The world of Korean pop music is vast and once you step into it, there is a lot to learn and much to gain. Seventeen Power of Love: The movie is a way for outsiders to understand the workings of interaction that takes place between the fans and their object of affection. CARATs (fans of the band SEVENTEEN) are the demographic audience that this film hopes to please, and it does so with ease. The cheers and roars heard in the theater as the concert movie played out are proof of that. The film uses footage from the band’s online concert conducted between November 14 and November 21, 2021.
Director: Oh Yoon-dong
Cast: S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, Dino, and CARATs
But if we were to move beyond the emotional connection that fans have with their idols, this is a concert movie that could have done much better with a more focussed narrative. For instance, the concert film includes in-person interviews of the band members who share intimate details about their life, their bond with each other, their expectations from fans, and more. Their inputs and their thoughts are intriguing, but the subtitles are so lacking that it does not do justice to a person with no knowledge of the Korean language.
The interviews of band members — S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino — add a lot of value to the overall experience, especially since they explain why it was important for them to organise an online concert during a pandemic. However, a lot of their emotional response to questions are lost in translation. There is talk of how much the singers missed performing on stage to a live audience and the exchange of energy that occurs during live concerts. Also, SEVENTEEN members are asked how they would react when they meet their fans in person again. They are all dumbfounded just imagining the situation, and most of their answers are about being grateful or being moved to tears. However, most of this is not translated well.
The most recent example of a well-made concert film is that of BTS, which incidentally is bankrolled by the same label — HYBE. The concert itself is great, and all of the fan-favorite tracks were included in the film. In Seventeen Power of Love, the transition between the performance footage and the interviews is jarring in certain places and hinders the experience of a concert film. For instance, the seamless shift between Hoshi’s reason for composing a song such as Tiger Power aka 호랑이 Power and the following performance of the song works well. However, in the initial parts of the interview where members answer more generic questions about their life during the pandemic, the songs that follow are rather disconnected.
The film does end on a good note though as wide-angle shots of fans chanting SEVENTEEN play out to voiceover by members who talk about the importance of CARATs in their life. There is speak of hope, love, and forever; which may have seemed cheesy in a romantic comedy, but works well in the grand scheme of SEVENTEEN’s concert film. Beyond K-pop stans, the trolling, the grand gestures by fans and by idols (singers), there is innocent love between the singers and their fans. The concert is marketed as a “love letter in movie form from SEVENTEEN” and it is a beautiful letter beyond its flaws.
#Flawed #beautiful #love #letter #CARATs #Cinema #express
