Category: KPOP NEWS

The case of DIA is very curious because they seem to have what it takes to become the breakout group of 2016, especially since they had a member from I.O.I: Chaeyeon. She was one of the visual centers of I.O.I who was anticipated to become the next Bae Suzy. These factors certainly beg the question, why had DIA languished seven years into their careers? Why can’t the group seem to catch a break? 

The History of DIA

It was February 2015 and the entire industry of Korean pop music was reeling from a rather eventful 2014. Ladies’ Code met an accident where two of its members passed away; 25 people died after a ventilation grate collapses during a 4minute concert; members quit their groups – Kris and Luhan from EXO, Jessica from SNSD, Thunder and Lee Joon from MBLAQ, and Jiyoung and Nicole from Kara, among others; B.A.P files lawsuit against their agency for maltreatment; the father of Super Junior‘s Leeteuk murders his parents before ending his own life; and alas, Park Bom gets embroiled in a drug scandal. All of these happened amidst the national tragedy of the MV Sewol sinking. By this time, it seemed that the entire country deserved a break from all these unfortunate events. 

So, it was rather auspicious for MBK to announce plans of debuting a new girl group. MBK, the company of T-ara, a group that was still very much detested by the public in 2015 after the “bullying scandal” between Hwayoung and the other members, said that they are planning to stage a reality show entitled T-ara’s Little Sister Girl Group and form a new group. Months after, the company decided to cancel the plan and decided to choose from among their current trainees who the members of the new group will be. MBK announced a line-up with six members: Eunice, Huihyeon (aka Cathy), Jenny, Yebin, Eunjin, and Chaeyeon, with Seunghee added to the line-up before the group’s debut in September. The group released their self-titled debut studio album, Do It Amazing with the single Somehow, whose music video was filmed in Hong Kong. 

The album peaked at number 11 on the Gaon Album Chart and the song charted at #152. The performance was promising for a debut group, which means it wasn’t really considered a flop, but definitely far from the group making a splash. Also, considering that DIA was marketed as the new T-ara, Make It Amazing and Somehow definitely paled in comparison to their sunbaenim’s debut Absolute First Album, which peaked at number 2, and their debut single Lie, which charted in Billboard’s K-pop Hot 100, all amidst of early line-up changes in the highly competitive year of 2009. But then, many commented on the group members’ freshness and Chaeyeon’s beauty, so people were reasonably optimistic about the group’s future. 

But then, as what their senior group experienced, DIA also became subject to line-up changes as soon as their debut activities ended. Eunchae (introduced as Chaewon) joined as a new member in March 2016, virtually replacing Seunghee, who was confirmed to have left the group a month later. Before that, Cathay and Chaeyeong took a hiatus from group activities to participate in Produce 101, which was quite successful for the girls as both gained a following from the show (although Cathy was a victim of the Mnet evil edit) and Chaeyeon finished 7th. DIA‘s first mini-album Happy Ending was released on June 14, along with the music video for the lead single On the Road on the same day. Chaeyeon did return to her group for this comeback while a sub-init of I.O.I promoted Whatta Man, making the DIA line-up complete for this release. Both EP and single outperformed their debut efforts, with Happy Ending selling close to 10,000 copies by the end of 2016 (compared to only close to 2,5000 Do It Amazing sold) and On the Road downloaded more than 81,000 times at peaking at the charts at #48, which remains the group’s highest-charting song up to date. 

In September 2016, the group released a Harry Potter-themed album titled Spell, with Mr. Potter as the lead single. Although the album fared better than its predecessor, the song brought the group back to outside the top 100 in the charts, as Mr. Potter only managed close to 23,000 downloads and peaked at #103. 

2017 saw new members, Jueun and Somyi, who participated in the group’s second studio album YOLO, which was released in April. The album contained fourteen tracks, with the lead single titled Will You Go Out with Me?

YOLO peaked at number 3 in the album charts with more than 18,000 units sold, while Will You Go Out With Me brought back the group to the top 100, as it peaked at #78 with close to 28,000 digital downloads. Four months later, the group released their third mini-album titled Love Generation, with a repackaged version released two months later. Although the album performed better than most of their releases, the singles Can’t Stop and Good Night was nowhere in Gaon’s digital sales charts. 

In May the following year, Eunjin announced her departure from the group, citing health problems. With six members remaining, MBK announced a DIA comeback in July, which was already postponed as the comeback was previously announced to happen in April. DIA ultimately released their fourth EP Summer Ade on August 9, 2018, with the title track Woo Woo. Although the release didn’t do much in terms of the group’s standing, they did receive their first music show win on SBS MTV’s The Show, so at the end of the day, the group still benefited from it. 

