“The Devil’s Plan: Death Room” (Netflix)
Lee Heewon: “Violence and theft are prohibited, but all other tactics are allowed,” our host, the devil, explains. “Play only for victory.” As you might guess from the instructions, “The Devil’s Plan: Death Room” is far from a simple battle of wits. Teamwork and personal strategy, alliances made and broken—victory all comes down to the choices the players make, and everything’s on the table. The second season of the show is even more intense than the first thanks to the players living together in a high-stakes, high-tension mock prison with the addition of two additional contestants. While the bond between Miss Korea winner and university student Lee Seung Hyun and M&A lawyer Son Eun-yu shines as they spend nights solving single-player games together in the prison, you also find players like actor Justin H. Min or professional Go player Lee Sedol, who famously beat AlphaGo, confidently taking things at their own pace without getting swept up in alliances. In season one, the plot was mainly pulled along by the utilitarian alliance revolving around science YouTuber Orbit, whose plan was to resist the system in place. In season two, the show moves in intriguing new directions thanks to the diversity of the choices the players make, driven by ideals like loyalty or victory. When KAIST mathematical sciences graduate and model Choi Hyunjoon asks Lee Sedol, “Aren’t you at all worried about being eliminated?” Lee replies, “It’s not a matter of being eliminated. I’m here to try and win.” In the end, there can be only one winner. Contestants form alliances, lie, throw others under the bus, and take daring risks as if putting their lives on the line. The prison setting where survival of the fittest rules, combined with the harsh reality of the hidden stages, is ultimately like a microcosm of the real society we live in. Oddly enough, it all works to bring out the players’ humanity. “Why can’t you be good friends if you win?” poker player 7high asks at one point, playing by the rules of the game and keeping personal feelings out of it. “In any case, we’re playing games to decide only one winner.” Meanwhile, news anchor Kang Ji-yeong, 7high, and Eun-yu develop a sense of camaraderie after relying on each another while in the prison, and it shows even when they’re competing in death matches. In a world where alliances give way to betrayal and emotions cloud strategy, viewers are forced to reflect a little deeper on the realities of human nature.
Outkast inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Kang Ilkwon (Music Critic): If the Grammys and “Billboard” Music Awards are about celebrating achievements in popular music by today’s artists as they happen, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is about commemorating artists’ long-lasting legacies. Eligibility begins 25 years after an artist’s debut album, with inductees chosen based on a combination of musical influence, creativity, popularity, and critical acclaim. Although it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, it isn’t an exclusive club limited to rock bands—artists making pop, soul, hip hop, and everything in between are fair game. Here, rock and roll has evolved beyond simply a genre to symbolize innovation, defiance, creativity, and flipping culture on its head.
And now, hip hop duo Outkast has finally earned its place in the Hall. Outkast has such an unpredictable and mysterious sound that I frequently describe them as an alien duo. They stood out right from their debut album, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” (1994), when they put Southern hip hop front and center on the world stage. Though a traditional hip hop album by today’s standards, at the time, it was a refreshing blend of Southern and West Coast style with innovative production techniques. Starting with their second album, “ATLiens,” they took an even more inventive turn with their music. Cosmic experimental soundscapes, bold new ideas that crossed genre lines, and their uniquely imaginative theming—every album they released was astonishing. To discuss their music in any real depth would require an entire book.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had this to say on their decision to include Outkast: “Outkast redefined hip hop with their genre-blending sound and relentless innovation, proving the ‘Dirty South’ could compete with rap music’s long-standing East and West Coast scenes. Outkast’s distinctive sound—a blend of funk, soul, and jazz with introspective storytelling—helped them become one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful hip hop groups of all time. With massive tracks like ‘Hey Ya!,’ Outkast challenged every norm, defied every genre, and pushed every boundary.”
An extremely fitting assessment. Outkast’s induction to the Hall isn’t just a nod to their past accomplishments, either. Their music continues to inspire countless artists and teach younger generations the importance of thinking differently. If you’re unfamiliar with Outkast’s music, now is the perfect time to dive in. And perhaps you’ll understand why they were destined to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
*Recommended tracks by the author: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, ATLiens, Rosa Parks, B.O.B., Ms. Jackson, Hey Ya!, Roses, Mighty “O,” Morris Brown
“Crying in H Mart” (Michelle Zauner)
Kim Boksung (Writer): The classic coming-of-age story has many familiar features—ones you could either read in stories, or simply live through—but one key feature is that their characters don’t simply discover a wider world they were missing, but also eventually come full circle to realize how much they had all along. Michelle Zauner’s debut book, “Crying in H Mart,” is in many ways the author’s autobiography as told through a memoir about her late mother. Zauner, whose mother immigrated to the United States with the author’s American father, grapples with her mother’s cancer and death just as she’s becoming an adult herself. Home takes on a complex meaning as she navigates the book’s central tragedy, desperate as she is at first to escape her sometimes overbearing mother, only to return to her hometown as she painfully watches her mother wither away, later leaving behind somewhere she may no longer truly feel at home.
Zauner is the lead singer of the band Japanese Breakfast, and her mother’s passing largely informed the group’s first major release. She becomes increasingly engaged with questions surrounding her own Korean heritage throughout the events recalled in the book, especially with the string of tragedies on that side of the family. In “Crying in H Mart,” Zauner concludes the world has two types of people: “those who had felt pain and those who had yet to,” a line she also uses in one of her own songs, “Posing in Bondage.” Her takeaway seems to be that the same things that feel like they hold us in place, often with painful consequences, also keep us rooted and connected. The singer has since spent a year in her mother’s home country learning the language and released the album “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women).” Korean fans will no doubt have a lot to look forward to when the group’s tour makes a stop at the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival.