“I Think She’s Alive”: Disney’s Surprising K-Pop Interview Show

One of my friends moved to Japan, and soon after arriving, she was randomly interviewed on the street for a TV series there. Not a few seconds for a “here’s what people think about this newsworthy topic,” but literally an extended discussion. Apparently that’s a program format in the country.

Seems that’s also the case in South Korea. Two members of the popular ITZY K-pop girl group, Lia and Chaeryeong, wander the streets looking for people who have siblings in one episode, people who have office gripes in another.

In the office episode of Street Magic Shop, they do tour the Disney Korea offices, pointing out the bad Wifi for the interactive display in the lobby, as well as visiting the luxury Toy Story pop-up. But the episodes otherwise are limited to passing references to Disney characters.

Thanks to YouTube’s automated dubbing, these interviews are available in English. I know the translations aren’t perfect, but it’s surprising how honest some of the discussion is. In the siblings episode, they ask a man how close he is with his sister, and he remarks “I think she’s alive,” before comparing her to Donald Duck, and suggesting he’d happily have her turn into a frog, if he could receive $1 million.

Indeed the siblings episode ends with one of the duo calling their sibling and asking “do you love me,” which gets a “are you day drinking?” reply. “Chae Min, I love you so much.” “What’s wrong with you?” “Forget it. Pay your own tuition from now on!” “What? No, what are you doing?”

On the matter of dubbing one woman discussing her work life says that at times she thinks “I just want to quit,” but the AI audio dub says “I just want to shoot this.” Lovely.

At the end of the interview, people get to choose a Gashapon-style ball from the backpack worn by one of the duo, and pick and number. They get a prize no matter what, but anyone choosing “1” gets an actual 24 karat token of gold. That’s the titular Street Magic Shop.

It’s amusing, but a trifle trivial. But boy does it get views: 402K for the first video alone, with the most recent video getting 146K views in the first four days. Clearly it works for the local audience.