The group did not return until March 2019 with their fifth EP titled Newtro alongside its title track Woowa. Four months later, Jenny left the group due to health problems with her knee. 

On May 25, 2020, it was revealed that DIA would make a comeback with their sixth EP Flower 4 Seasons on June 10, marked their first release under PocketDol Studio, which is just MBK rebranded. It was also confirmed that the group will promote with five members as a unit without Chaeyeon and Somyi. Thre was also a bit of intrigue for this comeback as apparently, one of DIA’s former members, Seunghee (as the last member to be included in the original 2015 line-up and also the first one to leave the group in 2016) has returned to PocketDol. However, she has become a producer of the company and only deals with the agency’s boy groups, so she shut down any speculation that she would work with her former group in any capacity. 

Since June 2020, the group has not staged any activities. Moreover, PocketDol confirmed that Somyi, the member who didn’t participate in the group’s last comeback, had already terminated her contract with the company and left DIA. On the other hand, Chaeyeon is still under the company, although she has been very active in her acting career, particularly after experiencing a rise in her popularity after appearing as the female lead in the KBS drama The King’s Affection with SF9‘s Rowoon and Park Eunbin (Hot Stove League, Do You Like Brahms?). She is set to star opposite BtoB‘s Sungjae in the MBC drama Golden Spoon. 

What went wrong?

With the company finally announcing that the group will release a final album before officially disbanding, we are now left with the question, what went wrong with DIA? Here are some theories that fans themselves have presented as to why the group ultimately flopped. 

No opportunity to display their charms

This can all be attributed to MBK’s general incompetence. They were just zero creativity in terms of the concepts DIA showcased during the years they were active. All their music videos showed a lack of storyline, so it felt like the group’s videos only had the camera operator tail the girls on their day off or in whatever activity they could think of. The only music video the group had that was obviously heavy on concept was the one for Mr. Potter. But even that one had people scratching their heads as there was this person with a rabbit’s head, then the girls doing a dance using their suspenders, then some scenes on a train (still with the human rabbit) that finally make people remember the Hogwarts Express, before finally having some of the members ride broomsticks, which can be a reference to Quidditch. The video ends up being disjointed, as people end up not being sure of what the song is all about. 

The lineup changes are not justified. 

We get it, the group, just like most groups with IOI members, end up being (insert IOI member name) and friends. This is why it was a huge injustice to the group when they added new members to compensate for the departure of a member, only for these new members to not be given the platform to really showcase their talents through a subunit and instead just continue on as Chaeyeon’s back-up girls. Alas, nobody really knew them.

DIA remained a nugu group 

Chaeyeon is one of the more popular idols in K-pop and that became a problem for DIA. That is because the majority of Korean public only knows about Chaeyeon as an individual rather than DIA as a whole. Alas, her popularity did not contribute to the group’s popularity, as it seems Chaeyeon’s identity was not tightly knitted with the group’s, unlike for example, how Eunji’s and Naeun’s acting careers further raised Apink’s profile or how Jisoo is recognized as Blackpink’s Jisoo even in (or despite) her debut acting appearance in Snowdrop. So, the question of whether you should already be famous before joining a group or get more recognition as a member of a group first before getting additional popularity for your group is more like a chicken or egg conundrum. Unfortunately, in DIA’s case, Chayeon’s fame did not rub off on her group.

Alas, with the announcement of DIA’s disbandment, we can only wish all the girls good luck in their future endeavors. 

Featured Image: Screenshot from DIA’s “Mr Potter” Official Music video.

K-pop idol groups fading from the limelight through disbandment shortly after their debut is a sad but common reality. However, there are a few groups that had things to their advantage at the start but still struggled in terms of popularity and eventually lost their battle against irrelevance. Here are four groups that, unfortunately, we may not see much of anymore. 

HOTSHOT

This one is gonna hurt a lot of K-pop observers because HOTSHOT was definitely one of the most talented groups in K-pop. If you need more evidence to prove this, look no further than Produce 101 Season 2, where you can watch Ha Sungwon finishing in the top 11 of the program, and therefore securing a spot in the project group WANNA ONE, while Noh Taehyun being in charge of the choreography of his group’s staging of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. Oh, and don’t forget that first evaluation performance of the two to Block B’s Very Good. Based on that, you can’t really help but wonder why HOTSHOT, with overly talented members and all, became lukewarm and eventually faded into disbandment. 

But Produce 101 Season 2 was not the only program where HOTSHOT’s members were able to display their talents. While Sungwon and Taehyun participated in Produce 101, another two joined another idol survival show, The Unit. Timoteo, who happened to be an SM trainee and was slotted to join EXO, ended up 10th in the show. It was a spot short of the final nine members who made up the show’s project group UNB. On the other hand, Hojung ranked 3rd and therefore promoted with UNB from April 2018 to January 2019. The thing about UNB was that initial plans were for the group to promote for seven months initially and if they proved successful, the project group’s activities would be extended for 25 months. The two EPs sold more than 46,000 copies each, which made people scratch their heads as to why they ceased their activities after only more than nine months. 

As for HOTSHOT, they weren’t really popular to begin with, despite having outrageously talented members. They eventually got the boost they need with Taehyun and Sungwon’s exposure in PD101 S2 that their last release in 2018 fared better than their previous releases. However, it should be noted that this EP, Early Flowering, did not include Sungwon, as he was still with WANNA ONE until December of 2018. The EP was released a month before. Which begs the question, “why?’ Didn’t the company want to milk Sungwon’s newfound fame to the group’s benefit?

The group’s last song I Hate You (which was included in Early Flowering) would have greatly benefited from the push that Sungwon could have provided, had he been included. But then, Star Crew might have already envisioned a solo career for him post-WANNA ONE and may have already given up on HOTSHOT. What is more curious is that they included Hojung despite him still promoting with UNB. Moreover, Star Crew gave Taehyun his first solo project, an EP in January 2019 after promoting with JBJ from October 2017 to April 2018. 

Finally, in March 2021, Star Crew formally announced the group’s disbandment, after more than two years of the group’s inactivity. Just like that.  

https://twitter.com/wannalov3/status/1511335916404502528?s=20&t=aqTm6c9khFfb_LqZKVlIPQ

Essential song: Real talk: Not one song in the group’s six-year-old discography really gave justice to Sungwon’s vocals, Taehyun’s dance moves, and Yoonsan’s rap skills, all of which are top-notch. Take a look at Step by Step and I’m a Hotshot for their better songs. 

Where are they now: Military enlistment was last heard of three members:  Junhyuk enlisted in the military in January 2020, Hojung in May 2020, and Yoonsan also enlisted in 2021. Timoteo contributed a song to the Mr. Boss OST in 2021 and has been a guest in a couple of TV shows. Meanwhile, Taehyun and Sungwoon have launched solo careers. Sungwoon has also signed with BPM Entertainment (agency to Soyou, Huh Gak, three former members of GFriend, and Sungwoon’s PD101 castmate Samuel) and is set to release his latest EP with his new agency in February. 

SNUPER

This is one group that did not really count on a lot of factors save for the songs that were meant to bring the group to the top. The six-member group was the first talents created by Windmay Entertainment, a company established by former JYP employees who had previously worked with Miss A and 2PM. The name of the group is actually short for “Higher than Super” which according to the group means that the goal is to come together as a group to enhance their strengths as individual supermen. The group also alluded to the similarity of their name to the cartoon character Snoopy who has a cute side, with their intense nature reflected in the word Super. So, Snoopy + Super = Snuper!

The six members of Snuper are quite interesting as well, which may have assured the group of at least a bit of public interest. Taewoong, the leader and rapper, was born in Japan to a Japanese dad and Korean mom and was a child actor before training as a singer-idol for a full seven years. Suhyun, the group’s main vocalist, named himself after his favorite actor Kim Soohyun and trained under Jellyfish Entertainment before shifting to Windmay. Sangil, the group’s other main vocalist, was working in a cafe when he was scouted for Snuper. Since his debut in Snuper, he has joined various singing and reality competitions such as The Unit, King of the Masked Singer, and Mr. Trot. 

There’s also Woosung, who is the tallest in the group and has earned a reputation for his athletic prowess by winning the 60-meter dash in the ISACs three times. Sangho, the main dancer, was Sangil’s co-worker in the cafe and was also discovered there. Finally, there’s Sebin, the main rapper who is also the maknae and like Taewoong, was also a child actor before training to become an idol. He joined The Unit with Sangil.  

Snuper’s last Japanese comeback was on August 8th, 2019 with Come Over, while their Korean comeback was even earlier, on October 8th, 2018 with You In My Eyes, which is is actually a re-release of a B-side from their Blossom EP. Perhaps their most popular songs are Platonic Love, Back:Hug, and You=Heaven, which are all produced by Sweetune, and thus have that retro-disco sound that should have assured the group of a cult following. 

And that they did, but unfortunately, the group didn’t really garner traction in the Korean market. Their fandom, Swing, did not expand much in Korea, while the group became more popular in Korea. The group didn’t really face controversy, save for this one outfit guffaw when Starlights, VIXX’s fandom, pointed out that the outfits for their “It’s Raining” promotions resembled VIXX stage outfits too much. Other than that, Snuper pretty much had consistent comebacks and has actually toured overseas, performing in countries like Canada, the UAE, Russia, and Mexico.

So with members who sort of guaranteed international success (those Japanese members are moneymakers, for sure) and songs produced by Sweetune, architects of a number of career-defining songs for Infinite and Secret, why has Snuper not experienced breakthrough success even after six years? It may all be attributed to the inexperience of the company when it comes to promoting an idol group. With so much competition going on with the third generation of idol groups, there must be something for a group to specialize in so that they can be set apart from others. Otherwise, they will just blend in with other groups, which may have exactly happened to Snuper.

Essential songs: According to fans, the group’s three best songs include Platonic Love, Back: Hug, and The Star of Stars.  

Where are they now: There has been no official disbandment announcement from the group’s agency and most members are supposed to be focusing on their military service. Member Sebin has been promoting with the group Omega X since its debut in June 2021. 

CROSS GENE

Cross Gene is another group that somehow found success in Japan but not in Korea. This boy group started off very promising in 2012 with six members. The multiple ethnicities of the six members also may have made followers of k-pop music very curious, making their first release peak at a very respectable number 8 on the Gaon album charts. So, what exactly went wrong? It can be argued that the things that the group had to their advantage were also precisely what caused their popularity to not quite take off, at least in Korea. Thus, sad to say that to the newer fans of K-pop, the mention of this group’s name will elicit a few “nugu?” reactions.  

As mentioned earlier, Cross Gene was a highly anticipated group to debut. The group’s agency, Amuse Korea, is originally a Japanese company that had Cross Gene as its first project in the Korean market. The company announced in 2012 that it will debut a group with members from Korea, China, and Japan. Among the members is Shin Wonho, who has already made TV appearances and ads, and Terada Takuya, who has been with the company as an actor and model. Thus, when the group debuted, there were three South Koreans (Shin, Sangmin, and Yongseok), two Chinese (Casper and J. G.), and one Japanese (Takuya). The difference in nationalities of the members also became the reason for the group’s name, as they are supposed to be a cross of various genes that will form one perfect group. 

Six months after debuting, J.G. departed from the group to start a career as a solo artist, and Amuse immediately replaced him with Seyoung. Takuya was also relieved of his position as a leader and was replaced by Shin. After the member and position changes, the group debuted and promoted in Japan throughout 2013 with a debut single in February, a digital single in March, a concert in May, another digital single in August, a special photobook CD weeks later, two more concerts also in August, a Japanese website in September, three more Japanese digital singles, and three more live shows before 2013 ended. This meant that after debuting in Korea in June 2012, the group has not had any activity in the country since then. 

The first half of 2014 was not packed with activity for the group’s Korean fandom either, as the group spent the first months of the year in the US to film a movie. Finally, Korean-based Cross Gene followers saw some activity when a visual teaser for their Korean comeback was released on April 6. Finally, a few days short of a two-year absence in the Korean music scene, the digital single Amazing (Bad Lady) was released on June 9. Casper had to beg off from promotions though, as he had an injury during preparations.

https://twitter.com/deviIdoyoung/status/1188929770706395136?s=20&t=aqTm6c9khFfb_LqZKVlIPQ

The song was passable, albeit going a bit under the radar as it doesn’t sound as flashy as their other previous songs. However, the group got a lot of buzz because of the song’s choreography, which involves a number of movements that were deemed by some TV stations as too racy for public exhibition. One such move involves the members motioning their golden-gloved hands in front of their crotch area in a circular motion. Another move involved the members raising their hips from a lying position. Now, if that’s not a sure-fire way to get the Korean TV censors’ tongues a-wagging, nothing will! 

Another thing Cross Gene did that was the opposite of the common practice was that they translated their Japanese singles into Korean. In 2014, groups like Girl’s Day, Apink, and INFINITE, among others, debuted in the Japanese market by releasing Japanese versions of their Korean hits, and after charting with these songs, they finally came up with original Japanese songs. The opposite happened to Cross Gene, who released a Korean version of their Japanese hit Shooting Star as a follow-up to the controversial Amazing. 

