Exo Kai: Due West

to be honest at this point I'm convinced they were live action role playing to practice for a romance movie but both of them ended up not getting the part so they just stayed in character for a few years cause this is so funny. Honestly he lowkey highkey needed camila to be a replacement mom for him cause he clearly needs that in his life, but it's so interested how they ended up doing so much pda but never even tried to get engaged or even a reality special.

Saw another one of those videos and they were doing all that stuff in front of someone who was cleaning the table 🙄

They need to give that worker a raise :(

Did nct ever make sense financially:

But I want to explain why though

Nct was started as a group with infinite members. The goal was to have a male akb48

That being said the financial success of akb48 depended on the members doing various activities OUTSIDE of the group with an emphasis on practical safe and relatively inexpensive projects= consistent returns on investment.

Also the group's success depended on the group being well, actually successful.

S.m's marketing strategy is the opposite. The group is successful just by virtue of existing, they will get million invested in them regardless.

The group at least was thought of since the early 2010s when most of their members join. We know the group did not have a name and was simply a large collection of male trainee's. The group was basically a basket to keep their trainee's inside of. Don't worry if you do not make it into xyz group you can go to Nct.

Johnny was originally going to be a member of exo and was later placed in Nct, not the first round but in a later unit nct U.

It's actually very odd the thought and financial process of nct. Because unlike with akb48 it was not the direct intention to have the members do other projects and have seperate careers. It is the method of s.m to have people in groups for a majority of their career and then they can do other things. Unless you are lucky.

Also akb48 built up over time. It is a very old group, whereas nct gained lots of members quickly and the direction wasn't always decided or clear.

Like Akb48, Nct or SRB14 had a more direct and connected with the public image. They were not exo who were meant to be distant to create intrigue. They all had a pretty nice and approachable personality.

"AKB48 was founded as "idols you can meet".[4]Japanese idols are entertainers/performers who appeal directly to fans for support. Close interactions between fans and idols allow idols to cultivate and maintain loyal fan followings."

You won't remember Exo having a group youtube channel with weekly vlogs or having so many varieties even though they were a smaller group. Each group has a specialized team and marketing style.

AKB48 like nct had specialized teams as well

"According to former member Misaki Iwasa, each team has its own theme. Team A represents freedom; Team B is idol-like, with cute costumes, and Team K has a strong, powerful image"

AKB48 was very successful and had their own theater which would cut down on costs. The concepts were also more down to earth, they are more a performance troupe than an idol group. The focus is on entertaining the fans

Nct being a boy group inside of the kpop industry had a lot of competition and also they didn't have much of a pull besides having lots of members. They still had to travel and book venues and sellout stadiums to break even. Because boy bands are made to impress and show out. Of course lots of money is spent on expensive music videos, hotels, lots of staff, appearances at awards shows, top fashion for each member. Which is fine for a small group, but when the members keep growing and growing every year eventually getting into double digits; almost half the size of AKB48 in almost 1/3rd the amount of time, how is that sustainable?

It's not.

Simply put the more employees a company gains the more they spend paying their employees. If NCT is a company and the staff and members are the employees, then almost every year their costs increased. Even when they had good years, it was offset by the fact that their money would be paying for another unit. This is why s.m ent went so long without any other groups. And when they finally made a new group they took members already in NCT.

Add in the fact that there are some artists getting paid and sitting on the bench. They cannot afford to add them into a project or promote them. They can only bet on people they know will bring in money.

If they had brand new people that would be adding more and more people to the payroll, which at this point they likely can't afford. They would need a new project with already existing employees and have them double their workload--since they are the main ones bringing in money anyway, recycle in-house music and producers, and garner outside forces investing money on this dumpster fire to create something that would be profitable for the company. Send them to America so you can rack up the prices on tickets and merch cause Koreans sure won't go for this.

And...........that's how you get super m

okay now I'm done.

Also one more thing, the artists are not making money off the music, they make money other ways.

Spotify also takes a lot from the artists

Please, please stop streaming (too much music fries your brain) and bulk buying(is awful for the environment). The music industry has been dead, these artists are literal slaves. Good day.

me every few months literally

me perfectly curating my blog.

Redemption - [DAY_966] The End of Evangelion.

