zhu, like Zhang, Zhang, Zhang Li. Zhu Ge Liang. Yeah, Zhu Ge Liang. Somebody says, why does Netflix use these not very hot actors for their shows? Hollywood would never do this. They were referring both to Exo Kitty and Tourism Guide for Love. Obviously the actors, they're good looking enough to be actors, but I guess within the actor context, just like you say somebody sucks for being in the NBA, but they're still in the NBA, they're not like the best looking. Let me tell you something about how many productions are being made. The reason why people get certain actors are for a number of reasons. Some of them can just be the acting, some of it can just be the looks, but think about it, you're filming these things over a span of two, three months. This person has to have the scheduling and the stamina to even play that role. So to be honest, I think that nowadays, especially for Netflix, they're gonna take a little bit more of a relatable look and a better actor that's available over somebody who's just like super good looking. Cause think about, you could turn on what if it Lovers Island or whatever the show is called and just see a bunch of hot people like make out with each other? I would like to see the Vietnamese guy paired up with like an Amber Heard though. Amber Heard wasn't available for this, okay? They didn't have the budget. She's in jail. Somebody said, yeah, it was pretty good, but very predictable. But overall, it was nice to see foreigners speaking English in a high budget production, enjoying the scenes of Vietnam. David, there was this one movie called The Lover Back in the Day. Someone brought this up because we need more movies where the Asian woman chases after the Asian man just like Anna and the King and Chow Yun Fat or The Lover. Yeah, I mean, I think that this speaks to something that I got to talk about. There have been things all the way since the 1950s with Sessa Hasegawa, right? All the way to, man, I forgot his name, Dustin Wind. I forgot his name, Justin, Jason Lee Scott to Brandon Lee, which is Bruce Lee's son. Obviously Bruce Lee in the 60s, late 60s. There have been moments where it looked like Asian dudes were gonna get pushed to be leading guys. Even all the way to Aliyah and Jet Lee with when we almost died and they cut out the kiss, the corruptor, Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun Fat. But then it sort of died and that's why I sort of cautioned people to be like, finally we made it. Asian men are getting representation because there have been incidents in the past where there was a moment where they're making three, four, five movies in that direction and then the whole thing reverses. Right, so you feel like that Asian male representation or at least let's just say Asian males being sexy in media, there's actually waves. Like it hasn't just been only a downslope or a slow incline. It's been like a little bit up, down, up, down, down, down, down, down, now it's on the up. So what are the factors that go into it? I'll tell you this. I don't think that Asian American support makes or breaks any of this, to be honest. I think there's a lot of factors that are outside of our control to be honest because we make up such a small population ratio. Anyway, let's get into the takeaways. Is this great for Asian males? Because obviously right now it looks like another uptrend on the roller coaster. How do we prevent it from cycling down or do we? I think so the relatable looks of all these actors I think it plays a positive because overall, like yes, you could have found technically like a better looking, more handsome Asian guy but I kind of think that like kind of like making a regular and looking more regular looking Asian dude as a lead it helps a lot more. Right, these are like really good looking regular guys. They're not in that like ultra, they walk in the room everybody goes, oh man. Guys, there's not a million beautiful people who can act and are available and want to do it. You know what I'm saying? They're like, you still have to pull from a pool of actors. Yeah, I mean, as far as the China trend goes Andrew, are we just gonna see nothing involving China that's positive, like, I mean, to be honest, it seems like it- I don't know if there's gonna be like a mainland Chinese guy- How about a Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong thing? How about an adjacent Chinese place? Yeah man, this one's tough man. This is, I definitely think this is one that is affected by geopolitics for sure. For sure, for sure. I mean, but also not only is it affected by geopolitics, there's no like trend like the dating tourism from like girls from Eastern Europe and Poland, like going to South Korea. Yeah, China's just a different place, but anyways. Guys, you let me know in the comments down below how you feel about these shows, right? I mean, like, is this big progress we should celebrate? Is it a little progress? Obviously there's a lot of shows coming out there. Are you gonna watch it? I would say I might check out Tours Guide to Love, you know? Yeah, I just hope they make more and I hope it keeps going. Like I said, I used to tell people, oh yeah, go out and support these things. I don't think Asian American views on Netflix are gonna really boost it and let you write some sort of hyper viral think piece supporting it and then the execs read it. But yeah, shows like this, The Sympathizer, they all help. Physical 100. Yeah, all right everybody, let us know in the comments down below what you think. Until next time, we out. Peace. Peace.