Posts tagged ‘Jung Yonghwa’
You Only Live Twice: CNBLUE in Tokyo and Yonghwa in Hong Kong concert reviews, part 2
The second half of my CNBLUE/Yonghwa doubleheader took place the first week of July in Hong Kong. I hadn’t been to the former crown colony since 2019 so it was nice to visit again and see how things are faring there after the tumultuous pro-democracy protests of that year, followed by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing brutal human rights violations of the CCP. That’s a whole nother post, but needless to say the people of Hong Kong are very resilient despite all of the upheavals of the past few years.
But as far as the concert went, it exceeded expectations, as Yonghwa was in fine spirits, happy and energetic. After the many angsty performances of the past few years it was great to see him enjoying himself, both solo in Hong Kong and with CNBLUE in Tokyo. He’s most definitely got his swag back after several years of strife and uncertainty.
photo: @colori_KMH
After a few months of touring Yonghwa’s voice at the Hong Kong concert was sure and strong and he was clearly having a blast He wore his peacockiest outfits, including sparkly silver shoes, a striped pink satin shirt, and shimmery white trousers, as well as gorgeous suit jackets festooned with sparkling brooches and a fabulously blingy jeweled vest from the Alexander McQueen menswear collection. He also had a very faint pink wash over his bleached blond hair, which only accentuated his dandy-ness. He clearly came for the fun and wasn’t leaving until he got it.
photo: @colori_KMH
This tour’s theme was All-Rounder and Yonghwa was determined to live up to the moniker. He played the guitar and keyboards, rapped, danced, hit some insane high notes, sang in Korean, English, and Mandarin, and showed off his many compositions that were variously deep house, trot, rock, pop, ballads, EDM, city pop, Latin, and jazz. He also made reference to his actor-dol status, performing songs from two of his k-dramas, SELL YOUR HAUNTED HOUSE and HEARTSTRINGS, as well as the marriage reality show WE GOT MARRIED.
Yonghwa’s also gotten much better at dancing since he first tried his hand at it some years ago. His footwork is much lighter, possibly as a result of his new boxing habit, and his time in the ring has loosened up his movements. Unlike he was with his earlier dancing efforts, he’s now loose and limber, with a bigger vocabulary of movement including head twitches, hip rolls, and shoulder dips. He’s feeling the music through his body, not just mechanically doing the moves.
The crowd in Hong Kong skewed much younger than in Tokyo, with many fans in their twenties as opposed to the older ladies that comprised much of the audience in Japan. There was also a whole lotta Mandarin being spoken in the audience even though the show was in Hong Kong, which meant either that a lot of fans from China had made the short trek to the former Crown Colony or that Mandarin is just more common in Hong Kong these days. In a nod to his sinophone fans Yonghwa covered JJ Lin’s sweet pop tune Little Dimples twice, once in the main body of the show and once as part of his marathon encore session. But this meant that the set was missing his glorious cover of the iconic trot song Million Roses (백만송의 장미), which he had previously re-arranged during his stint on K-Trot In Town, the popular variety show he was a main cast member for during the pandemic lockdown.
Notably, compared to shows in Japan, security at the Hong Kong concert was pretty laissez faire. There were security people posted at the end of the rows but none of them made much effort to keep fans from opening up the barriers and running closer to the stage. Security also ignored the many fans taking videos and photos during the show, unlike in Japan where recordings of any sort are punishable by expulsion from the venue. So when Yonghwa decided to come off the stage during Fireworks and subsequently got very close to the crowd, the rush of fans to the front of the hall got a bit dicey. Yonghwa quickly retreated back on stage well out of range. I think he was actually practicing crowd control, trying to calm down a potentially dangerous crowd crush situation.
Just like he and CNBLUE did in Tokyo, after twenty or so songs in his regular set Yonghwa sang several songs during a triple encore, and he was clearly having the time of his life interacting with his fans. He was beaming during all of the encore songs, including the usually very somber ballad One Fine Day. Whereas OFD used to be the final song in the setlist, on this tour he performed it about halfway through the show. It used to be all about Yonghwa preparing to leave, mostly for the military, but now that life is happier and less full of dread he seems content to perform it not as the mood-setter but as just another one of his great compositions. It’s not the theme for his life any more, I don’t think.
He used the second go-round of OFD to show off his pipes and it became a crazy singalong with the crowd swapping lines with him throughout the song. It was almost like he was treating the audience to the song’s high notes just because they loved them so much. He’d already sung the song once earlier in the show with the full theatrical angst that it deserved but I think the second version was actually better, in part because he was so relaxed and in part because the song somehow became happy and redemptive. He may also have been belting it out because it was the last song of the show and he didn’t have to save his voice.
It feels like Yonghwa is finally allowing himself to savor his life and appreciate his happy place, which is onstage performing in front of a huge crowd. Yonghwa is also one of the most relentless people I’ve ever come across and every concert is a step toward his life goals, whatever they may be at the moment. But he also seems to genuinely love being on stage and interacting with audiences as well, and he is a very generous performer, as evidenced by his extended encores in Hong Kong as well as with CNBLUE in Tokyo.
So Yonghwa’s main paradox remains: how can someone so good-looking be so multitalented as well? The casual observer might discount his musical aptitude but closer inspection reveals his prodigious abilities. When he was younger his looks may have unlocked the door, but his talent, perseverance, and hard work have kept it wide open.
You Only Live Twice: CNBLUE in Tokyo and Yonghwa in Hong Kong concert reviews, part 1
Part One: CNBLUE in Tokyo
This summer I had the privilege of replicating the 2017 CNBLUE/Jung Yonghwa concert double bill I’d experienced in 2017. I’d already planned to be in Taipei in late June, so when CNBLUE announced that the last concert of their Calling Zepp Tour would be in Tokyo right around then I made a quick decision to extend my itinerary. The recent years of military hiatus and COVID-19 CNBLUE concert-deprivation have made me jump at any chance to see them live. And then Yonghwa announced his All-Rounder tour would have a stop in Hong Kong at the beginning of July and I thought, what the heck, I’ll be in Asia anyway, so after calculating costs and counting my pennies I added a stopover in the former Crown Colony. After all the strife of the past four years I wasn’t about to miss a chance to see my favorite performers in concert-–you only live once, after all.
CNBLUE’s latest Japan tour took place on the Zepp circuit, a chain of small concert halls around the country that hold anywhere from 1,000-2,000 people with general seating tickets. As my friend Glenn recounted in his recap of two CNBLUE Zepp concerts from the tour, the smaller halls create a much more intimate environment than the 8,000-17,000 seat arenas that CNBLUE usually plays in Japan. The tour was a novel experience for fans as well as a way continue to rebuild the CNBLUE brand in Japan after their long hiatus during their military enlistments and during the COVID-19 shutdowns of the past few years. The show I attended at Tokyo Garden was in the largest venue of the tour with about 8,000 seats so it wasn’t quite as cozy as many of the previous stops. But as it was the last stop on the tour, by then CNBLUE was all limbered up and ready to rumble.
The band was definitely more confident and comfortable onstage than when I saw them back in November at Budokan, which were their first live shows after the military/COVID hiatus. By the time I saw them at Tokyo Garden they had a good ten shows under their belt and they had completely regained their swag.
The setlist for this tour was designed for maximum impact in the small Zepp venues, so the band came out swinging, opening with IN MY HEAD and then blazing through three more of their rockiest rock songs. The message was clear that they came for the high energy. Leader Jung Yonghwa busted out the hot pink Jackson guitar he’d debuted at Budokan, taking a few guitar solos to show he knows how. He had his game face on at the start as well, scowling and grimacing rock-star style. The sound in the hall quickly reached that satisfyingly massive roar that CNBLUE achieves when they’re playing their loudest, most rock songs.
Flexing their versatility, in the second set the band completely switched it up, playing three pop tunes that let Yonghwa practice his kawaii. On THIS IS Yonghwa demonstrated another aspect of his impeccable vocal skills as he flawlessly spit the song’s staccato lyrics. CNBLUE even showed off some of their dubious dancing skills during SHAKE, with much joking and smiling amongst the band members as well. They effectively worked the crowd, reflecting the years they’ve spent honing their entertainment chops on countless South Korean variety shows.
After another lengthy comment section they followed with yet another mood change, with a set of three more introspective songs including one of my favorites, the gorgeous trip-hop song SUPERNOVA. I’m happy to see this one added back into the setlist–-I’m wondering if it’s been absent due to the song’s tricky high notes, but recently converted second lead vocalist Jungshin was able to pull it off pretty well. The set concluded with ROYAL RUMBLE, one of their best songs and quite possibly their masterpiece. I’ve heard the song performed in Korean at a previous concert in Taipei but ROYAL RUMBLE in Japanese somehow hits different. The two sidemen guitarists played the intricate counterpoint that had been missing in previous live versions and the spare, repeating motif was mesmerizing, creating a hypnotic, somewhat claustrophobic mood that underscored the song’s bleak lyrics. Yonghwa as usual gave 1000% on the singing of the song, effortlessly moving between crooning, whispering, growling and belting. He puts his entire being into projecting the song’s emotion while maintaining absolute control over his vocals.