But while this era produced three singles – Amazing, Shooting Star, and Billion Dollar for Korea, the boys did not forget about their Japanese fanbase as they continued to conduct live Japanese performances and participate in music festivals in Japan. This continued in 2015, with the group starting the year with a Japanese single, Future. The single charted high in the country’s Oricon Charts, cementing the group’s popularity in Japan. The group did stage a comeback for Korea, the highly addictive and catchy Play With Me, which peaked at number 7 in the Gaon Album Charts. Then the group returned to Japan to release a new single. 

Despite the obvious preference the group (or the company?) showed for conducting Japanese activities, the group still enjoyed relative success in Korea, where after three and half years since debuting, they successfully sold out their first Korean concert on December 23, 2015.    

In 2016, it was revealed that Casper has left the group. Two years later, Takuya also left the group to focus on his modeling and acting careers. Before the pandemic hit in early 2020, it was revealed that Yongseok and Sangmin have not renewed their contracts with Amuse. But nothing has been formally announced in relation to Cross Gene’s disbandment, as the three have since then enlisted in the military. 

So, suffice to say that Cross Gene did not really live up to their potential in Korea because of their company’s decision to be more active in the Japanese market at the start of their careers. By the time they chose to increase their promotional activities more in Korea at the same level as their Japanese promotions in 2017 to 2019, they had to share the spotlight with new groups. 

Essential songs: The group’s debut single, La-Di Da-Di was catchy and is among a few K-pop debut singles that actually charted in Gaon. You cannot hear Amazing without remembering the iconic controversial circular crotch choreography. Finally, that “ppa ppa ppira ppa ppa ppira ppa” hook of Play With Me’s chorus is the stuff of legends.    

Where are they now: With Seyoung’s formal announcement in December 2020 that he has left the group and not just the company, Cross Gene is down to three members – Shin, Sangmin, and Yongseok. And with the latter two not signed to Amuse anymore, expecting them to successfully conduct reunion projects with Shin once they all finish military service may be unrealistic.  

DAL SHABET

The story of Dal Shabet is a rather sad tale of finding direction a tad too late and not striking while the iron is hot. Moreover, it is a bit unjust that the group had to endure bullying and harassment from a fandom of another group. All in all, this underrated group had tons of missed opportunities and was a victim of a series of unfortunate events that they don’t really deserve.

Dal Shabet debuted in 2011. It was a year that also debuted Brave Girls, Rania, and Apink and had groups like SISTAR and Girl’s Day started cementing their popularity. While Apink had cornered the public that longs for the cutesy and innocent concepts the 1st girl groups popularized, Dal Shabet had a shaky situation from the start. The thing about the group’s debut single, Supa Dupa Diva is that it was a “love it or hate it” kind of song. While its supporters propelled it to rank decently on music shows like Music Bank, where it went on to peak at 5th place, its haters declared it as not just the worst debut song, but the “worst song ever.” 

But then, music industry people later voted for it as 2011’s second most addicting song with the second most popular choreography. Even unforgiving k-netz announced their change of hearts.

In August 2011, the group announced that their first comeback would be “funky” and the hate they received for releasing an incomprehensible debut single was added as their concept photos for the comeback. They were deemed “too sexual” for live television, which prompted the company to overhaul the concept to a more quirky and cutesy one with just a touch of naughtiness. Dal Shabet scored its first top 10 single in the Gaon Charts with Bling Bling. 

The group had a run-on with fans of another group before the year ended, which left a somewhat bad taste to everything. It all started at the end of December 2011 at the SBS Gayo Daejun, when Dal Shabet and B1A4 had a collab stage. There was a lot of touching between the groups, which caused Bana, B1A4’s fandom to spread rumors about Darlings (Dal Shabet’s fandom) harassing Banas. The rumors heightened during the Idol Star Athletics Championships when rumors circulated that Darlings assaulted, kidnapped, and raped Banas. Police interfered and revealed that no such incidents took place. Happyface Entertainment released a statement about the rumors,  imploring people to stop. And B1A4 fans took things a step further by hacking Dal Shabet’s website. Visitors to the website were met with pop-ups asking why Banas were being harassed by Darlings. 

Serri responded to the rumors by posting requests on Twitter for people to stop spreading lies and rumors. More harassment incidences happened before Serri and the company threatened legal action. Then things died a natural death (or maybe people got scared?).

