“Grrreuk kak kak TTT” (GOING SEVENTEEN, YouTube)
Oh Minji: For SEVENTEEN, their third TTT—MT SVT REALITY, or unscripted team-building trip—is more than just a nice getaway from the daily grind. The way they speak and act with each other all throughout the episode shows how happy and normal the SEVENTEEN members look even as people who live lives that are anything but ordinary. Planning out the details of the trip, they jump into a game of rock paper scissors to decide who will do the grocery shopping. JOSHUA bravely subs in for JEONGHAN after he points out his own poor luck with the game, while WOOZI cheers HOSHI up by telling him “it doesn’t matter if we lose.” But the group ultimately decides to ignore the outcome and leave shopping duty to “the people who are good at it”—a suggestion met with a resounding, “Let’s do that forever”—and the trip is officially underway. Such a trip—usually defined by moments like rock paper scissors, grocery shopping, eating together, taking it easy, and traveling—doesn’t simply disappear into the air once it’s over, but is rather just one of many moments to last “forever” on the eternal timeline of the group.

And at times like these, it’s because of the members themselves that the group has “stayed the same” for “forever.” After playing badminton, the loser doesn’t have to get in the water, even when the terms clearly stated so beforehand; they’re considerate of those who aren’t even around while buying food (“WONWOO will probably look for peppers if we’re grilling meat. And JUN asked us to buy mushrooms because he wants to make something for us”); when JOSHUA refuses to leave the kitchen until his kimchi fried rice is up to his standards, the others recognize that it comes from “a sense of responsibility” and reassure him that they’re going to eat everything he makes; and after DK asks whether the others would rather eat Mu**ma or Neo**ri ramyeon, they realize he’s actually craving Mupama and make sure to match his choice. After JUN and THE 8 find the game EeoMokJoDong too difficult, the group plays YuMuNiaoShou instead, using a mix of Chinese and Korean; during another game, where laughing means you’re supposed to lose, they decide instead to make each other laugh; and to make a round of basketball accessible to everyone, they opt to play with a rugby ball. In every case, the boys of SEVENTEEN fill the air with enthusiastic and encouraging cries of, “Sounds fun!” “Sounds good!” “Great idea!” By spending all day together, looking out for one another and paying no attention to who wins or loses their games, the 2024 edition of the group’s TTT is filled with scenes of a group of boys who already know each other like family, but still get to know even more about one another in a fun, intimate setting. THE 8 puts it best in his toast: “It’s our first TTT in three years … We’re grown a lot, and many things have changed in those three years, but our team has stayed the same and we keep moving forward.”

The Wonders
Jeong Seohui (Cinema Journalist): Wonder—and the stripping away of the form of deception known as worship and exposing a grimy fetish in order to draw closer to it. Wonderfully mysterious—that’s just what director Alice Rohrwacher’s film The Wonders is. Situated in a secluded Tuscan village is the home of 12-year-old Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu). Under the thumb of the stubborn, shortsighted father, Wolfgang (Sam Louwyck), the family forms a secluded community that adheres to their own rules. Wolfgang, himself German, along with his Italian partner, Angelica (Alba Rohrwacher), and their four daughters make up the household that also includes a “new worker” by the name of Coco (Sabine Timoteo) who works, eats, and sleeps there with them, while also performing beekeeping, gardening, livestock, and housekeeping duties. Isolated eldest daughter Gelsomina turns out to be more competent than her father, climbing trees on his behalf to tend to bees. And unlike her father, who assumes that their bees are dying due to disease, Gelsomina is the one who realizes that the real culprit is “poison.” She’s less concerned about any venom the bees have and more about the harsh herbicide the people next door are spraying. Honey production is a cottage industry, and they live in an unsanitary room with a bathroom to one side, where child laborers heave heavy buckets of honey back and forth from the extractor. The world keeps demanding advances and improvements, and only by overhauling their noncompliant workplace can the family sustain their fragile livelihood. The father, lured in by the promise of instant subsidies, decides, with little forethought, to bring in Martin (Luis Huilca), a 14-year-old German boy with a minor criminal record. With limited access to electricity, Gelsomina is eager to soak up as much sunlight as she can during the day. She also memorizes the lyrics to love songs and practices them secretly, filled with hope that her future might be different from the weary life she lives with her family. And so she’s drawn in when their home is chosen to appear in the TV show Countryside Wonders and the show’s host, Milly (Monica Bullucci), stands before the hopeful girl like an angel appearing before her very eyes. Though the show promises to furnish the family that can best demonstrate traditional values with heaps of cash and a free cruise, it’s ultimately a modern show that looks down on what it sees as old-fashioned as the real-life director of The Wonders takes a dismissive stance against the romanticization of the countryside as a pristine place, condemning it as an exercise in pure fantasy. There’s no such thing as a life that’s sweet as honey—when that sweet, sticky source of income is overflowing, you really have to put your back into making sure you don’t spill a single drop. The false charity that comes from letting others live vicariously through images of self-sufficient isolation and hippie life only encourages the people actually living in that situation to turn themselves into a commodity just so that they can survive. Milly is the first physical embodiment of beauty that Gelsomina has ever laid eyes on, and the girl sees the money they could win as an oxygen tank that can stop reality from being so suffocating. Despite her father’s objections, Gelsomina’s family just barely manages to take part in Countryside Wonders, held inside a cave, but the family loses the competition. How feeble the natural can be. Their locally made honey, free of any additives and organic to the point that it’s actually considered illegal, just can’t compete with the artificially processed tradition cloaked in imitation unsophistication that appeals to the TV network’s sensibilities. A somewhat older Gelsomina’s face turns grim when she thinks of the camel she wanted when she was younger, which her father gifted to her suddenly using handout money earmarked for more prudent purposes, having now learned that everything in nature eventually rots. And yet, the very thing that makes the film so beautiful lies in the natural. Suddenly, all language dries up. When pressed for details about their honey, what comes out of the mouths of the senselessly stammering father, mindlessly humming Martin, and Gelsomina are not words but bees full of vibrancy and life. Director Alice Rohrwacher brings aspects of existential life to the surface that have no reason for being explored: a fellowship built not on know-how but through bee stings and suffering. The TV cameras are removed from the cave and we’re left staring at the two shadows that form inside. The present urges us to change, but it’s cold and uncaring, coming with no guarantee. Before Gelsomina and her family ever disappeared like vapor into the air, there must have been a moment when she whistled for the very first time. And so she washes away all meaning of the wonder. Mingling in my head as I left the theater were thoughts of clear failure and unknown possibilities, together with the pop songs that stirred something inside Gelsomina.