Bassist Jungshin’s performance contrasted most strongly of the three from the November Budokan shows. Back then it was his first couple live shows singing second lead and he was nervous as a cat, barely moving from his mic the entire concert, and his somewhat tentative vocals reflected his nervousness. At Tokyo Garden he sounded great and was relaxed and happy, roaming the stage freely and clowning with his bandmates. His basslines also were fire as he switched effortlessly between plucking and thumb-popping, demonstrating that his bass work is the spine of CNBLUE’s sound. Kang Minhyuk’s drumming was also on point, strong, precise, and full of imagination.
I had no idea what they were saying during the long comments between sets but the three were loose and funny the whole night. Jungshin in particular made everything hilarious. Though I don’t understand more than a handful of words in Japanese it seemed to me that Yonghwa has upped his nihongo game, speaking rapid-fire Japanese to the appreciative audience.
They were clearly at ease during this show, unlike the intense nervousness of their Budokan concerts back in November. The interplay between the three of them is one of very old friends who have literally gone through a war together and survived to emerge on the other side.
The band wrapped up the main part of the show with six of their most high-energy tunes, starting with a blistering version of their latest Japan single LET IT SHINE. The crackling guitar riff that opens the song gave an immediate jolt of energy, supplemented by a soulful Hammond organ sound by the backing keyboardist. It’s a testament to the continued quality of CNBLUE’s work that their most recent songs, LET IT SHINE, TRIGGER and MOON, are as strong and catchy as their longstanding classics like COFFEE SHOP and BETWEEN US.
The set also included their interactive jam song WAKE UP. At Budokan in November the no-cheering rules were still in effect at concerts in Japan but those have since been lifted, so Yonghwa was able to practice all of his favorite call-and-response games with the audience. The song, which in its original studio incarnation is only about three minutes long, went on for a good twelve minutes or so and included both Jungshin and Minhyuk stepping up to the mic to join Yonghwa on singing out phrases for the audience to mimic.
The staging at Tokyo Garden added a nice laser light element that reached out over the packed audience. However, the videos on the background screens looked a bit underwhelming and cheesy. There were no background videos for the prior ZEPP Tour shows so maybe an intern was tasked at putting these together at the last minute because they were very minimal and fairly bad and generic.
After concluding the last set the band came back onstage and proceeded to perform five songs during two lengthy encore sessions, encouraged by a very loud and raucous audience. The first encore included their traditional winding-down songs TRY AGAIN SMILE AGAIN and GLORY DAYS, but the enthusiastic crowd drew them back on stage for rounds of Happy Birthday in both English and Korean and presentations of cake and flowers to Yonghwa and Minhyuk, the birthday boys.
Yonghwa seemed to be so happy that he didn’t want to leave the stage, insisting on playing two more songs after that. His ear-to-ear smiles during the final encores were infectious and the whole venue was abuzz with good vibes and adoration. He seemed elated to have successfully concluded the tour and to have performed a complicated show to a very full house.
He and his bandmates also seemed happy and relieved to have completed a popular comeback tour in Japan, where their fanbase is the strongest. But even in their stronghold things have been in turmoil in the past few years, since the withdrawal of their former guitarist, Lee Jonghyun, who had been very popular in Japan and with some fans not supporting his departure. By playing in much smaller venues than they’re accustomed to, this tour was a way of regaining some of those fans and giving them the treat of seeing CNBLUE in close quarters. For the most part they were greeted with full houses and satiated audiences, so their strategy worked. In addition, I think I saw more male fans this time around (which is not to say that there were many of them). One sat next to me and seemed to enjoy the show, though he was less interested in the between-set clowning around. But maybe the band is starting to expand beyond its mostly-female fanbase and will be able to further grow its audience beyond its Kpop roots.
Hopefully CNBLUE will have continued success as they rebuild the brand after a few years of setbacks. It was touch and go for a while after Jonghyun departed the band in 2019 so it’s great that they’re still alive and kicking. The average lifespan of a kpop group is seven years or less so after more than thirteen years on the circuit CNBLUE continues to defy the odds.
Although they could probably have individual careers as actors and entertainers, such as Minhyuk most recently creating a buzz as the male lead in the hit Netflix drama CELEBRITY, it’s nice to see them focus on making music together again. While they’re entirely fine and skilled as actors, they are geniuses at music and live shows. And I’m definitely here for the music myself.
Next up: Part 2: Yonghwa in Hong Kong
I Don’t Take A Break, I Break Bricks: Rhetorical And Poetic Devices In CNBLUE Lyrics
So since I’ve been spending the past 10 days in a quarantine hotel in Taipei as part of the social experiment that is Taiwan’s COVID-10 response, I have a lot of time on my hands. Around the fifth day of my quarantine I came across a twitter thread with examples of rhetorical devices in Taylor Swift lyrics, which inspired me to adapt the idea to a list of rhetorical and poetic devices in CNBLUE’s lyrics. CNBLUE’s leader and chief songwriter Jung Yonghwa, who writes in English and Japanese (in collaboration with Japanese translators) as well as his native Korean, has a distinctive way with words and it was interesting to analyze the craft he puts into his wordsmithing. I’m no rhetorician so some of my examples might not be quite right but I had a good time doing a deep dive into the lyrics of my favorite band.
Lyrics in translation from Korean or Japanese are in italics. All others are in their original English. All lyrics by Jung Yonghwa unless otherwise noted. A version of this originally appeared as a twitter thread. Some lyrics are from solo releases by Yonghwa. Many translations courtesy of justjyh.com
1. ALLITERATION: the succession of words with similar sounds
“Let’s stay sober tonight”
–Stay Sober
2. ANAPHORA: the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.
“I think of you at the blowing wind
I think of you at the dazzling sunlight”
–Can’t Stop
“My heart stops at this cold love, my heart breaks into pieces
My breath stops at this sick love, my breath slowly dies”
–Cold Love
“Love is meant to be cruel
Love is meant to be piercing
Love is meant to be like fire”
–Love Is
3. ANTANACLASIS: The repetition of a word within a phrase or sentence in which the second occurrence utilizes a different meaning from the first.
I don’t take a break, I break bricks
–Ryu Can Do It
4. ANTIMETABOLE: The repetition of words in successive clauses in transposed order.
I see right through you the same
Same way you see right through me
–Brothers
5. APOSTROPHE: any instance when the speaker talks to a person or object that is absent from the poem.
Hello Hello Hello Mr.KIA
Don’t be such a snob
Don’t get on the high horse, man
–Mr. KIA
6. ASSONANCE: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in neighboring words.
“You shine a light so bright that it’s blinding
Like a firework that’s blooming in the sky”
–Summer Dream
7. ASYNDETON: the omission of conjunctions from a phrase or sentence.
“People become enemies, piercing, ripping, disappearing”
–Checkmate
8. BLASON: describes the physical attributes of a subject, usually female.
“It’s the stain of your lipstick
On the glass that you share with
Slowly crossin’ your legs
As you’re playin’ with your hair”
–Make You Mine
9. ENJAMBMENT: a line break that interrupts the flow of a sentence
“Slowly tracin’ all the droplets
As they’re drippin’ off your hair it’s
So amazing how you find
Another way to blow my mind”
–Make You Mine
10. EPISTROPHE (aka epiphora): the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases or verses.
“Can’t you be my light?
Please be my light”
–Lonely Night
11. EPIZEUXIS: The repeated use of a word for vehemence or emphasis, generally in the same sentence.
“That day, that day, that day, that day, that day”
–One Fine Day
“I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know who I am who I am who I am”
–Till Then
12. EXTENDED or SUSTAINED METAPHOR; the use of a single metaphor or analogy throughout a poem.
“If life is nothing but a party
Your name is on the marquee”
–Life Is A Party
“Even if there are speed bumps to slow me down
I have to speed up again
I keep stopping, when I start to go, I stop again
I raise the speed but you tell me to stop”
–Navigation
“We’re like a puzzle
I want to put them together
Fitting vivid-colored pieces with each other”
–Puzzle
“Because the heart can act like a mirror
In a reflection of one another
The pieces coming together make the world brighter”
–Mirror
13. HYPERBOLE: The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
“Even sweet rest is utterly bitter survival”
–Royal Rumble
“On the blackest of the nights
My heart burns blacker than the night”
–Tattoo
14. HYPERCATALECTIC: having an extra syllable or syllables at the end of a metrically complete verse
“It’s time of the season
I just wanna breathe it in”
–Summer Dream
15. HYPOCATASTASIS: An implied comparison or resemblance that does not directly name its referent (an implied SIMILE or METAPHOR).
“The streets of Paris speak to me”
–The Moment
16. INTERNAL RHYME: two rhyming words juxtaposed inside of the line
“What can I do to get you through
And make you change your mind?”
–Someone Else
17. LETTER-FOR-LETTER SPELLING
“D.I.A.M.O.N.D girl”
–Diamond Girl
18. METAPHOR: A comparison which directly relates one thing to another unrelated thing.
“Every night’s a breath of life when the city never sleeps”
–Life Is A Party
“We are the fire in the rain”
–Fire and Rain
“I’m your navigation”
–Navigation
19. METONYMY: the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is associated
“Only black and white, like the piano”
–Still
20. ONOMATOPOEIA: a word that sounds like the noise it describes
“Tick tock when I see you”
–Face To Face
21. PARALLELISM: the usage of repeating words and forms to give pattern and rhythm to a passage, either to juxtapose contrasting ideas or connect similar ideas.