I really agree with 90 percent of this. But also i dug into korean history, culture and fan lore. Basically the reason why ppl dont think they should date is idols are like the host club employees of the entertainment world. People know that is the job whenever they sign up. It isnt anything to do with artistry. Korean people know this but westerners do not. Also they already knew he had a partner and that majority of idols have partners or spouses but when you get married its expected your job should no longer be a host basically. Its a job for younger people. So honestly I think koreans are unfairly judged cause people don't even know what it is they are upset about. If they were regular artists like khip hop and krnb artists they could of gotten married years ago and nobody would ever say anything. Apparently they flirt with korean fans at private fansigns and secret events and basically act like a host and say romantic stuff. Khiphop and rnb artists date publicly so even if they flirt its clearly empty promises. Kdolls do not do this marketing style with foreign fans. We get completely different marketing. More we are friends or buddies style marketing. So that is why theres outrage with korean fans but not western. It is dumb but it does make more sense to me now. Especially because they tend to encourage kfans to spend loads or money on them like actual hosts do as well as buy music. Plus with the kfans protesting it was because they waited until after they were done touring to say info that was known months ago. If they dont care about the kfans who were protesting why not tell them before the concert. Because they wanted their money. Thats what they were mad about it was slimely. Imagine if justin pretended he was single in 2010 and after he sold out madison square garden he posted selena. Like bro if you wanna date just date but be real about it. Exo lost so much respecr from how they ignore members who left, to dating but always waiting until after promotion to be public to just not really performing well even though fans spent so much money to go to multiple concerts so everything could always sell out. Its not them dating its the fact that they just lie and are cowardly. Just rip the bandaid off date publicly and talk about theur relationships. Then the ones who dont like it will just leave. The reality is if they dont want crazy fans fine, but stop doing fanservice just do music if thats what they want to do. Promote to guys and older folks. Go to sporting events and promote in a gender neutral asexual way. Until then like they really cant complain cause they made the bed they lie in.

I’m so happy for him! I can’t stand the “fans” who don’t think idols should date and be happy.

Like yeah, we are all a little shocked about it because wow he’s damn good at hiding his private life but shit, some of the kfans are mad - some intl ones too. I hope what happened to that suju member who got married doesn’t happen to Jongdae. He’s getting close to 30 and deserves this damn happiness after giving up 8 years of his life to make us happy!!

okay last stretch

1.so the tyla choreographer check I was right

2. Gas pedal shake it lyrics for adult swim

3. He was in l.a to film. And a few other places.

Dancing to not like us is the last hint other than a possible producer in common the only relation I can think of is maybe choreographer or director..or

Black dancers

In the hood.

Or...afrocentric.

So they all did connect most were red herrings but the song choices were important he even did not like us again on a show so I'm thinking....is gonna be any or some or all of these things.

2 Pegasus I think is ark of cov. So...ehh idk

At this point it depends on the particular interpretation.

I almost never predict albums cause it's so boring but this one was at the right time and I was still a bit interested. I still disagree with the rollout it sucked but it's sm. They just never do anything right. It's kinda sad at this point they don't know what to do..anyways. I feel like there should be...maybe a drama attached that's the only thing I think would go well with this big of an album. At this point its more cinema than musical

SHUSH.... he's reading

Kpop is like an enigma the further you peel the creative layers back everything is black..then there's the colorism, featurism nd cultural hoodwinking

I dont wanna make a super drawn out post about the cultural cou d'état going on in kpop but like who else is gonna do it

meal inspo

When i see this my microbiome screams. In reality this is super overpriced but it makes me see veggies positively and helps me stick to the journey

Movie review/recap 1.0

MIDNIGHT

The 2021 sleeper hit psychological thriller horror of my dreams.

it reminds me of that old movie with the Korean psychopath and the innocent young woman trying to avenge her sister monster.

but it feels like both an evolution and a rehash of the old Japanese dramas that purposely put disabled characters in shows to show more diversity. It works in midnight in a way I don't think many modern-day movies do.

Firstly we have a sympathetic character targeted by a ruthless predator.

in recent years, protagonists in horror films known as the final girls have purposely become the opposite of the old tropes. They are loud, bossy, annoying, and extremely modern. Which, to be honest, makes the audience less sympathetic when a terrifying sociopath is after them. In recent years, people not only don't care if characters get whacked in horror movies; they wait for it and enjoy it. Characters usually purposely embody one of the seven deadly sins in order for the audience, usually endowed with subtle Christian Judea values, to deep down believe the characters deserve to be punished. This is very apparent in modern horror films. In Midnight it takes you back to when horror movies had innocent characters you didn't want anything bad to happen to, like in the 1980s.