2012 had the group return with the powerful Hit U, which became Dal Shabet’s first album to reach number one in the Gaon Charts. But two months after ending activities for the comeback, the group’s leader Viki left the group to pursue a solo career. She was quickly replaced with a new member, Woohee. Serri then assumed leadership of the group as they staged their comeback in July with the single Mr. BangBang. By November, Dal Shabet staged another comeback with the EP Have, Don’t Have, and up to this point, the group had relatively been quite successful.

It was in their summer 2013 comeback that Dal Shabet had their first brush of controversy as TV stations announced that the lyrics to their single Be Ambitious were unfit for public broadcast due to sexual content, and therefore they would not allow the song to be played in their shows or allow the group to promote it in their music programs. Happy Face Entertainment did comply by changing the lyrics in questions. However, weeks after, a men’s rights group ‘Man of Korea’ filed an injunction to completely ban the further distribution of the song claiming it deprecates Korean men who are subject to the country’s mandatory enlistment. Days later, Man of Korea and Happy Face came to an agreement with the former dropping their injunction request. 

In 2014, the group went full-fledged sexy with their comeback B.B.B, which they first performed in the celebrity military reality show Real Men. By this time, the girls were quite popular throughout the country, but a couple of medical incidents affected some members. Subin got into a car accident in May 2014, where she had to undergo surgery for injuries. In September, Woohee was also hospitalized for a collapsed lung. 

2015 saw the group embroiled in another controversy as the title track of their comeback Joker was banned by KBS because of its explicit choreography, with the song’s lyrics pointed out as being suggestive. You see, the English word “joker” sounds similar to the Korean expletive “jot kuh” which refers to the enormity of the male anatomy. Considering the group’s previous single B. B. B., which stands for “Big Baby Baby”, people were quick to point out the sexual innuendo “Joker” implied. 

The end of 2015 revealed that Jiyul and Kaeun would be leaving the group, which would reduce the member count of the group to four. The group staged their comeback on January 5 with the retro-sounding Someone Like U, which actually charted in Japan and China. Nine months later, they released FRI. SAT. SUN. This would be the last comeback of the group. 

In 2017, Happy Face Entertainment announced that Subin will be joining the reality television series The Unit, but because of schedule conflicts, she was replaced by Serri and Woohee. 

However, before the year ended, the company announced that members Serri, Subin, and Ahyoung decided to leave the company after their contracts expired. Ahyoung transferred to SidusHQ, Serri was eliminated from The Unit and placed 23rd, while Woohee placed seventh and secured herself a place in the show’s female team. 

Since then, the group has held a photo exhibition and a mini-concert in October 2019, with six members, including Jiyul and Kaeun. But then the company has already become more focused on promoting its new girl group, Dreamcatcher. Due to this, a lot of supposed Happy Face support for Dal Shabet has been diverted. 

Essential songs: Dal Shabet definitely has a great discography Mr. BangBang, B. B. B., Pink Rocket, Have Don’t Have, Joker, and Someone Like U are all catchy AF. 

Where are they now? All members are pursuing acting careers, with Subin and Serrri the only ones also doing a lot of music work. 

With a good number of programs featuring the “golden age of K-pop” such as Jaejae’s MMTG, Ms. Back, and Mamadol, it is a fervent wish for these groups to experience a return to popularity because they truly deserve it. 

Featured Image credit: Cross Gene Official Twitter

Has the Netflix hit Squid Game have you pining for more Korean shows where people play games for money? Don’t worry, there has been quite a number of Korean game shows that have been produced that had contestants compete for money, just like in Squid Game. The good thing is, the contestants in these shows don’t have to resort to violence and death. 

The show we’re going to explore is The Genius, a game show that ran for four seasons, from 2013 to 2015. When it was aired, it became a huge fad in Korea.

The Genius was a reality game show with 13 contestants from different backgrounds. There are some celebrities known for their social skills, professionals known for their particular skills in their work, and finally some “regular folk” known for their exceptional intelligence. These participants compete to be on top in every episode, which provides them with immunity from elimination. On every episode, one contestant is eliminated after two rounds of games – a Main Match and a Death Match.

During the Main Match, all players who have survived the previous episode’s elimination will play to win and to be immune from elimination via a token of life. There have been some Main Matches where more than one contestant receives the token of life and therefore, is exempted from elimination. In Main Matches, the winner receives an additional token of life which they can give to a fellow contestant, sparing the recipient from elimination as well. 