“’Cause when I’m with you
You’re not with me”
–Someone Else
22. PARADOX: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
“When I see you I can’t breathe, I need to see you to breathe”
–Between us
23. SIMILE: A stated comparison (usually formed with “like” or “as”) between two dissimilar things.
“Something in the way that you laugh is like a sunflower”
–Summer Dream
“Like a child
Just like heaven”
–Like A Child
“Like the water drops that soak the dry earth
You filled my insecure heart”
–Glory Days
“My past times are on film like a movie star”
–27 Years
“I can feel your lips settle down on mine like a butterfly”*
–Daisy
*lyric by Lee Jungshin
24. SLANT RHYME: two words located at the end of a line of poetry themselves end in similar—but not identical—consonant sounds or syllable
“Don’t know how to describe
What’s going on inside”
–The Moment
“Can you let me breath?
Can you let me dream?”
–Lonely Night
“Every day is a miracle
The colors are a spectacle”
–Summer Dream
25. CONCEIT: a typically unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor whose appeal is more intellectual than emotional
“People told me nothing’s easy, that’s why I go hard”
–Ryu Can Do It
“When the cloud covers the sky
And stars have closed their eyes”
–Supernova
“So I’m drunk by noisy sights”
–Jellyfish
I’m Sorry: The Low Point in Sell Your Haunted House
SPOILER ALERT: for up to Episode 13
I’m currently watching the outstanding South Korean drama Sell Your Haunted House, the fantasy thriller about a badass female exorcist and her conman partner, which is now airing on KBS2 and on various online international platforms. In addition to stellar performances by the cast, a strong script and excellent direction, killer art direction, and finely tuned worldbuilding, I’ve been impressed by the show’s impeccable demonstration of storytelling skills.
Right now the drama is at what is usually referred to as the low point or the crisis point in classic story structure. It’s the moment in the narrative when the main characters are facing their most difficult challenge and when the situation seems most dire. In the case of Sell Your Haunted House, Hong Ji-Ah (played with fierce and cool conviction by Jang Nara) has just discovered the truth about her mother’s death and she’s so shook that she’s decided to quit exorcising and abandon her past life. She also seems to be cutting ties with two of her most important relationships, with her business partner and mentor Secretary Joo and with her “special psychic” Oh In-Beom (a charming and lovely Jung Yonghwa). In other words, she’s rejecting all human contact and running away because her world has crumbled around her, which is a classic reaction to the low point in a narrative.
Of course she probably won’t actually run away and stop being an exorcist, as is shown later in the episode by her returning to help her distraught neighbor send off her dead son’s unrested spirit. She also reconciles with In-Beom, though she claims it’s for the sake of expediency, not because she’s permanently accepted him back into her life. But the last three episodes of the show will lead to the final confrontation with the bad guy, the evil real estate developer who’s the reason for most of the havoc in the story. This also follows classic storytelling form, as the low point usually precedes the narrative’s climactic events. Sell Your Haunted House has so far been flawlessly paced and plotted and I fully expect that its conclusion will be deeply satisfying, in no small part because the writers understand how storytelling works. Because the bones of the plot are so solid and the show is rooted in a strong narrative structure, I’m pretty sure that the grand finale will deliver. Now the only question is, will the main leads hook up at the end? Or will their potential romance be unrequited? Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing how the writers wrap it all up.
Watch Sell Your Haunted House on VIki, Viu, and Kocowa
Then, now and forever: CNBLUE’s Re-Code album review
Urin gwageo hyeonjae miraee isseo
CNBLUE’s new EP, Re-Code, dropped recently, and it’s the band’s first South Korean release in more than 3 ½ years, with the members spending much of that period serving their mandatory 20-month Korean military service. There’s been a lot of water under the bridge for CNBLUE during that time, including a major personnel shakeup, and their latest release pivots hard toward a new musical sensibility. Unlike their last Korean release, 7ºCN, back in 2017, Re-Code features more acoustic guitars and no trap beats, a development that is not on trend at all in the pop music world and which to my mind is wholly refreshing. One of the tracks even features a spot of whistling and for the most part there are no electric guitar solos.
This is going to be an epic post since it’s CNBLUE’s first Korean release in nearly four years. In particular I’m gonna do a deep dive into the title track, Then, Now, and Forever, as it’s an exemplary piece of pop music that explores unhappiness and depression in an notably grown-up way. The song is a driving, midtempo rock song that’s a raw and delicate expression of the vulnerability and numbness that comes from trying to forget and to continue living despite loss and insecurity, and for me it conjures up all the feels during this year of COVID-19.
The syncopated tick-tocking guitar riff that opens the track, overlaid with a delicate woohooo melisma before the start of the verse establishes the dreamy, sad tone for the song. This carries through into the verse, which sets the stage with its melancholy lyrics. (trans. @buin_jungshin, FNC entertainment)
Oneul nalssi malgeum
(The weather today is sunny)
Ohueneun meokgureum
(But there will be dark clouds in the afternoon)
Nae maeumeun gyesok biga naeril yejeong
(I expect it will keep raining in my heart)
Then the meter of the lyrics doubles in a singsong beat, echoing the childlike reference to friends and playing.
Chingudeura mianhae
(I’m sorry, friends)
Oneuldo nan ppajilge
(I’m going to sit out again today)
Neohui mameun aneunde
(I know how you feel)
Sigan jogeumman jullae
(But won’t you give me some time)
Gyesok mami sseuril yejeong
(I expect to still be heartbroken)
This wistful beginning then charges into the intensity of the pre-chorus and after that the song doesn’t look back as it travels through its heartbreakingly fraught emotional territory.
At the beginning and the end of the day
Now, at the thread of parting
We are bound together, tangled
Like a knot
Some days I’m fine
Sometimes I miss you like crazy
Sometimes I hate you so much
Again
The ebb and flow of the song’s structure is also a refreshing change from the mechanized beats of most pop music these days. There are several pauses, including between the first pre-chorus and the chorus and after the bridge, which allow the song to breathe in a human rhythm that is absent in pop songs that use a preset drum track. This gives the song life and power, expanding and elongating the song’s tempo and giving it a lovely, fluid aliveness that meshes perfectly with the instrumentation of guitars, organ, drums and bass.
Drummer Kang Minhyuk and bassist Lee Jungshin supply a strong, steady backbone for the track and their reliable work does a lot of heavy lifting in the song. The rapid ratatat drum that underscores the first line of the chorus also elevates the emotion from the pre-chorus, and the church-like organ riff, the guitars, and the flowing bassline create a Spectoresque wall of sound that drives the song’s intensity. Whereas the chorus churns along mostly in a major key, the final repetition of the hook (urin gwageo hyeonjae miraee isseo) ends the song on three notes (G, D, Bflat to A) that form a perfect G minor chord, lending a melancholy and longing to the outro. The track’s final flourish on the piano closes the song like a caress, a beautiful moment of stillness after the passionate, driving beat of the second half of the song.
UPDATE: This amateur musicologist just realized a key element of the song that I’d missed before, which is the switching between two time signatures. The song’s verse and prechorus is in 6/8 time, which creates a looping, circular mood that accentuates the sensation of being trapped or stuck in a rut. The chorus and bridge then switch to 4/4 time, lending an urgency and drive to that section of the track. Swapping smoothly between the two time signatures is one of the things that makes the song feel fresh and unpredictable and which emphasizes the tune’s emotive power.
Credit must also be given to Jung Yonghwa’s effortlessly virtuoso vocal performance on this track. He goes from a breathy whisper to throbbing sustains to a clear falsetto to belting in the blink of an eye, imbuing each line with emotion and meaning and exploiting the dynamic range of his voice to mesh perfectly with the song’s swings from sadness to frustration to deep mourning. He’s developed his voice into a powerful and evocative instrument and his control over it is flawless. The chorus includes a sweet falsetto immediately followed by another belt, which is no mean feat, and more vocal fireworks occur at the end of the bridge where he lets loose with a gorgeous descending vocal run that literally stops the song in its tracks. This is closely followed by another breathy vocal fill that leads to full-out belting during the last chorus. Throughout the song Yonghwa’s performance embodies and elevates the song’s emotional core. Watching live recordings of the song further reveals his control and range as he navigates the complexities of the song in real time with ease.
The song’s beautifully crafted structure, Yonghwa’s virtuoso vocals, its emotionally charged, poetic lyrics, and the buzzing rock guitar and throwback Hammond organ over the pulsing backbeat all make for highly satisfying listening on many different levels. Although it can be read as a simple breakup song between lovers, to anyone familiar with the past four years of CNBLUE’s existence the song means much more. Despite great popularity for most of their careers, starting with their highly successful debut in 2010, things fell apart for the members around 2016 when the South Korean media attached various controversies to the band. Former lead guitarist Lee Jonghyun left the band in mid-2019 under a cloud of controversy, and a long silence about the issue followed, even after the rest of the members were discharged from the army in March 2020. Because of COVID-19 their normally busy touring schedule ceased, which only led to more speculation about their future. So this song, released more than a year after Yonghwa’s military discharge, is the first public statement they’ve made about their status as a band.
