With Eyes East

Lightning, Thunder

My initial reaction to Cosmic should’ve been a bellwether. I don’t know if it’s just how I respond to music generally or if it’s something about Red Velvet specifically, but upon each of their new releases, I tend to have relatively neutral feelings at first. This has led to the observation of a sociological phenomenon – localized entirely in myself – where I think, “Academically, I recognize that this song is good, but it hasn’t hit me yet,” and I know it will soon. That’s finally happened with Cosmic. I’d been able to recognize that it was solid, but now I can see it’s a 10/10. It’s the best Red Velvet album.

For the past few, I’d pick two or three great songs out of an overall good album (to burn on a CD, since my car is old-school). For The ReVe Festival 2022 – Birthday, it was “Birthday,” “On A Ride,” and “Celebrate.” For The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm, of course it’s “Feel My Rhythm,” and then “Beg for Me” and “Bamboleo.” With Queendom, again, the title track, then “Pose” and “Knock on Wood.” You get the idea. For Cosmic, they’re all great. Literally, the only hiccup is when Yeri says “and the only reason I exist,” in the “Last Drop” bridge because, you know, it’s kind of cheesy. That’s it. Otherwise, “Last Drop” is amazing.

In fact, after much consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that “Last Drop” edges out the “On A Ride” sequel “Love Arcade” for best song of the album. Both are so good – I love Joy’s final note on “Love Arcade” – but I’ll go with “Last Drop” because it’s a bit more emotional than playful. That final chorus is heavenly.

So I just had to come on here and make a note of this, and that I will never, ever beg Red Velvet to make a “full-length” album again, if this is what they do with an EP in contrast to last year’s Chill Kill. It’s night and day.

This post actually took so long that the Cosmic promotion has had enough time to accrue controversies, none better than the “Seulgi shoe-switch.” In short, Seulgi had blisters on her feet – which might threaten an upcoming stage performance – so a manager exchanged her sneakers for Seulgi’s heels, and this was apparently bad optics. It’s been noted that Korean netizens were happy with Seulgi’s apology, while it seems international fans were uncomfortable with the notion she had to apologize at all. Just another day in the life of an idol. Speaking of…

Idol Cinematic Universe

One of my favorite things about the hallyu world is the crossover, and that’s something else I wanted to cover today: when K-pop idols from different groups come together. And it’s funny, I don’t even mean “to create music,” but rather, when they simply express their friendship. It’s been going on a bit lately, but we’ll start with one that’s both friendship and music: Seulgi and Moonbyul.

When asked how they became friends, they talk about how their respective groups, Red Velvet and Mamamoo, debuted around the same time. They’d go on to star in Idol Drama Operation Team in 2017, along with other idols including YooA from Oh My Girl. Unfortunately for YooA, it would turn out to be Hyojung who’d close the friendship triangle, documented most recently on a camping trip (glamping trip? Whatever).

I think it’s really cool that Moonbyul brought on Seulgi for her debut solo outing, “Selfish.” That music video, and all its accompanying behind-the-scenes material, is super cute. My favorite part of the behind-the-scenes is when Solar comes in to visit. First, she surprises Moonbyul on set with a birthday cake, which she’s very excited about. I guess the trick is to turn everything into a prank, to get the crew “in on” something. Like, it can’t just be a nice surprise, it has to be a gotcha. But the interesting part is when she says, “I’m going to leave before Seulgi-nim shows up,” because it’s gonna be awkward? And then Seulgi comes in – with an American flag towel wrapped around her waist – and says “Hello, unnie” in a high-pitched voice. Then the three pose for a camera and Solar’s like, “I don’t know why we’re taking this photo.”

With Moonbyul and Seulgi’s friendship, I think it’s only natural to wonder about Solar and Irene. I’ve seen many comments over the years assert that they’re friends, too, but as far as I know, only Moonbyul has interacted with Irene in any official capacity, on Level Up Thrilling Project. That’s a modern classic. Watch Seulgi when Moonbyul is teasing Irene – very relatable. She’d have a better sense than anyone the limits of Irene’s patience, and appears almost nervous when Moonbyul is poking the bear. Personality-wise, it’s difficult to imagine two people more different than Solar and Irene. I do like Solar and Chorong, though. That’s a nice sort of hyper/mellow combo.

This next one is not only, then, hyper/hyper, but something of a white whale for me. At some point, I became aware that Mijoo from Lovelyz and Youngji from Kara were friends, but I could find little material evidence. I only had a sense, based on clips from TV shows where they’re either on a larger panel together, or there’s one where it’s Mijoo commentating on footage of Youngji (and conveniently, I can’t find these clips now). At some point – and I can’t find an article explaining it – Youngji had asked fans in a post what to do for an ending fairy, and Mijoo commented that she should write “Mijoo” on her hand, and Youngji did it! God, I wish I could find the sources for it, because now I just sound crazy.