The contestant who performed the worst in the Main Match will face off with an opponent of his or her own choosing from among the contestants without a token of life in the Death Match. There have been episodes where there are joint losers, in which case the winner(s) of the Main Match will have to nominate the Death Match player from among the losers. Obviously, the Death Match loser is the eliminated contestant of that episode. 

Aside from the token of life, the winner(s) of the Main Match also win a number of red garnets. A red garnet is equivalent to 1,000,000 won (approximately US$1,000). In the final episode, only the total garnets of the winning contestant are exchanged for his or her prize money. Throughout the show, garnets can be given to other contestants as a form of leverage when negotiating some aspects of the game. Some Main Matches also allow the use of garnets for clues or implements that may win a game for a contestant. 

As the show’s title denotes, it would take a genius to win – but not just a genius in the conventional definition of being someone who has superior academic intelligence. As the start of the third season’s first episode showed, there are different kinds of intelligence, according to Harvard psychologist Howard Garner. To win this game show, it is believed that the contestant needs to employ the kind of intelligence that would benefit him or her the most, at least for a particular Main Match or Death Match. It can be interpersonal intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, etc. 

The key is for the contestant to realize what skills are important for a victory. Thus, having a high IQ may not be assurance of success in the show, as understanding and grasping concepts quickly also aren’t – other contestants may notice this skill and may consider you a threat, prompting them to ally with other contestants to plot your downfall.  Some watches may require more of quick scheming, others may require superior logic, yet others may demand alliances and betrayal.

What are the games played in the Main and Death Matches? 

Most, if not all games are made to look like contestants need to be astute in using logic and mathematical skills, but that might only get them so far. A good deal of one’s success in the games also involves strategy and negotiations and building cooperative relationships and alliances with co-players to ensure favorable outcomes. Outthinking and amazing strategic mindsets can also help a lot in giving a contestant a win.

https://twitter.com/colinstone/status/1462612587154132999

For example, in Season 2, Episode 11,  TV personality and politician Yoo Junghyun faced comedian Noh Hongchul in the Death Match that required them to play Same Picture Hunt, a game that was also Season 1’s final Death Match. The game involves 16 picture tiles hidden behind 16 letter panels and arranged in a 4 by 4 board for the contestants’ reference. Tiles corresponding to the pictures are then dealt out on a conveyor belt with 20 spaces on it. The candidates then try to locate the picture on the board that matches the next tile on their belt. If correct, they move to the next tile, their conveyor belt not moving. But if they’re wrong, the belt is sent one space backward and the erring contestant loses their turn.  This continues until either the winning candidate reaches the end of their conveyor belt or until the losing candidate loses all his or her tiles because they have fallen off the belt. 

Seems to be your usual memory game, right? In Season 1, former idol and TV personality Lee Sangmin and former newscaster and TV personality Kim Kyungran played the game in a straight laced-fashion – a battle of memory. That did not happen in Season 2 as politician Jonghyun used his advantage of going second in the game to block out Hongchul. How?

For example, Hongchul wanted to know the picture behind the letter S. As Hongchul’s picture and the picture behind S do not match, it becomes Jonghyun’s turn. Jonghyun does not use his turn to discover what’s behind another letter and instead just repeats Honghul’s chosen letter, S, for his round. Thus, Hongchul is not given new information. Since he comes first in the game, he used up all his tiles before Jonghyun lost his. Smart, eh? 

Another popular Death Match that was frequently used in Season 1 was Winning Streak, or simply put, rock paper scissors with politics. The point of the game is to make sure you have more allies with your fellow contestants compared to your opponent, so that you will have a longer winning streak, as you will play rock paper scissors with the contestants who aren’t in the elimination block. If the contestants you have allied with are few and far from each other, then the chances of you getting a long winning streak is slim.  

A lot of games were like this, proving that while you can get ahead in the contest with just a thorough understanding of the game’s rules, being strategic on how to use this understanding to win the game is also important. 

Who were the players in The Genius?

The Genius ran for four seasons and had popular personalities as contestants. In Season 1, aside from Sangmin and Kyungran who were mentioned earlier, other contestants include former member of the short-lived girl group Tinus Choi Jungmoon (who also happens to be a MENSA member, eliminated in Episode 5), controversial MC and DJ Kim Gura (as in the grouchy panelist in Radio Star and King of Masked Singer, eliminated in Episode 6), INFINITE leader Sunggyu (who was actually quite successful, reaching Episode 10 before getting eliminated), webtoon artist Kim Poong (eliminated in Episode 7), and weather reporter Park Eunji (eliminated in Episode 9). The season was won by former professional Starcraft player and TV personality Hong Jinho, who faced off with Kyungran in the final episode.