Though the song might not specifically be about their former band member it’s definitely about the loss of their past musical existence and in some ways, about the end of their youth. Many of CNBLUE’s past songs feature vocal duets between Yonghwa and Jonghyun and Jonghyun’s guitar playing played a very prominent role in defining their musical color. Many of those songs would now be very difficult to play live, so if nothing else CNBLUE may be mourning the loss of their excellent and extensive back catalog.
The album’s other tracks are also outstanding and it’s notable how different they are from one another. The second track, Til Then, is a musical palate-cleanser after the intensely mournful rock groove of Then, Now, and Forever. Opening with a lively round of whistling followed by a mellow acoustic guitar riff, the melody’s upbeat mood is nonetheless belied by the angsty lyrics. (trans: @cnbstaraccord)
I’m not allowed to laugh out loud
I’m not allowed to express my mood
“Don’t get cocky with me”
I get it, I’m okay with anything
Laughing like you’re happy in this world
Sounds like another world’s story
It’s a slightly depressing peek into Yonghwa’s constrained life as a South Korean idol and celebrity where every move is controlled and any mistake can have grave professional and personal consequences. The somewhat grim lyrics exist at odds with the light, perky music, reflecting the cheerful facade over the dark interior life that the song recounts.
As with Yonghwa’s solo Japanese release earlier this year, Re-Code includes a city pop track, In Time. The song harkens back to the lounge/jazz/disco hybrid genre made popular in Japan and other parts of Asia in the 1970s and 80s and exemplified by tracks such as Mariya Takeuchi’s Plastic Love, Naoko Gushima Candy, and Tatsurō Yamashita’s Love Space, and by modern-day practitioners like Taiwan indie band Sunset Rollercoaster. Like classic city pop, In Time is beautiful, lush, and sweet, with a supple bassline and a gorgeous synth break at the bridge. Yonghwa utilizes a breathy, light vocal style that includes a divine falsetto in the chorus and a nice high belt in the bridge. The song has a sweet, sad air of memory and regret, with lyrics that again describe a longing for someone missing or gone.
I’m living in you
But no matter how hard I look
You’re nowhere to be seen
I’m breathing in your traces
But you’re not here
The fourth track, Winter Again, includes one of my favorite of Yonghwa’s little vocal traits. It’s a distinctive vibrating resonance that his voice hits when he sings a certain high note, when the rasp in his voice perfectly aligns with the note he’s singing, and that’s in full effect in the song’s chorus. It’s just a short sustain of a slight high note and it’s not loud or powerful or particularly flashy, but when it happens it’s riveting.
The song’s lyrics, free-written in a stream-of-consciousness style, seem at first to be about the banalities of everyday life. But on closer inspection they’re actually an extended metaphor for the deceptiveness of daily perceptions. (trans: @cnbstaraccord)
It’s warm inside the room
Looking out the window it seems warm (outside) too
The human heart is like this too
(So) the wind was this cold
The mundane details of the lyrics mesh perfectly with the simple, country-rock guitar sound, performed by CNBLUE’s frequent sideman and studio musician extraordinaire Jung Jae-pil 정재필. Jung also plays on two other tracks, Then, Now, and Forever, and Til Then, filling in in lieu of the band’s former lead guitarist.
The album’s last track, Blue Stars, was written with the band’s loyal fans in mind. An upbeat, jaunty tune, the song is made up of a mix of nonsense syllables, easy Korean phrases and lyrics in English that are designed for singing along no matter what your language skills. After the moodiness of the first four songs it’s a nice, lively way to end the album on a more optimistic note. The entire EP is like one big therapy session and this song is the equivalent of a group hug. After processing the angst and melancholy of the past few years this track points the way to potentially better days. Or as noted in Then, Now, and Forever,
I hope we are happy now
It would be nice if we were happy now
I bet an ordinary day will come to me again
We’re here then, now and forever
(trans. @buin_jungshin)
To have CNBLUE come back with this new, glorious release now, after this impossible year of COVID-based deprivation, is like a beam of hope that signals better times to come. It hits different for those of us who have been living the restricted, maddening life that is COVID-19 in the United States, and it’s so much more meaningful seen through that lens. As always, in this new album CNBLUE has created resonant, relevant, and beautiful music.
The Endless Melody: Jung Yonghwa’s Feel the Y’s City album review
Evolution, Jung Yonghwa
CNBLUE’s leader Jung Yonghwa finished up his mandatory military service in the South Korean army last November and since then he’s been reemerging in Asia’s music and entertainment scene. Feel the Y’s City, his third solo Japanese album, just dropped recently and it shows Yonghwa’s continued evolution as an artist as he moves farther and farther from his Kpop idol roots.
The album’s lead track, The Moment, is an astoundingly joyous song, exploding with optimism and hope. Considering that Yonghwa recorded this just after he’d just gone through one of the darkest periods of his career it’s amazing that he was able to infuse such sheer happiness and hope into this track. This one is pure jazz at its most swinging, and it mixes up some killer changes over a driving piano riff, vibes, and blaring horns. Before he entered the military Yonghwa mentioned his admiration for the soundtrack to the film LaLa Land and The Moment definitely takes its inspiration from that style of midcentury jazz-based pop music. But Yonghwa is a better singer than either Ryan Gosling or Emma Stone and his smooth and swinging, powerful vocals drive the song. He effortlessly travels from his warm lower register up to a sweet falsetto.
The lyrics are mostly in English, with a smattering of phrases in French that seem be taken from a French For Beginners handbook, but he does a great job of rhyming in two languages that are not native to him. Although his French is delivered with a decidedly flat American accent, at one point he cleverly rhymes champagne, display, parlez, and café, which is pretty impressive for someone writing not in his first language. Throughout the song he further randomly throws in other French phrases, including a curious line that reads “Let’s get away and find ourselves la vie en rose, encore,” which sounds a bit like he strung together all of the French words he knew to make a lyric. Later in the song he shouts, “C’est la vie!” again not quite matching the proper use of the term. But it’s not bad for someone writing for the first time in French. I’m a bit surprised he didn’t include “mon petit chou” somewhere but that probably didn’t properly scan.
The next track, Summer Night In Heaven, continues the curious admixture of even more languages. Back in August I wrote a note to myself saying, “I have no doubt that Yonghwa can write a genius city pop song if he wants to,” and sure enough, Summer Night In Heaven is it. The song opens with a throwback guitar riff that emulates the crackly scratches of a vinyl record, followed by an outstanding bit of whistling that leads into Yonghwa’s relaxed, funky vocals. The lyrics are all pretty much about his blissed-out vacations to Hawai’i, and the song’s gently loping beat echoes his Zen experiences there. The track also includes a pleasant bit of Yonghwa scatting over a guitar interlude, a skill he showed off at his last concert tour before enlisting back in 2018.
The chorus demonstrates the polyglot scenario in his busy brain as he mashes up English, Spanish, Hawai’ian, and Japanese.
Summer night in heaven. Don’t you know the reason?
Groovin’ to the soul playground of freedom
Loco Ala Moana Forever I wanna
Uchiyosete kaesu shiosai no kōrasu (The chorus of the tide rushing back)
This somewhat random assemblage of languages, charmingly sung without regard to proper accenting or syntax, still manages to work, conveying the joyful and relaxing, utterly optimistic worldview that Yonghwa seems to be cultivating since his discharge from the army last year.
Continuing in that upbeat vein, the next track, She Knows Everything, is a sweet, simple pop song that’s the definition of a catchy earworm bop. The track is a streamlined throwback to ‘90s new jack swing, anchored by Yonghwa’s gorgeous falsetto. The song’s hooky chorus features Yonghwa’s lovely flutelike upper register as he sings, “I’m in trouble/In Good Trouble,” showing off his effortless, silky vocal range. Here the completely English lyrics sweetly outline a charmed relationship:
When my words get fumbled
Sometimes I’m misunderstood
Before I trip and stumble
She knows how to catch me long before I hit the ground
Once again Yonghwa invokes the Minnesota sound made famous by Prince, with a bright synthesizer jamming over the songs danceable beats.
In Jellyfish Yonghwa uses an upbeat dance track to emulate the backstabbing, duplicitous entertainment world that he inhabits. The song was recorded while he was enduring a particularly vicious witchhunt and Yonghwa shows a remarkable self-awareness for his situation at the time, questioning his own complicity in the trap that he’s in. Although Yonghwa is too polite to say it, the song clearly is about his adopted hometown of Seoul, where he’s spent most of his professional life and where he’s experienced his greatest successes and his greatest betrayals.
The fully electronic instrumentation adds a metallic tang to the song, and the song’s ringing, manufactured beats mesh perfectly with Yonghwa’s raspy purr of a voice. Although beautiful and seductive, the song is completely artificial and false, reinforcing the lyrics which describe being crushed, empty, deluded, and trapped. They also clearly describe the seductiveness and lure of the entertainment world, which Yonghwa envisions as a warm bath of oblivion and deception.
I am bathing in the light of the moon
Always floating
With all the jellyfish in bloom
They are shining in the dark, closing in
Hiding poison
I’m deeper in the city’s womb
The entire song vibrates with mendacity, but Yonghwa doesn’t shy away from his own attraction to the bright lights of fame and fortune, realizing that jellyfish are beautiful but potentially deadly and choosing to tangle with them can be fatal.
