novellhall Chapter 69 The Disappointing Three Major Companies and Press Conferences
Chapter 69 The Disappointing Three Major Companies and Press Conferences
September is only halfway over, and the Korean idol industry is already in complete chaos.
Almost none of the three major companies—SM, YG, and JYP—have been able to escape the public scrutiny.
The contract dispute between TVXQ and SM Entertainment remains unresolved, and the court's attempts to mediate have yielded no results.
SMTOWN's concert has been postponed indefinitely, and the group's activities in South Korea have also come to a standstill.
From the end of July to September, this controversy has kept SM at the center of public opinion for more than a month.
The situation isn't much better at YG either.
G-Dragon's debut solo album, "Heartbreaker," is sweeping the charts, but as the album becomes a hit, plagiarism controversies have also been brought to the forefront.
Some have pointed out that the melodies and arrangements of several songs on the album are similar to those of foreign songs.
Initially, this was just a debate among netizens.
However, the nature of the matter changed after news of Sony issuing a warning letter emerged.
It is no longer just an online debate, but has the potential to be formally pursued for copyright issues.
As for JYP, the Jay Park incident came even faster and was even uglier.
In early September, old comments made by 2PM leader Jay Park on MySpace during his trainee days were unearthed by the media.
Complaints such as "Korea is gay," "I hate Koreans," and wanting to go back to the United States quickly spread.
Once these words are linked to "belittling South Korea," the matter is no longer just a simple slip of the tongue by an idol.
The apology did not quell public anger.
From the exposure of his old remarks to his apology, and then to his departure from the group and leaving South Korea, the whole process took only a few days.
Contract disputes, plagiarism controversies, and leaving the team due to insults against South Korea.
In less than half a month, a series of events have left the public with almost no patience left for their idols.
By mid-September, many people were no longer willing to discern the reasons behind each event.
They just felt that their idols had been having problems lately.
It was in this atmosphere that Taeyeon's performance of "Snow Flower" at the Seoul Drama Awards on the evening of September 11th did not end as quickly as a typical live performance mishap.
Girls' Generation was at the height of their popularity, and Taeyeon was the group's recognized main vocalist.
The success of her OSTs, such as "If" and "Can You Hear Me," quickly placed her in the discussion of "idol vocalists with real talent."
So when a clear mistake occurred during that chorus, the initial discussion surrounding the stage itself quickly took a turn for the worse.
Some people repeatedly edited the live video, analyzing line by line where she sang unsteadily and where she didn't harmonize with Park Hyo-shin.
Some people compared this mistake with her past OST achievements, mocking her so-called strong vocalist skills as nothing special.
Some people even broadened the discussion to the entire idol group, arguing that so-called talented idols are just labels created by their companies.
For the next two days, posts about Taeyeon's singing ability remained at the top of various forums.
By the 14th, the hype that should have been gradually fading away was instead reignited by an increasing number of re-edited and comparison videos.
This is more than just a choir accident.
It became a public questioning of Taeyeon's singing ability, and also an outlet for the outside world's dissatisfaction with idols over the past two weeks.
However, SM Entertainment unusually did not respond immediately to these voices.
No statement was made.
There was no explanation.
Despite the outside world gradually turning that imperfect duet into a public trial for her.
Everyone is waiting for SM to speak.
SM Entertainment has remained silent.
……
On the afternoon of September 15th at 9 PM, the production press conference for "IRIS" was held in the Crystal Ballroom on the second floor of the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul.
For a TV series that has not yet been broadcast, the production press conference is the first real public review.
The scale of investment, the cast, the quality of the trailers, and media questions will all be put in front of the camera on this day.
From the very beginning, "IRIS" was not a typical TV series.
KBS made a heavy investment, with the production company investing 20 billion won. The main cast, including Lee Byung-hun, Kim Tae-hee, Jung Joon-ho, Kim Seung-woo, and Kim So-yeon, were all present.
Li Zhixing attended the event as the actor who plays the assassin BIG in the drama.
More than 400 journalists from South Korea and Japan applied for interviews in advance.
The Crystal Ballroom was packed with people from the morning onwards.
Photojournalists fought tooth and nail at the entrance to secure good shooting positions, forcing the organizers to temporarily distribute paper wristbands to attendees in this most basic yet direct way to maintain order.
Lee Byung-hun's fan club was also present, and rice cakes printed with the word "IRIS" were delivered to the media.