JINBO - SUMMER FREAK: Sun, Rain, Love
Kang Ilkwon (Music Critic): Although JINBO the SuperFreak is better known as a composer and producer of K-pop songs these days, he’s actually a longtime member of the R&B/soul scene in Korea and boasts an impressive resumé from that alone. With a name that means “progress,” it’s no wonder he’s less interested in keeping up with others and more focused on self-improvement driven by a thirst for new challenges and opportunities. Like a stream, JINBO never stays still.

JINBO works in a synthesis of every generation of R&B, from the neo soul, slow jam, and hip hop soul of the 1990s to more contemporary R&B and hip hop, plus a helping of electropop. And you can feel the very essence of the artist throughout his latest album, SUMMER FREAK: Sun, Rain, Love. Just look at “Happy Habits” (feat. Kenny The Jedi) with its perfect blend of elaborate samples, laid-back hip hop beat, and chill vibe, “Knock Knock Knock” and its experimental mix of jazz and electronic with a dash of hyperpop, or “Lychee Lime Juice,” which beautifully bridges reggae and R&B. These tracks act as a clear showcase of the wide range of genres JINBO skillfully plays upon, keeping what makes them so special while adding his own special sauce to the mix. His lyrics are another crucial part of what makes his musical world so unique. He takes subject matter often influenced by American R&B and uses uncommon Korean expressions to flex his hip hop storytelling skills.

The album’s standout song is the titular “Summer Freak,” particularly in the mesmerizing way in which JINBO smashes different moods and writing styles together to create something at once unusual and captivating. JINBO uses the space he’s created himself on SUMMER FREAK: Sun, Rain, Love to sing about love in its many forms, including for yourself and for others, including family and others close to you. As he puts it in the album description, “They may seem like words from another age, but it’s actually what we need most in times like today.” His music also stands as a reminder of the richness of Korean R&B at a time when the media and the general public have turned an indifferent shoulder to it for so long.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
Kim Boksung (Writer): Everyone loves a good underdog story. So what if I told you you could get four for the price of one?

The Lost Bookshop is the first novel by Evie Woods that the author did not publish independently. In other words, the world has woken up and is finally paying attention to her talent. It’s also a story told from three different perspectives, all of whom are grappling with heavy, real-world issues.

There’s Opaline, whose story takes place back in 1920s London—and then Paris, and later Dublin—as she flees from an arranged marriage set up by her abusive family. In the present day, we enter the points of view of two more Dublin transplants: Martha, who ends up finding work as a housekeeper, and Henry, who’s on the hunt for a lost Emily Brontë manuscript. Note that I mentioned the issues they struggle with are often dark and very much rooted in reality. Despite this, the book comes with its share of uplifting moments, mostly in the form of small triumphs in the face of reality. It’s also chock-full of magical realism where the plot’s concerned, and while sometimes these twists come across as a little too convenient, there’s no denying how whimsical it makes the book overall.

Whether you love underdog tales, magical mysteries, or soundbite quotes that are the perfect length for a tweet, don’t miss The Lost Bookshop. The author also recently published her follow-up novel, which will hopefully see a Korean translation as well.