There’s a risk I could take when I touch you
Get paralyzed by your sting
Stimulus leads to hallucination
I’d sacrifice for anything
The next track, Fire & Rain, is a dreamy midtempo jam that opens with Yonghwa climbing from midrange to head voice in a beautifully sung acapella phrase. The song then kicks into a powerful dance groove. Yonghwa croons in and around the beat, his understated phrasing and intonation emphasizing the melancholy yet hopeful lyrics (in Japanese and English, with a “fiesta” thrown in for good measure).
We ’re the fire in the rain
hibiku ame no oto daichi ni utai inochi o naraseba fukinukeru kaze seimei no
Breathing moeru yō ni
(Sing on the earth/The Breathing of Life)
Although a very different song, the mood is reminiscent of Yonghwa’s 2014 composition for CNBLUE, Like A Child, as the music and lyrics create a hypnotic ambiance that suggests hope amongst despair.
Melody is a gorgeous slice of orchestral pop, with some lovely half-step progressions that elevate the chorus. Again Yonghwa’s stellar vocals shine, as he runs up and down his range with a fine falsetto at the end of the song, and the song’s arrangement of cascading strings over a lilting piano interweaves beautifully with Yonghwa’s passionate singing. This track was also one of the five recorded before enlistment and released while Yonghwa was in the army and it reflects his desire to continue making music no matter what difficulties or obstacles he faces.
Sekaijuu ni saita Harmony mamoritai yo kienai you ni
Sugite yuku toki no naka de kawaranai you ni
Kiitetai yo towa ni ima doko ni ite mo
Hibikaseyou Baby owarinonai Melody
(I want to protect the harmony that bloomed all over the world, so it doesn’t disappear
So it doesn’t change within this advancing time
I want to listen to it forever, wherever you are now
Let it resound, baby, the endless melody)
At the time he recorded this song there was some doubt as to whether Yonghwa would continue making music so this song holds significant meaning, rededicating his pledge to himself, his bandmates, and his fans to keep going with his career.
The two tracks that immediately follow Melody were also recorded during the controversies prior to Yonghwa’s enlistment and both reflect the state of mind he was in during that crazy time.
Brothers is a straight-up rock song, with power chords and a wailing guitar riff that clearly emulates the style of Yonghwa’s longtime collaborator and bandmate Lee Junghyun (who is currently exiled from CNBLUE following his tangential association with the Burning Sun controversy). In this song Yonghwa also pays tribute to Oasis, one of his favorite bands, as the track has a distinctly Britpop sound to it. The lyrics brilliantly set up the song’s premise, starting with the everyday conflicts that occur between close mates and friends.
Screaming at each other again
We never seem to click,
We’re fighting all of the time
Surrounded by tension and strain
So sick of all your jokes
This stark honesty demonstrates an understanding of the complexities of a longstanding relationship and show Yonghwa’s maturity of thought. As in Letter, despite ups and downs, working through and resolving these struggles ultimately creates an strong and lasting relationship.
The chorus reverses the conflicts introduced in the first verse, revealing the deep bond forged from such conflicts.
When you told me your dreams
And your ambitions
Something crushed inside of me
I see right through you the same
Same way you see right through me
Goin’ back when I found my soul brother
So we’ll never be apart
The song takes on an extra poignancy now that the rest of CNBLUE’s members are returning from their military service. Although Yonghwa has declared that CNBLUE will go on, he’s been mum on whether or not the band’s future includes their erstwhile lead guitarist. Interestingly, while Yonghwa has recently expressed his desire to play rock music again, Brothers is the only track on the album that prominently features guitar, suggesting that he’s waiting for CNBLUE (in whatever formation) to come back in order to get his rock groove on.
Letter, a midtempo love song, also explores an up-and-down relationship that in some ways is a metaphor for Yonghwa’s sometimes problematic relationship with his fans and his career. Yonghwa belts the song effortlessly, infusing the track with a gentle and melancholy longing. He adds a few delicate and powerful trills to the chorus, hitting a sweet crescendo before the song’s soulful denouement. (go here for a more detailed analysis of this track)
The last track on the album, Livin’ It Up, returns to the big-band jazz sound of The Moment. Somewhat more saccharine and less substantial that the other track it nonetheless clearly conveys the mood and meaning Yonghwa intended, which he states is a tribute to the joys of New York City. The song is a throwback to midcentury popular jazz tunes and would be right at home in a Fred Astaire MGM joint, with its lyrics describing “Falling falling snow,” the Brooklyn Bridge, and Rockefeller Center at Christmastime. Somewhere in there there’s a thesis about the pervasiveness of the myth of American exceptionalism in the South Korean imaginary but that’s a discussion for another day.
All in all this is a solid outing and demonstrates Yonghwa’s continued interest in making music that he finds interesting and engaging, rather than what the market dictates. It shows his continued development as an artist rather than an idol or pop star, as he keeps going farther afield from current commercial pop music. Though some of the tracks such as Jellyfish and Fire & Rain are completely on trend, others such as the jazzier cuts are much quirkier and less radio-friendly. As well as his infatuation with big band and jazz, he’s recently stated his fondness for the Indian dream pop duo Parekh & Singh and he’s covered a snippet of a song by the alt-country duo Dan + Shay on his instagram, so his tastes run a wide gamut of pop music.
Not unlike the way he slices and dices several different languages in one song, Yonghwa synthesizes his musical influences in sideways and unexpected ways and it’s very fun following what his fevered mind comes up with. Yonghwa was about to start his latest Japan tour this week but due to the coronavirus crisis those dates have been pushed back until April at the earliest or we’d surely be hearing even more remixes and rearrangements of his music. He’s repeatedly stated that he writes his songs with live performances in mind, so hopefully we’ll soon be able to hear what new directions he’s taking his current batch of tunes. I’m hoping someone plays some Ornette Coleman for him soon as I’d love to hear what happens when he hears some really mindblowing free jazz. A girl can dream—
BONUS: a clip of the new live arrangement of CNBLUE’s Face To Face, originally recorded as a straight-up Motown style jam. Here Yonghwa completely reworks it, and all cutie-pie clowning aside, this is an absolutely killer arrangement of this song, mixing Latin beats, tempo changes, jazz breaks, and some dope strings.
UPDATE: As of March 10, Feel The Y’s City has scored big on the charts throughout much of Asia. In its first day of release on Feb. 26, all five of the new tracks from the album were in the top ten on Japan’s daily Recochoku Kpop/World music chart, with a sixth track, Letter, at number 50.
Three tracks, She Knows Everything, Summer Night in Heaven, and Welcome to the Y’s City, swept the top three for two consecutive weeks (Mar. 2 and 9) on China’s weibo New Asia Song Asia-Pacific chart. As noted on weibo, “The whole song has a cool summer feeling from the melody to the voice. There is a sense of playing on the beach.”
The album also charted high on iTunes in several countries, reaching the top 5 in eight countries and topping the charts in Macau and Hong Kong. The album even made it to number 32 on the worldwide iTunes chart, which isn’t bad considering there was absolutely no promotion outside of Asia.
Yonghwa’s new South Korean variety show, K-Trot In Town, also scored very high ratings in its debut episode, reaching 14.9% in the second half of its broadcast. So despite a few bumps including the postponement of his Japan concerts in March, Yonghwa’s re-entry following his discharge from the military for the most part is going well. But in the mercurial world of South Korean entertainment that could change in a flash. Here’s hoping that things continue to go smoothly, especially once the rest of CNBLUE gets out of the army later this month.
I Can’t Live Without You: Jung Yonghwa’s Special Forces
Resolve
CNBLUE leader Jung Yonghwa’s latest solo single, LETTER, dropped on May 21 last week, which is a bit odd considering that he’s been in the army for the past couple months, but the circumstances surrounding his enlistment in early March were anything but ordinary. He entered the military under a white-hot spotlight but still managed to keep his dignity and poise despite the intense scrutiny he was under the time. This is evidenced by the release of this latest single, which for all intents and purposes probably would not exist without Yonghwa’s resolve and strength of character.
Happier days
2017 was a fine year for Yonghwa and CNBLUE, full of music and accomplishments, and the band seemed to be leaving the ugly spectre of 2016 behind. In the beginning of January 2018 things continued to go along smoothly, with Yonghwa’s successful variety show Island Trio just completing its first season and another, TalkMon, just starting. Yonghwa was appointed an honorary ambassador to the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympics and had booked several dates for his solo Asia tour into the early spring. There were hints of a CNBLUE comeback in South Korea as well as in Japan and CNBLUE members were riding the wave of each playing leading roles in popular Korean dramas the year before.
Character assassination
Then out of the blue on January 18 came a blind item in the South Korean media accusing the leader of a popular idol band of receiving preferential treatment in admissions to graduate school at Kyung Hee University. After several hours of frenzied speculation the idol turned out to be Yonghwa, but his purported crime was almost laughable. Instead of taking his entrance interview on campus at KHU, due to his busy schedule one of the college’s professors went to Yonghwa’s studio at FNC Entertainment, his agency, and interviewed him there. No big deal, right? Unfortunately the press played this up as a sin on the level of killing and eating the president’s daughter on live television and Yonghwa was vilified for several days for what was essentially a clerical error. The press dug up and revealed his confidential entrance test scores (he did pretty well, actually, getting a 98 out of 100 on the practical score because DUH he’s a professional musician), Korean netizens ruthlessly scrutinized his intentions for wanting to go to grad school, and the general public assailed his honesty and assassinated his character by suggesting that he went through the back door in order to gain admission to KHU. This despite the fact that out of the eight people who applied to the program, all eight were admitted, and that KHU had to ask Yonghwa several times to apply since they were short of students. All of this speculation took place over a few days and in the meantime Yonghwa’s character was viciously attacked and his professional reputation was seriously damaged. He was edited out of a couple television shows he’d recorded earlier and the last two shows of his solo tour were cancelled.
