With music, stories and news of K-pop all over the place, on Instagram, Twitter, Thread and other social media platforms, and dozens of boy and girl bands emerging from South Korea, believe me when I say that K-pop is irresistible. The Korean wave began somewhere in 2012, and once BTS came on the scene, it became a tidal wave.

Being a member of the biggest boy band, BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan), in the world, has a bunch of perks. The seven-member band is known all over the world not only for their music and good looks but for more fans than even the pop band The Beatles ever had.

Bang Si-Hyuk, a producer and songwriter, along with his K-pop label Big Hit Entertainment, created BTS, which debuted in 2013. He began his career at J.Y.P. Entertainment, one of the “big three” companies that helped turn K-pop into a five-billion dollar industry. K-pop, K-dramas and Korean genre films became a source of Korean soft power.

The Bangtan Boys, or BTS, have been the buzz of the music industry for more than a decade now. The lads, Kim Taehyung, Jimin, Jin, Suga, Rap Monster, J-hope, and Jung Kook are the official members of the group.

Jeon Jeong-Guk, known as Jung Kook, is a rapper, singer, and dancer. Like many of his bandmates, he is the heartthrob of young girls across the globe.
Jung Kook’s journey from humble beginnings to being a K-pop sensation was by no means easy. He was born on 1 September 1997 in Busan, South Korea, and spent his childhood with his parents and older brother Hyung. Jung Kook attended Baekyang Elementary School and later switched to Singu Middle School in Seoul. He has enjoyed sports since childhood, and if not for music, he was all set to make sports a career, his first love being the game of badminton.

Get the digital edition of the September 2024 issue to read the full article.

The post Jung Kook appeared first on The Teenager Today.

The genius director

The genius director-writer Bong Joon-ho is well-known for his sudden mood-shifting dark comedies (simply put by other critiques as black-humour) based on stark social issues and disturbing realities of the world. Metacritic, a review aggregator, has ranked Bong thirteenth on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. Parasite created a buzz in the movie market by becoming the first-ever non-English language movie in Oscar history to win the award for Best Picture on 9 February 2020. Bong won all four categories for which he was nominated: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and (on behalf of South Korea) Best International Feature Film. Parasite also won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the first South Korean film to do so.

As of 17 February 2020, Parasite grossed a total of $205.3 million worldwide. It set a new record for Bong, becoming the first of his films to gross over $100 million worldwide.

The storyline

In the opening scene, son of the Kim family, Ki-woo, is shown struggling with his unauthorised Wi-Fi connectivity as the family living on the floor above has changed their password. They can’t afford a simple house on the ground floor and hence live in the relatively cheaper basement apartment (common in Seoul) which has its own perks such as “free pest control” as put by father Ki-taek (when a local municipal guy is fogging the roads, sewers and the fumes enter their home from open basement outlets) and drawbacks like drunkards peeing near the basement window which is the daily apartment view for the family during dinner. The misery of the family is evident in the scene in which they are trying to fold more and more pizza boxes in a single day for a local pizza chain to make the ends meet but the manager is penalizing them for sub-quality folds.

The turning point in their life comes when a well-to-do friend of Ki-woo suggests that he give English tuitions to the student of a wealthy family whom he used to teach but now as he is going abroad for further studies won’t be able to continue. He suggests Ki-woo get a fake university degree and visit the family for an interview with his referral. Ki-woo agrees as he is good in English but without documentary proof.

After getting a fake degree (fabricated by his sister’s artistic and designing expertise) Ki-woo visits the rich Park family’s beautiful villa. The mistress and owner of the lavish estate, Choi Yeon-gyo, is impressed by Ki-woo’s polite talking, good looks and the previous tutor’s referral. Ki-woo is appointed and given the American name ‘Kevin’ as the Parks are much influenced by western culture.

Kevin senses an opportunity for his family, and slowly the Kim family infiltrates the Park family like a parasite does with its host, living on the host’s body, sucking its blood and nutrition, making the host weaker and weaker from inside every day. To keep their ruse running, the Kims have to pretend they don’t know one another.

The life of the Kim family is hunky dory until the day when the Parks go camping for their son’s birthday celebrations. It is a celebration night for the Kim family as well, they are in charge of the mansion; they are shown drinking and eating in the Parks’ kitchen and bar recklessly. Suddenly there’s someone at the door; and then everything changes!

The story, screenplay and cinematography are a masterpiece as also seen in Bong’s previous hits. The basement apartment and the locations are real Seoul streets but the Park mansion is an artificial SFX set which Bong has used brilliantly as per screenplay needs. Actor Song Kang-ho has once again teamed up with Bong and proved his acting acumen; the actor-director duo has been a hit in past as well.

Parasite is a must-watch film.

The post Parasite appeared first on The Teenager Today.

The Korean wave finally reached Indian shores when six-member boy band IN2IT (a.k.a. IN2ITXION) performed in Mumbai, Faridabad and New Delhi in April this year, their first tour of India.

Early this year, Indian K-pop fans urged film director Karan Johar to seek out EXO’s Kai at a Gucci show in Paris. Their selfie instantly blew up on Instagram and Twitter across India. Other Bollywood actors (and their children) are also reportedly piqued by South Korea’s music groups with their stunning choreography and dynamic danceable vibes. In February this year, INOX theatres screened a concert film by globally-acclaimed BTS on two days in 88 cinemas across the country. K-pop fans inundated theatres with flash mobs, fan chants and thank you gifts and letters for INOX.

With many K-pop bands joining the fray, BTS is getting stiff competition from a band making waves all over the world. The nine-member EXO was nominated in the Top Social Artist category at the recent Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas alongside BTS, GOT7, Ariana Grande and One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. Though BTS took home the award despite coming onto the music scene two years after EXO, it is only a matter of time before EXO emerge top favourites at music awards in the future.

EXO perform melodic, dance-oriented pop music influenced by hip-hop and R&B. Formed by S.M. Entertainment producer, Lee Soo-Man, the band originally consisted of 12 members divided into two sub-groups — EXO-K and EXO-M. It was Lee Soo Man’s idea of a boy group from China and South Korea which would promote in different places at the same time, mainly their homelands, as well as record the same songs in both Chinese and Korean.

EXO-K focus on playing in South Korea, hence the ‘K’ for Korea, and features Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai and Sehun. Suho is the leader of EXO as well as EXO-K.

EXO-M specialize in performing in China for a Mandarin-speaking audience, hence the ‘M’ for Mandarin (Chinese). The members include Xiumin, Lay and Chen. EXO-M also has an official subgroup, EXO-CBX, formed in 2016 by Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin.

The name EXO comes from the word “exoplanet” and stands for the idea that members are new humans from an unknown world. The group now has nine members after the withdrawal of three Chinese members — Xiumin, Suho, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai and Sehun.

Lee Soo-Man released over a dozen teaser videos to create a wave of anticipation for a band that would rule the music waves; the gap between the release of the first teaser and the debut was for a 100-day global promotion, to let the world know the name. EXO finally debuted on 8 April 2012.

In 2012, EXO released several singles including What Is Love, History and Mama. In May 2013, they released their full-length debut album XOXO.

Read the full article by subscribing to the print magazine or the digital edition.

The post EXO appeared first on The Teenager Today.