In the year of our Lord 2024 – this most tumultuous, unpredictable year – Mijoo and Youngji appear together in a video entitled: “[EN] Nothing like a wine date with my bestie! (feat. The Wine King) [Musinsa Life Update 2 Ep.11]!” Can you tell me what’s wrong with that title? Yeah, it doesn’t have the keywords “Mijoo” or “Youngji” in it! Help me, algorithm!

Anyway, these two are fantastic. In the video, they’re both going at a million miles an hour just sampling red wine. I’m much more familiar with Youngji, who’s not only an extremely talented vocalist but an idol with an irresistible personality. She’s the lovable goofball, but not to the point of error when juxtaposed with her more serious compatriots, whether Jiyoung or her own sister Song-yeon. Mijoo is pretty famous for her antics – one of those subversive idols – though there’s apparently been some error here and there. I’m just so glad to see them both in the same frame.

Speaking of white whales – and Kara – we have the future Gyuri and Seulgi crossover. Now, modern YouTube videos featuring Kara members aren’t as Englishy as, say, Red Velvet’s, so I often see Gyuri and the gang speaking without knowing what they’re saying. But I do hear Gyuri in particular say “Seulgi” a lot, and I know that she’s a massive Seulgi fan, going back to at least 2017. The Kara leader recently started a YouTube channel – no English subtitles so far – and with some help from an article on Allkpop, I beheld this revelation:

“When asked about the reason for starting a Youtube channel, Gyuri mentions that it is for another source of income. Later, she also mentions the reason is to meet Red Velvet’s Seulgi. She hopes that if her channel does well, she would have the chance to invite Seulgi on the show.”

That’s so adorable! Oh, my gosh. At one point in the correlating video, she shouts “Seulgi-ah, Seulgi-ah!” into a teapot. And then, of course, the article goes on to say, “Youngji then reveals to Gyuri that Seulgi has invited her onto her show, stating that they are close as 94-liners.” Ha!

Finally, we have a crossover of sorts, when recently Yuri, Tiffany, and Sooyoung celebrated Yoona’s birthday. From the perspective of a Girls’ Generation fan who only became a fan after Girls’ Generation disbanded, whenever any of the members interact, it’s like, “Oh, the actress Yoona and the soloist Tiffany” and so on. They all have successful careers now and identities apart from the group.

I saw this birthday celebration first chronicled on Yuri’s channel — too early for English subtitles, now available — so I could only guess that it was the same restaurant the four of them went to for Sooyoung’s birthday, corroborated later with Yoona’s video. Eagle eye!

With Yoona’s version of events, I feel like I picked up on a bit more embarrassment on her part, being the center of attention and opening gifts? Maybe that’s just my own projection. Once in the car to the bowling alley, they talk briefly about the languages they know. I didn’t know that Sooyoung knew Japanese, and of course Tiffany has English, and then Yoona has Chinese, given all the C-dramas she’s been in. And then there’s Yuri!

I also found it funny that Sooyoung hesitated to pair up with Tiffany for bowling, as that would mean going up against Yuri with her big muscles and Yoona who’s good at everything. After a rocks-paper-scissors, it ended up being Sooyoung with the two managers versus Tiffany, Yoona, and Yuri. Despite Sooyoung’s eventual “shoulder injury,” it appears that her team won in the end. Yuri to Yoona, “What went wrong? I trusted you.” The birthday girl had to buy the drinks.

In conclusion, I think part of the appeal of this kind of crossover is the glimpse – however still mediated – into the lives of idols as people rather than performers. My sense of things is that the line between life and performance is akin to that of the reality TV star as opposed to an actor playing a character. In promotions and certainly on stage, there’s a script or an outline, but theoretically these idols aren’t being made to say anything wildly out of character. And that’s it.

For me, an illuminating example is during the first season of Level Up Project!, when Wendy accidentally spills a drink on Irene’s skirt and starts saying, “So sorry, oh, my God,” in American-accented English. That feels like a break in character, as if Son Seung-wan wanted to clarify that she felt bad, and Wendy isn’t set up to do that properly. Later on, Wendy will buy Irene a new skirt at the market, and that just feels different somehow.

When two idols from different agencies turn out to be friends, sure, either one might be promoting something, but there’s no corporate incentive. I don’t think that Gyuri’s pining for Seulgi is an act. In fact, it’s pretty relatable.