And to add insult to injury, on January 26 Yonghwa announced that he was enlisting in the army effective March 5, so all of his future events were effectively ended. Whether punitive or not on the part of the South Korean government, this clearly was a surprise. As an ambassador for the Pyeongchang Paralympics, which began March 9, Yonghwa would surely have been prominently featured.
Pre-shitstorm
The chain of events was astoundly swift and the shitstorm was intense. It seemed like one minute Yonghwa was posing for pictures with the president of South Korea and the next he was being accused of cheating, lying, and avoiding military service, all within about a week.
But although the judgment in the press was rapid and cruel, Yonghwa didn’t waste a lot of time moping around. Apparently once he knew of his enlistment date he went into creative overdrive, with the results being a pair of completely revamped concerts held in Seoul the weekend before he entered the army and the recording of five new songs, complete with music videos. These songs are scheduled to be released one at a time until his enlistment ends in early December 2019, and LETTER is the first of these. He also participated in the creation of a photobook, wrote the lyrics for a song for his labelmates AOA, recorded 90 short voice messages to be released weekly for fans, and recorded at least one new song with CNBLUE. In some ways this rigorous work schedule must have been a respite from the insanity of the Korean press savagely slandering him every day. It was probably a relief to retreat to the bliss of his studio where he could create music in peace instead of having to deal with the endless recriminations of the relentlessly pursuing media.
LETTER, the new single, is a lovely and understated track, with Yonghwa’s controlled yet emotional delivery carrying the song. It’s deceptively simple, with a spare arrangement of strings, piano, drums, percussion, and vocals, but the song’s structure and build are outstanding. Yonghwa sings the song’s plaintive first verse to a straightforward piano accompaniment, then jumps immediately into a hooky earworm where he belts the refrain, alternating the English phrase “I can’t live without you” with Japanese lyrics. The somewhat lower pitch of the song adds to its melancholy, especially in the last line of the chorus, which features a particularly sweet and melodic vocal run ending in a subtle octave jump. Yonghwa’s rich, husky vocals are spot on as he easily hits the chorus’s high notes after purring the softer lines of the verse, throwing in a bit of delicate falsetto as well as some growly lower tones. He knows exactly how to express emotion with his voice without resorting to gimmicks or over-singing.
The song’s lyrics outline an ill-fated romance between a couple who alternate between affection and quarreling, yet at the end of the song Yonghwa affirms his commitment to the relationship despite its troubles. This reflects a maturity and growth in thinking from his past compositions such as COLD LOVE (2014), which laments a lost relationship without hope of reconciliation, or LALALA (2013), which expresses regret for a recent breakup. The ambivalence of the love story in some ways reflects Yonghwa’s love/hate relationship with the South Korean press and public, with his agency, and with his career, all things that benefit him but which also have hurt him terribly.
Prodigious
Like many very talented people Yonghwa makes what he does look effortless. But unfortunately the flip side of this is that people don’t appreciate the amount of work it actually takes for him to do what he does, so a lot of his labor goes unrecognized. As an example, even during that dire month or so when the South Korean press was excoriating him on a daily basis he managed to produce a huge amount of work. Yet judging from the quality of his final concerts just days before enlisting as well as the beautiful simplicity of his new single he managed to keep up his superhuman standard of excellence despite the immense stress he was under. In part his prodigious amount of work during that time was probably a coping mechanism during the chaos of those final six weeks after his enlistment was announced, as a balm against the haters who were attacking him as well as an FU to those trying to destroy him. Rather than backing down or giving up he instead doubled down on his creative output.
Yonghwa enlisted on March 5 and after he finished his five weeks of basic training he did well enough to be recruited for South Korea’s special forces, an elite commando regiment that trains much more intensively than standard troops. In recent history only one other South Korean celebrity, Lee Seung Gi, has qualified to be admitted to the special forces, although another notable alumnus is current South Korean president Moon Jae-In. While most idols are content to spend their mandatory military service in the regular forces, Yonghwa instead committed to this much more difficult and rigorous regiment, which is stationed right near the border between North and South Korea and which is a part of South Korea’s first line of defense against any threat’s to the country’s security, including that of its restive neighbor. This is no cushy desk job or civil service position—it’s hardcore military training in the coldest part of the country, not far from the DMZ, and under harsh and exacting conditions. By choosing the special forces Yonghwa is shutting down anyone who slandered him during his recent controversy or who doubted his desire to serve his country.
The real deal
It may be surprising to the casual observer that a Kpop idol would choose such a difficult path but Yonghwa is very driven and this gives him the chance to further test himself to his limits. Also, according to some accounts serving in the regular South Korean military can be a bit monotonous, filled with a lot of tedious physical tasks, whereas the special forces is the real deal. Yonghwa is an intense person who is easily bored so he might prefer hard training as opposed to just killing time in the regular military.
I also wonder if Yonghwa is harboring a little bit of rage at how he was treated by in South Korea before his enlistment. It couldn’t have been easy for him to swallow all of the abuse he endured, but he’s not the type to lash out at others, so this gives him a socially acceptable outlet for any anger or frustration he might be feeling, allowing him to forget his past troubles and to focus on the special forces’ intensive training.
Stronger
The special forces will also make him physically stronger, which can be interpreted as a way of making himself less vulnerable in order to defend himself against the crazy industry he’s in. Maybe he’s also figuring out that being the good boy and playing by the rules is no protection and that it’s useless to try to be perfect—respectability politics never work so he has to learn to fend for himself.
It couldn’t have been easy for Yonghwa to go away in the middle of such a fruitful period in his career. There is not enough time in the world for a person like him to accomplish all he wants to do and to have his time cut short so abruptly is a cruel blow. As a creative person I know the utter frustration of having to abandon a project halfway through, or to have something cut short without coming to fruition. It’s almost like a physical pain, a halt, an abrupt and unnatural end when something can’t be completed, and Yonghwa’s two-year military service may seem like a long hiatus for an artist in the midst of making work.
Military man
But two years is not that long in the grand scheme of things. Fashions in pop music go by in an instant but those with true talent withstand and transcend trends. Yonghwa and CNBLUE have already proven that they are more that just a flash in the pan and they have the drive, the skills, and the ability to be around for a long, long time.
Will Yonghwa be the same lighthearted person he used to be once when he comes back from the army? Onstage he radiates an infectious joyousness—will he lose the playfulness that makes his live performances so magical? Will the military make him stern and hard-bitten? I think not, but he may carry with him some of the grief and sadness from his recent hardships. But although the bright-eyed boy may disappear, the man to come will be stronger and bolder and will shine more incandescently than ever.
UPDATE: As of Aug. 7, 2018 the other three members of CNBLUE have enlisted as well. CNBLUE becomes the first Kpop group to all enlist together in the same year and by doing so they’ve made sure their hiatus is only about two years. There has also been some kind of re-calculating in the South Korean military that’s shortened the time for all those currently serving, so Yonghwa’s return date has moved up about a month, to early November 2019. The other three members should be back shortly after that, around March 2020, so it won’t be too long before CNBLUE returns to the stage together. Great news all around.
UPDATE 2: To put Yonghwa’s whole university admissions brouhaha into context, here’s a bit of background. It was basically a made-up controversy to cover up the real political scandal when former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was about to be arrested for corruption, right around the time that South Korea was ramping up to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. When the world’s attention was about to focus on South Korea the country’s powers-that-be wanted to divert attention away from any taint of political scandal, especially since President Park Geun-hye had just been arrested and charged with corruption the year before in 2017. So as is often the case with idols and Kpop stars when the public needs to be distracted from various wrongdoings by the government or the wealthy business sector, South Korea’s media threw Yonghwa under the bus.
UPDATE 3: On October 8, 2018 Yonghwa’s agency FNC Entertainment announced that he had been cleared of any suspicion of guilt or wrongdoing in the investigation of charges of preferential treatment. Of course the damage had been done long before during the initial witch hunt in January but it’s still nice that he was officially vindicated after all that. Ultimately it was the South Korean media as well as the netizens who so gleefully dragged Yonghwa who ended up looking shady, as their initial condemnation of him has proven to be unfounded. Not a good look for them at all, while Yonghwa’s character and ethics again stand up to a harsh and unnecessary test. I hope these fiery trials are helping to forge and strengthen his resolve, and that he’s able to emerge stronger and more brilliant than ever once his enlistment ends.
Get Ur Freak On: Favorite Movies of 2017
My favorite films from 2017 made the list for a variety of reasons but these are the movies I most enjoyed from last year. Three of the films were theatrically released in 2016 but I viewed them first at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) in 2017 so I’m including them here. I saw Get Out and The King on plane flights, but the rest I watched in a cinema somewhere. Listed in no particular order.