When villains punish evil people, the villains become more like anti-heroes. This bad becomes good trope has been popularized through movies like suicide squad

and Deadpool.

Where bad guys are not only cooler but more relatable than the goody two-shoes heroes. Yet in a world like the Avengers and Batman v Superman. The heroes aren't just saviors; they are people who cause millions of dollars of damages, cause people to be injured in the crosshairs and become a nuisance to the general public.

So a movie like this is refreshing because the bad guy is actually bad. End of story. No tragic backstory, no he-had-to-do-it, no revenge plotline. There is no reason for him to go after innocent women; he just does.

Not only does he go after innocent women, he goes after the most innocent woman he possibly can. A disabled woman who cannot hear and relies mainly on reading lips and sign language. Many people would definitely draw the line when it comes to robbing or victimizing someone who cannot properly defend himself but in this movie it becomes an afterthought to the villain, who goes after anyone who catches his eye. The easier the prey, the better.

Kyeong-mi is a nice change from the sassy, independent heroine people are used to, not because her personality is not tenacious but because she is pure, a quality the movie hammers down quite nicely.

It's an incredibly energetic movie. The chase just hits differently when a character has not got to live life yet. Kyeong-mi was not a party girl, nor did she have tons of friends or even family. She lived a nice, quiet life with her mother and she couldn't hear. It is the equivalent of a lion hunting a lamb.

This is in juxtaposition to the other women kidnapped in the movie by the stalker, who were either on their way to a date or were living their busy metropolitan life.

Thematically, it is just a more impactful story when a character who has done nothing to deserve it gets hunted. People feel bad when a gazelle is hunted but even worse when it's a baby animal. It's just necessary to pull on people's heartstrings; even animals hesitate to hunt young defenseless animals.

In this movie, Kyeong-mi is very resourceful, quick-witted and strangely athletic

though that could of been because she was running for her life

the most interesting part of the movie is when the story and the villain weaponize the fact that overemotional women are unlikely to be believed when compared to a smooth-talking, good-looking male.

Multiple times the villain simply pretended to be a regular guy trying to help the same women he was preying on. I believe it was a smart move to switch up the casting for a villain. I believe whenever movies portray all male predators as ugly, scary, or creepy, it paints a picture that men who are attractive can do no wrong and they should be who women seek out. But in reality, most predators are the nice, charming person that everyone likes. They are incredibly social, talkative, and have a great smile.

That's the most annoying part about when people have discussions about male predators: women always make sure to leave out their favorite sweet, charming, handsome guy, which is a very off thing to do. Always making sure to talk about how unattractive guys who caught abusing are and how they have to go after women because they are unattractive. This is not only completely ignorant but also incredibly wrong. The most successful predators are usually attractive, charming people because most of them are able to gaslight their victims. Most only slip up when they get sloppy due to their high ego. There are many real-life examples of very attractive men being predators; for some sad reason, women delude themselves into thinking it's only guys they do not find good looking but that couldn't be further from the truth. What women call predator behavior, any anthropologist would call natural male behavior. Males with higher testosterone, better looks, and greater pheromones get away with things lesser males cannot due to social hierarchy.

I think nature shows us the best that the more visually striking a male animal, the more testosterone they have and the more dangerous they are, but oddly enough in the media it is usually completely the opposite.

In the movies it's the dorky beta males that seek to prey on women while the alpha males are almost always portrayed as the hero.

though I guess to some degree that is displayed in this movie as well. It's definitely a hybrid of typical tropes, which I think keeps the movie interesting.

The best part of the film was definitely how the women stuck together to take down a man even though they just ran and saved only themselves.

I also appreciate the happy ending. Too many horror films feel the need to end with trauma or anguish. This ending showed strength and resilience, and I loved it.

I think it's a nice continuation of the disadvantaged woman vs. the handsome psychopath. Sadly, these are the only Korean movies I can really sit through now. I cannot stand Korean movies when they make commentary on classism when the movie is funded by a chaebol group. The cops being useless to the point of literally letting the killer walk out freely seems unrealistic unless you look up actual cases in Korea of the cops being very useless to the public and victims. So actually it is very accurate. But to be fair, they don't have that much funding, proper tools, or training, so it's a bit complex, but that's the only real issue I have with the film.

8/10

It's a nice watch alone or with a group. I somehow got my family to watch it years ago and it's fun. It has a high rewatch value as well.