Season 1 champ Jinho (who was unfortunately eliminated in Episode 7) and Sangmin returned in Season 2. Aside from Hongchul and Jonghyun mentioned earlier, they were joined by Jaekyung (leader of girl group RAINBOW, 2nd to be eliminated). Jiwon (as in the leader of 1st gen mega group Sechs Kies, who like Season 1’s Sunggyu was also eliminated in Episode 10), magician Lee Eungyeol (who was always in coattails and sunglasses throughout the show, 4th to be eliminated), and former Starcraft professional player Lim Yohwan (as in Jinho’s mortal adversary in the gaming world), who faced Sangmin in the finals. 

Season 3 included academy math teacher and KAIST lecturer Nam Hweejung (who rose to fame after becoming the first contestant eliminated in Season 2 as many disliked his arrogance, though he fared better in Season 3, where he got eliminated in Episode 4), former singer and actor Kim Jeonghoon (as in Prince Lee Yul in Princess Hours, eliminated in Episode 6), and eventual winner, comedian Jang Dongmin, who beat then 19-year-old KAIST student Oh Hyunmin. Hyunmin, who then was the youngest contestant to ever appear in the show’s four seasons, went on to become a TV personality. 

Season 4 is sort of the show’s “greatest hits” season, where the most popular players of all three seasons reunited. 

What was the best season? 

The answer to this question really depends on the viewer’s personal preference. I personally prefer Season 1 the most, since the contestants were pretty much left to their open devices on how to play the games and strategize, while the two other seasons already have references from previous seasons and thus, came more prepared. 

Season 1 set the bar with the brilliance of the eventual winner, Jinho, whom showed amazing performances in the three Death Matches he participated in and won, as well as winning three Main Matches as well. How he played the games and avoided betrayal as much as possible was also remarkable. The season also showed fantastic runs from Sunggyu, who led on other players by pretending he was mostly clueless of the games to hide his brilliance in tactical thinking and Kyungran, who managed to always be in the right place and the right time and thus, avoiding Death Matches (she only played one Death Match – the last one before the final episode). 

Season 2 was a bit of a damper in the sense that most of the season was spent on something that wasn’t really a part of the games – the immunity token. This was introduced only in Season 2 and was not used in the following seasons, which allowed the owner to skip a Death Match. A good amount of play time during Episodes 3 to 5 were spent on players who have clues on the whereabouts of the immunity token looking for it, so they weren’t able to focus on the Main Matches. 

Moreover, thing went awry in Episode 6 when Jiwon took the ID of contestant Dohee (known for hacking Seoul National University’s website), which was an important element of playing the Main Match of that episode. As a result of  looking for it until the last round, Dohee wasn’t able to properly participate in the game and was automatically sent to the Death Match. Things became more uncomfortable to watch when Sangmin gave him a fake immunity token, which he used, only to find out that he was duped for the second time in one episode. For a show that stated right from the start of Season 1 that  “violence or theft is not allowed,” it was very disappointing how the producers did not step in and forced Jiwon to surrender Dohee’s ID. 

Season 3 had a very different player dynamic from the past two seasons because of the backlash the show received with the Episode 6 mess and the alliance among celebrities and non-celebrities. Thus, the third season had more “normal” and “regular” people as contestants. The alliance between Hyunmin and Dongmin pretty much ruled the entire season, but what was great about it was the two did not make their relationship too obvious and still allowed the other players to display brilliant gameplay, especially Yeonseung who considered himself an outsider the entire season, yet managed to be part of the final 3. The games themselves were not as dynamic as the first two seasons, but we were allowed to see the vulnerabilities in all the players.  

Sadly, The Genius is not streaming on any platform, although subtitled episodes have been available on YouTube and Dailymotion. International diehard fans have also made it something of a cult classic, with reddit and Discord forums still alive six years after the last episode was aired. It can be said that the show’s popularity can be narrowed down to three factors: The novel but interesting concept, the genius-level editing of the show’s episode (the fast forward and flashback scenes get people to anticipate what’s happening and why things turn out they way they eventually did), and finally, the relatability of the contestants who really made sure they played the games to the best of their abilities, which made the show all the more watchable. Hopefully, we can get tVN to release the show’s four seasons in a streaming platform for more audiences to experience it. 

Featured Image: Screengrab from Tvn Youtube Channel “The Genius Game” trailer