Pulchritude, Jung Yonghwa and Nicholas Tse, Cook Up A Storm, 20171
1. Cook Up A Storm: This film is on the list for the purely aesthetic pleasure of seeing Jung Yonghwa’s perfect features on the big screen. There’s also a lot of nice food porn cinematography but the movie itself is quite lightweight and if it didn’t star my boy Yonghwa (as well as the equally photogenic Nicholas Tse) I’m not sure I would have even given it the time of day. But I’m a big fan of pulchritude so I’m putting it on my list.
Emo, Lee Byung Hun, The Fortress, 20172.
2. The Fortress: Lee Byung Hun rehabilitates his public image completely in Hwang Dong Hyuk’s absorbing and emo historical about a famously tragic moment in Korean history. While Lee is brilliant as the courtier who must make an unbearable moral choice the rest of the cast is also excellent, including Kim Yoon Seok as Lee’s counterpart, the equally conflicted royal advisor who also pays a heavy price for his decisions.
Wary, Song Kang Ho, A Taxi Driver, 2017
3. A Taxi Driver: Song Kang Ho is solid as usual in director Jang Hoon’s retelling of the 1980 Gwang Ju uprising, in which the repressive government brutally put down student protestors in the southern Korean city. Although the film doesn’t shy away from the political ramifications of the story it’s still very character-driven, as Song’s wary taxi driver gradually comes around to the side of justice and truth. Bonus points for a dope car chase that turns spunky taxicabs into vehicles for the resistance.
Indistinguishable, Jung Woo Sung, The King, 2017
4. The King: The third South Korean film on this list attests to the strength and diversity of that country’s commercial film industry. Han Jae Rim’s brutal and cynical political thriller, in which the gangsters are indistinguishable from the lawyers and politicians supposedly opposing them, includes a great performance from rising star Ryu Jun-yeol, who also had a strong supporting role in A Taxi Driver.
Complicit, Mon Mon Mon Monsters, 2017
5. Mon Mon Mon Monsters: Giddens Ko’s horror film/teen movie presents a nightmare high school scenario where no one is innocent and everyone is complicit. As he stated in his introduction to the film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, who is the real monster in the movie?
Fierce, James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, 2016
6. I Am Not Your Negro: Raoul Peck’s doc about the legendary James Baldwin shines when it connects the dots between past and present racism in the U.S. Although Samuel Jackson’s does a fine job narrating the film, he is easily upstaged by archival footage of Baldwin himself fiercely speaking out about race, politics, and the historical and contemporary struggles of African Americans. Released 2016, viewed in 2017 at HKIFF.
Tensions, Justin Chon, Gook, 2017
7. Gook: Justin Chon’s indie gem presents the Korean American perspective on sa-i- gu, the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the Wind, Powell, Koons, and Briseno, the four police officers caught on video beating motorist Rodney King. Chon miniaturizes the conflicts of the time and his film effectively captures the racial tensions of that moment in time.
Lovely, Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me, 2017
8. Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me: An outstanding essay film directed by João Botelho, one of the influential Portuguese film director’s protégés. The film looks at the relationship between the late director and Botelho and concludes with a lovely restaging of one of Oliviera’s unfinished silent films.
Ellipses, Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahad Hosseini, The Salesman, 2017
9. The Salesman: Director Asghar Farhadi creates another humanistic look at moral ambiguity and human frailty. As in A Separation (2011), his use of narrative ellipses and architectural metaphors is masterful, as is his ability to draw out strong and sympathetic, vividly shaded performances from his cast. Released 2016, viewed in 2017 at HKIFF.
Unexpected, Window Horses, 2017
10. Window Horses: Another excellent animated feature from Ann Marie Fleming (The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, 2003), this time following a young Iranian-Chinese Canadian poet named Rose as she travels to her father’s home country for a poetry festival. Yes! Totally fun, unexpected and imaginative, with a gorgeous blend of hand-drawn and digitally generated animation.
Bleak,Tadanobu Asano, Harmonium, 2017
11. Harmonium: an utterly bleak family drama in the tradition of Tokyo Sonata, Koji Fukada’s movie shows the catastrophic consequences of a few bad life decisions. Released 2016, viewed in 2017 at CAAMfest.
Bravura, Youth, 2017
12. Youth: Feng Xiaogang’s look at a theater troupe in Cultural Revolution China uses a familiar trope of the youth romance film—the awkward country bumpkin outsider rebuffed in her attempts to join an elite, more sophisticated group–to cleverly investigate the deeper political and social elements dividing the country at the time. Utilizing his familiar bravura filmmaking style, including swooping camerawork and intense and masterfully conducted battle scenes, Feng never loses his focus on the impact of great historical events and social movements on ordinary human beings.
Unease, Terry Notary, The Square, 2017
13. The Square: Ruben Ostlund kicks up the social commentary a notch from Force Majeure (2014), and The Square is an even better film about male anxiety and weakness than its predecessor. Ostland is a master at inverting cinematic conventions and manipulating sound, image and editing to create maximum awkwardness, discomfort and unease.
Horrors, LaKeith Stanfield, Get Out, 2017
14. Get Out: A brilliant brilliant movie that proves that commercial genre films can be as significant as any other art form in capturing the zeitgeist of a moment in time and place. Director Jordan Peele utilizes the horror genre to reveal the true horrors in the U.S., where racism and oppression lie just below the surface of seemingly benign everyday gentility.
I Know You’re Coming Along: CNBLUE STAY GOLD album review
NOTE: One more CNBLUE post before I’m done. Bear with me as it’s the end of the year and they probably have run out of product for the time being.
CNBLUE’s new Japanese album, STAY GOLD, just dropped a few weeks ago and once again the Korean rock quartet blends its signature sound with some new beats and flavors. This time they’re mostly on the Jpop tip, and as a whole the album is a cohesive, solid piece of work, with each track flows seamlessly into the next, This is interesting considering almost every track is arranged by a different producer.
Freedom summer, Starting Over, 2017
The lead track, STARTING OVER, is a swinging soul throwback that hearkens back to Ray Charles and his mellow, piano-based R&B sound. The song combines acoustic rhythms mixed with electronic beats, with finger snapping, handclaps, and a rolling piano line that gets the toes tapping and the body swaying, and Yonghwa’s powerful, gorgeous vocals effortlessly convey the liberatory mood of the music. Apropos of its civil-rights era sound, the anthemic chorus and the lyrics, which implore the listener to “sing out loud with all our might/have fun just chillin’/unrestrained/set me free” (Japanese lyrics in italics) feels like something from a freedom summer bus ride. But the song also feels quite contemporary as the track includes a deep thrumming bass line and the second prechorus leads into some sinuous, buzzing guitar. Interestingly enough, the lyrics are almost evenly split between Japanese and English, making for an unusual linguistic mélange.
The second track, THIS IS, at first is a seemingly throwaway pop song that is actually quite sophisticated. This upbeat jam features Yonghwa singing the staccato triple-note Japanese lyrics in his best Jpop style, with a zippy synth line over a strong 4/4 structure that creates a beautiful piece of power pop. There’s a really nice moment about a minute before the end of the song where all instrumentation drops out except a simple, unfiltered piano line that bridges to the song’s conclusion.
The punchy third track, CAPTIVATE, written by Jonghyun, combines a strong rock beat with EDM elements. Yonghwa & Jonghyun flawlessly sing its all-English lyrics, and Yonghwa’s strong raspy voice contrasts nicely with Jonghyun’s smooth crooning.
ONLY BEAUTY, also written by Jonghyun, is a beautiful power ballad that really allows Yonghwa’s vocals to shine, making full use of his singing chops as he ranges from sweet, lilting vocals to raw yet controlled belting. Arranged by Japanese pop metal producer Tienowa, this is my favorite track as it creates a gorgeous soundscape that blends the sound of the Japanese lyrics with a lovely melody and beautiful production. This trip hop track reminds me a bit of their 2015 Japan cut SUPERNOVA as its dense wall of sound, with its fluid bass line, strong drums, crashing cymbals and echoing chorus creates a gloriously bombastic bed for Yonghwa’s powerful vocals. Yonghwa’s final acapella belt towards the end of the track showcases his raspy rock voice at its best.
Yonghwa’s composition, BUTTERFLY, meshes it Japanese lyrics perfectly with its pretty, jazzy melody and shows off more great work with Japanese collaborators Hasegawa and Tienowa. This beautiful bit of pop heaven includes some lovely piano and acoustic guitar picking, a smooth bass line, and a hint of synthesizer over Yonghwa and Jonghyun’s outstanding vocals, with a bit of electric guitar to dirty up the mix. The solitary piano break at the end of the song does a great job of reiterating the lovely bones of the song.
MIRROR is the album’s Jpop tribute, as it sounds like it could easily be an anime theme song with its combination of strings, horns, synthezer and poppy vocals. The track features some incredibly upbeat and cheerful lyrics written by Yonghwa, aka the world’s most optimistic person.
Because the heart can act like a mirror
In a reflection of one another
The pieces coming together make the world brighter
Let’s make a chain of hope
A billion hearts all in a row
Not meant to be only for me
The more we share we will be one
Who writes these kind of Hello kitty lyrics except a dreamer and an optimist? It’s actually kind of refreshing that Yonghwa isn’t embarrassed to sing such flagrantly sweet and sappy lyrics, and they fit the track’s poppy production to a T.