Outside the hotel, many Japanese fans who couldn't get in were peering inside, holding up support signs through the security lines.
The press conference hadn't even started yet, but the grand scale was already set up.
KBS is really pinning its hopes for the second half of the year on this drama.
After the press conference officially began, a highlight video was shown first.
Unlike the few-minute trailers shown at typical TV drama press conferences, the footage prepared for "IRIS" is nearly half an hour long, including clips of the main scenes that have already been filmed, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of some action scenes.
The first encounter of the 707 Special Forces, and the tense atmosphere within the NSS (National Security Service).
The oppressive atmosphere between Lee Byung-hun and Jung Joon-ho, who went from being close comrades to being adversaries.
The calm and decisive judgment of Choi Seung-hee, played by Kim Tae-hee, when she first appeared as a profiler, also drew a constant stream of camera shutters on set.
In the latter half of the trailer, the scene suddenly cuts to a dimly lit corridor.
A black suit, a dagger twirling lightly between his fingers.
Li Zhixing, who plays the assassin BIG, has a slight smile on his lips, but when he looks up, that smile doesn't reach his eyes.
The next second, the scene cuts to several rapid close-up actions.
Elbow strikes, knee strikes, reverse grip on short blades, close-quarters control.
The movements were clean, crisp, short, and sharp.
Those few seconds weren't long, but they were enough for the reporters in the audience to add another entry to their notebooks.
The new actor, whose casting controversy was repeatedly brought up, is at least not someone who was just temporarily stuffed into the crew to make up the numbers, as outsiders speculated.
After the video ended, director Kim Kyu-tae and KBS production director Cho Dae-hyun took to the stage one after the other.
The former briefly introduced the filming direction of "IRIS", emphasizing that the crew would use near-movie standards to complete this spy action drama.
The latter's statement was more direct.
"If this drama doesn't work out, KBS's drama department will have to close down."
Upon hearing this, the audience fell silent for a moment, followed by a low chuckle and the sound of camera shutters clicking.
The reporters could tell it was a joke.
With an investment scale of 20 billion won, no one would really take this statement as a joke.
The subsequent actor interviews didn't drag on for too long.
When discussing the action scenes, Lee Byung-hun stated that the fight scenes in this drama will not follow a comic book-style exaggerated approach, but will instead be closer to real-life survival struggles.
After taking the microphone, Jung Joon-ho first talked briefly about his character, and then joked about the romantic relationship between Lee Byung-hun and Kim Tae-hee in the drama, which made the audience laugh continuously.
The room fell silent once the microphone was handed to Kim So-yeon.
"Kim Sun-hwa was not simply a killing tool."
Kim So-yeon glanced at the reporters below the stage, her tone serious.
"She has a tough side, but also a very vulnerable side, and I want to portray both of those aspects."
"For this role, I cut off my hair that I had kept for fifteen years and also underwent a lot of action training."
At this point, Kim So-yeon turned to look at Lee Ji-haeng beside her, her tone now tinged with amusement.
"Especially when training with this assassin, I really suffered a lot."
The cameras immediately turned to Li Zhixing.
Kim So-yeon asked with a smile, "Mr. Assassin, would you like to give me a score for my training performance?"
The moment this question was raised, many reporters at the scene perked up.
They already knew that Li Zhixing was an action choreographer.
Knowing something is one thing, but hearing Kim So-yeon bring it up herself at the press conference is quite another.
A newcomer actor who had just gained recognition from audiences through "Haeundae" not only played the assassin BIG in "IRIS", but also helped senior actors with action training on set.
For a journalist, this alone is enough to be included in an article.
Lee Ji-haeng took the microphone, glanced at Kim So-yeon, and then answered with a smile.
"If judged by training attitude, Soyeon sunbaenim deserves full marks."
Kim So-yeon breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Zhixing continued, "She learns very quickly and is very serious. Some movements, by the end, were no longer something I was instructing her on, but something she herself felt was not satisfied with and wanted to do again."
He paused for a moment at this point.
"So what I'm worried about now is that after this drama airs, Soyeon might get a lot of roles with cool action scenes, and if she asks me to train her again, I'll have to charge her in advance."
A burst of laughter erupted from the audience.
Kim So-yeon clapped her hands with a smile, and the atmosphere immediately relaxed a lot.
......