3 days ago
Three Former K-Pop Idols Find It's ‘Time To Be Strong'
Sunim, Sarang and Tae-hee find their trip to Jeju Island is not what they expected.
Becoming a k-pop trainee is a dream for many aspiring performers. After years of hard work learning to dance, sing and act, trainees might be rewarded with lucrative contracts and a lifetime of celebrity. But it doesn't always work out that way. The protagonists of the Korean film Time To Be Strong have done their turn in the trainee system and it's time to move on. But where are they headed? For now the destination is Jeju, a popular vacation destination off the coast of South Korea.
Sunim (Choi Sung-eun), Sarang (Ha Seo-yoon and Tae-hee (Hyun Woo-seok) are marking the end of their failed careers with a trip. They joke that it makes up for a class trip to Jeju that former classmates Sunim and Tae-hee missed. It also serves as a buffer between the dream they've given up and an uncertain future. Director Namgoong Sun wanted to make a film about Korean teens and the conditions they work in. K-pop served as a metaphor.
'K-pop is really big in Korea,' said Sun. 'So many kids want to be an idol and there are so many trainees. I thought that culture had a similarity with how they are growing up in Korea. The Korea that we're living in today is just an extremely competitive society, and I thought it would be interesting to interview these idols that have gone through that intensive system competition.'
No members of an existing k-pop group would talk to her so she had to ask around.
'I met people who used to be idols or who were just trainees or who were in these big competitive TV programs,' said Sun. 'I met them and heard about their life for two hours or so. That's how I decided that it would be fun. There would be something if I looked into these people and interviewed them. I got to know a lot more than I expected.'
As the leader of her k-pop group Sunim is used to taking care of others.
Sun created Sunim, Sarang and Tae-hee from those interviews. Sunim, the responsible leader of the girl group Love and Leeds, is burdened with guilt over the death of another group member. Her turn as a trainee only exacerbated her eating disorder to the point where she can barely eat without throwing up. Sarang has mental health issues to deal with. Tae-hee's band disbanded, leaving him with a mountain of debt. Between them they face every bad thing that could happen to a k-pop trainee. The film suggests that it's not a training system for the weak of heart.
'In my interview sessions, I just really felt for them," said Sun. "I think it's a very different experience seeing a negative piece of news about the industry from a distance when you're seeing it on TV versus actually sitting with a human being and really hearing their stories in person. That's a very different experience. I realized that the experiences they've had are such intensely, almost cruel experiences and the scars that they still have I felt were worth exploring and really expressing because many of these people are unable to actually verbalize what they've gone through. Before they debut, they are desperate to become the chosen ones to participate in these bands. Until they debut, they really have no say in how they feel or what they're going through. Even after they debut, there is this sense of responsibility to their fans as not to worry or concern them. It's a constant battle of not being able to actually express what they feel.'
Sunim makes all the arrangements for her friends. She's used to taking charge,
'There are these positions in k-pop groups," said Sun. "While interviewing, I found out that the leaders have a distinct kind of role. They have to look out for the other members. It's a very stressful place to be at because they themselves are going through some inhumane things, but they need to keep the team together and they generally care for the team and lead the team as a group while talking to the company. It's kind of a middle man position.'
The Jeju trip quickly hits a few road bumps, but the k-pop exiles meet a fan who helps them put things in perspective.
'Many bands have rules in their band clubs and they all strictly abide by those rules,' said Sun. "But she doesn't know a thing. She just likes these kids and she is kind of socially awkward as well. I thought that was interesting because that's what a human-to-human connection would look like if we didn't have all these rules.'
Sun's film was financed by the Human Rights Commission of Korea, an independent commission for protecting, advocating and promoting human rights and it only had what she describes as a tiny budget. The film's talented cameraman, a friend, lived on Jeju, so she asked if his home could be used for a set.
'It was a simple choice at the beginning and it kind of matched well for these kids to go on a trip on their own for the first time.'
It's not unusual for k-pop trainees to start training at 13 and some start as young as seven. They may go straight from their parental home into the trainee dorm where every decision is made for them.
'A lot of our interviewees said that they were managed for so long, the first thing they found weird was to travel alone," said Sun. "They didn't know how to buy tickets, how to do planes. In terms of everyday simple things they were just bewildered.'
Sun initially wanted to cast people who had actually been idols or trainees and to showcase their untapped skills.
'But obviously once I started interviewing, I thought in order to protect these people, I couldn't actually use them directly in the process of casting. So I changed my approach to cast actors. In my imagination the characters were very good and kind people.'
Choi Sung-eun, the first actor to sign on, previously appeared in the film My Name Is Loh Kiwan, the dramas The Sound of Magic, Beyond Evil and Start-Up. Ha Seo-yoon appeared in Family By Choice, Captivating The King and The Worst of Evil. Hyun Woo-seok had roles in The School Nurse Files, Love Alarm and can be seen next year in Wish Your Death.
Namkoong Sun has directed a succession of shorts during the last 15 years, including Meat Incident and The End of the World. In 2020 she made her feature debut with Ten Months, which received a special mention in the UNcaged Award Competition of the New York Asian Film Festival.
Time To Be Strong also debuted at NYAFF. Sun also directed the film Love Untangled, starring Gong Myung, Shin Eun-soo and Cha Woo-min. It will be released this year on Netflix.