The album’s next track, SHAKE, is the title track from their last Japanese single last spring and it only gets better with repeated listens. It’s ridiculously catchy and danceable and it’s one of my favorite songs from their recent live performances too. The wacky music video is also worth a look as it shows a retro 1960s’ salaryman world gone mad.
The next track, SEEDS, is Jonghyun’s contribution to the album’s world of happiness. Entering into the Irish Rock sweepstakes, it’s another ridiculously upbeat song, with the all-english lyric proclaiming “from the times you cry the flowers grow.” The song is all about overcoming adversity, which reflects how the band has come back from their troubles last year. STAY GOLD is a far cry from last year’s Japanee release EUPHORIA, which was recorded immediately following the worst controversy of CNBLUE’s otherwise mostly successful career, and it had several fairly melancholy tracks on it. But 2017 ha been very kind to CNBLUE and STAY GOLD reflects the upswing in the band’s fortunes, with sold-out shows across Asia, starring roles in popular dramas, and strong sales for their solo and group releases alike.
The most downbeat song on the album is SOMEONE ELSE, another carryover from last spring’s SHAKE single. It’s bit of a mood anomaly but it had to be included here because it’s absolutely flawless. It features Yonghwa’s perfect English delivery, and his raspy voice here beautifully complements the country rock sound of the track. The song’s lyrical structure is also stellar, with paradoxes (when I’m with you/you’re not with me) that convey the melancholic longing of the tune, and the short meter of the first and third lines of the chorus cleverly breaks up the rhythm of the rhyme. A hint of strings, strummed guitar, and a popping bass line round out this clean, simple track that’s a genius blend of songwriting, production, and performance.
The album concludes with BOOK, another relentlessly upbeat, visionary song. Here Yongha’s storytelling skill really come to the fore as he uses the metaphor of a book to express the band’s long journey with its fanbase since its debut nearly eight years ago.
I open a book and my story to see you again
I know that you’re there for me
Remember the time when you gave me the strenth to begin
I know you’re a part of me
Take a step at a time
Cause I gotta believe
I’m gonna make the climb
When I gotta to be strong
and I have to be brave
I know you’re coming along
This may be the last full-length Japanese releae before Yongha’s enlistment sometime in 2018 and it’s as if he’s reassuring fans that both they and the band will endure the long hiatus and come out of it together on the other side. In some way it’s a love song to their fans, and it’s sappy and heartfelt in the best Yonghwa style. It’s delivered with such force and sincerity that its earnest, wide-eyed platitudes ring completely true.
Although it’s very strong the album it isn’t perfect. Some of the production is overly wrought, obscuring the melodies instead of highlighting them. Jonghyun’s voice feels a bit strained on some of the tracks, unlike on the moody ballad WAS SO PERFECT (also from the SHAKE single last spring), where he made the most of his smooth, smoky vocals. The production on some of the songs occasionally makes Yonghwa’s Jpop-style vocals sound thin and nasally and doesn’t make full use of his rich and powerful range. Yet despite these small details, and even though most of the tracks are the work of different producers, the album hangs together really well.
It takes a certain flexibility to follow CNBLUE and their musical wanderings these days because creatively they are changing and evolving with whiplash speed. For those who like a steady and predictable style from their pop music, with CNBLUE you’re probably shopping at the wrong store. For those who enjoy something new and unexpected with every release, CNBLUE is the band for you. I’m personally really loving hearing something completely different with almost every release, especially since they maintain their high level of songwriting, production, and performance throughout. As per usual, STAY GOLD is more quality product from CNBLUE.
Non, je ne regrette rien: The Package, eps. 1-2 review
Tourism, The Package, 2017
Okay, fuck it. This blog is now all-CNBLUE all the time. Or at least for the next post or two.
After an absence of three years on the small screen, CNBLUE leader Jung Yonghwa has made his latest appearance in a Kdrama in the wacky romcom THE PACKAGE. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this project except some pretty scenery from France, so the screwball comedy style of the first two episodes has been a really nice surprise.
The premise is simple—a motley crew of seven Korean tourists take a package tour to France, led by expat Yoon SoSo (Lee Yeon-hee), their patient and long-suffering tour guide. As per kdramas, they along the way they discover various things about themselves and each other.
The freak, The Package, 2017
What sets this drama apart from some of the others that I’ve seen is its completely wacky humor. Yonghwa plays the main lead, San Maru, but instead of being a typical dreamboat heroic type he’s a total freak who has random B&D fantasies, giggles while grabbing an armful of vibrators in a Paris sex toy shop, and constantly takes goofy selfies, even while he’s waiting to be grilled in an interrogation room in the Paris airport. But beneath this dorky exterior is a sensitive and upright soul, which Yonghwa ably conveys through his expressive puppy-dog eyes.
Yeon Hee as SoSo, the tour guide with a past, is Maru’s potential love interest, and she hides her mysterious history behind her smiling professional façade. Like Maru she’s fleeing some kind of romantic disappointment so no doubt they’ll hook up sometime before the drama ends.
Boredom, The Package, 2017
Rounding out the cast are a young couple who are past the romantic part of their relationship and are now in the boredom period, a grumpy-ass ahjussi and his forbearing and possibly seriously ill wife, and a man who may or may not be traveling with his young mistress.
Screwball, The Package, 2017
The whole thing is played against the gorgeous French scenery and true to form the cinematography by the Korean cameraperson is top-notch. The first two eps displayed a screwball sensibility that at times hearkened back to the best of Lubitsch or Capra, kdrama style, with characters randomly discussing their bowel movements or making madcap slo-mo dashes through the streets of Paris, coffee cups a-flying, while taking broad pratfalls along the way.
Skinship, The Package, 2017
Yet underneath all of the slapstick nonsense is a more serious tone, as Maru is forced to work on end-of-the-year reports for his shady company back in Korea even while he’s on his vacation, and SoSo deals with the precarities of contingent employment in her adopted country. By the end of the second ep we got a sense of some of the romance to come, too, as the two unattached characters Maru and Soso shared some accidental skinship and bonded over their fondness for the poignant 1991 French film Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge).
Yonghwa had the dubious good fortune of debuting in the 2009 drama YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL before he had had much acting experience and in that show and his next drama, HEARTSTRINGS, he was as wooden as a day-old bagel. His performances improved quite a bit in subsequent dramas and by his fourth role, in the clever 2014 saeguk THE THREE MUSKETEERS, he had learned how to convincingly create a memorable character through his acting. But first impressions are often indelible so he’s faced a lot of prejudice against his acting skills due to his stiff performances in those first two shows.
Fool, The Package, 2017
So it’s great to see that in the first two eps of THE PACKAGE Yonghwa completely dispels any doubts about his acting skilz, as he nicely develops Maru’s character, at times a wide-eyed fool completely lacking in social skills, and at others an innocent abroad in a world of crooks and thieves. His comic timing is quite on point and he manages to go from gleeful to confused to emo in a split second.
Gratuitous pulchritude, The Package, 2017
He’s also featured in the hallowed and time-honored kdrama convention known as the “gratuitous leading man topless scene.” In this case it takes place at the end of the first ep (if you want to skip to it immediately) as the camera lovingly documents his semi-nude torso, detailing his toned bod from all angles of view.
Tourist herding, The Package, 2017
But despite the allure of this display of pulchritude, it’s Yonghwa’s endearing and layered performance as the loveable oddball San Maru that’s made the biggest impression on me so far. His leading lady Lee Yeon Hee does a good job conveying the banality of her job as she herds cranky tourists around France. I’m hoping that future eps may allow the SoSo and Maru to improve on their verbal sparring ala Hepburn and Tracy. And will we get to see a Yonghwa screen kiss this time around? The truth will only come out in the watching, but this drama is just heartfelt and breezy enough to make me want to see more.
Melo medical, Hospital Ship, 2017
NOTE: This has been a banner year for CNBLUE members appearing in Korean dramas. In addition to Yonghwa’s leading man role in THE PACKAGE, his bandmates have all been cast as the male lead in various shows. Drummer Kang Minhyuk is currently starring in the very popular medical melodrama HOSPITAL SHIP, along with kdrama queen Ha Ji Won (THE SECRET GARDEN; EMPRESS KI), and the show has been one of the top-rated dramas in South Korea much since its premiere in August.
Throwback romance, Girls Generation 1979, 2017
Guitarist Lee Jonghyun has been the male lead in not one but two dramas in 2017, the saeguk comedy MY ONLY LOVE SONG that screened on the Netflix platform in June, and GIRLS GENERATION 1979, the throwback teen drama that aired in the fall. After bassist Lee Jungshin appeared as the second lead in the historical remake of MY SASSY GIRL in early summer he was cast as the lead in LONGING HEART, a time-travel romance that will premiere in December. Somewhere in there in 2017 CNBLUE also managed to release two albums in three different languages and tour twice in Japan and once across Asia. Yonghwa added in his own two solo album releases and went on an eleven-show tour in Japan this year.
CNBLUE’s frenetic activity in 2017 is quite possibly a clue that one or more of them (Yonghwa almost certainly) will be enlisting sometime in 2018, and no doubt at least one of the CNBLUE members will squeeze in a role another drama or two before they start to go off to the army. Sometimes I think that after working so hard for close to a decade the military might seem like a respite of sorts for CNBLUE. But I have hope that they’ll come back from their enlistment and create more glorious music together and appear in even more dramas in the years to come.
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