“Tefficient Terry” (YouTube)
Lee Heewon: It’s been years since the MBTI personality test wave first swept over Korean society, and it remains just as important a tool today in understanding people’s personalities. Of the four letter pairs in the test, T (thinking) and F (feeling) are the two people focus the most on, as evidenced by the rise of the “are you a T?” meme and how it remains popular to ask questions specifically designed to test the distinction. In the world of “Tefficient Terry,” a TF Team from a future where T-type humans are on the brink of extinction time travels 200 years backwards to 2025. As part of the T-Type Human Revival Project, the team seeks out ancient human and TOMORROW X TOGETHER member TAEHYUN, after which they observe him and study his personality traits. TAEHYUN was “born to be” T, and it showed from a young age, like when his parents said Santa wouldn’t bring him any presents if he cried, and he simply replied, “Fine, then”—a classic case of a T-type struggling to accept fictions riddled with logical inconsistencies. While under observation, TAEHYUN claims he’s begun to lean a little F over time, then hilariously retracts the statement immediately afterwards.
TAEHYUN, even after previously testing 95% T and only 5% F on an MBTI test, fields a series of questions to double-check the assessment. When asked how he’d reply if fellow group member YEONJUN “says he’s in pain during dance practice,” TAEHYUN, hitting the T target, says he would respond with, “That’s how it is when you dance.” In the second episode, where TAEHYUN makes tiramisu with cartoonist and TV personality Kim Poong, they first play a game of T Bingo. TAEHYUN checks off traits like lack of emotional ups and downs, a love of numbers and data, and aversion to meaningless socializing. He also checks “I don’t take criticism as an attack,” remarking, “Isn’t it just feedback? That’s something to be thankful for. It’s hard to find people who give you criticism. You gotta keep them close if you want to improve.” His view showcases a hallmark strength of T-types—accepting other people’s words at face value without misinterpreting the intended meaning. TAEHYUN also checks off “inefficiency = anger” but shows a more nuanced understanding, saying, “I don’t go that far with others. I just think that they must have their own reasons.” Ultimately, MBTI types just might be tools for understanding each other’s differences. As fellow “T-type human” Kim Poong says on the show, “Empathy can be replaced with understanding.” After all, the seemingly always resolutely logical TAEHYUN once threw a birthday party for HUENINGKAI and acted as moral support for YEONJUN when the latter was promoting his solo mixtape. With more episodes still to go, will TAEHYUN be able to prove he’s “Tefficient Terry” and not some “Tactless Terry”?
“Homeward Bound”
Bae Dongmi (“CINE21” reporter): One day, Jung-ha (Jang Young-Nam), who has been teaching art at a school in Chuncheon since losing her husband, goes on medical leave. On her last day of work, as she’s packing her bags, her son Jin-woo (Ryu Kyung-Soo), who moved to Canada for his studies and ended up staying, shows up out of the blue with his medical student girlfriend, Jenny (Stephanie Lee). Together, they announce their plan to get married the following year, saying Jenny’s parents already gave their approval. Jung-ha, who has been hiding her illness from her son, is overwhelmed—not only by his sudden visit but also by the abrupt news. The film then ushers in a string of characters for Jung-ha—or the audience—to take in. There’s Ji-seon (Ok Ji-young), her yoga instructor and roommate, as well as Jenny’s parents, Moon-cheol (Park Ji-il) and Ha-young (Park Ji-a), who, after 30 years away, secretly return to Korea and follow their daughter to Chuncheon. With every hotel and motel in the city booked up for a marathon, Jung-ha has no choice but to invite them all to stay at her home.
The encounters lead to mutual curiosity, and curiosity leads to questions. But the conversations these questions lead to tend to lead to disappointment. Talks reveal that, contrary to Jin-woo’s claim, Jenny’s parents never actually approved of the marriage. Jin-woo has also quit his language school job to pursue life as a YouTuber and support Jenny in her studies. Moon-cheol and Ha-young, meanwhile, disapprove of Jin-woo and privately hope their prospective son-in-law will repay them, literally, for the sacrifices they made to put their daughter through medical school. Director Kim Dae-hwan uses these seemingly simple meetings and conversations to bring the characters’ desires out into the open, where they collide. The layers hiding each character’s secrets come undone one by one, transforming the film into a kind of mystery thriller. Family, as it turns out, can be the people we struggle to be most honest with, and sometimes the hardest to confide in. Just watching their dynamics unfold is enough to leave the audience on edge.
Most films tend to focus exclusively on the stories of their few protagonists. In the race to delve deeper into those stories, secondary characters are often relegated to the role of merely reacting to the main characters’ lines. But real life is a web of influence, all interconnected among groups of people. Kim’s film “Homeward Bound” closely mirrors this rhythm of real life in particular, capturing how complex family dynamics can be and how, over time, differences and grudges can lead to moments of understanding—just like on certain days, even seasons, of our own lives.
“KOREAN AMERICAN” (kimj)
Kim Do-heon (music critic): Here in 2025, people looking for “Korean-ness” are looking beyond simply a “made in Korea” label. As the pop mainstream falls deeper and deeper under the “KPop Demon Hunters” spell, fans of a more underground sound are on the lookout for the next generation of the genre—inspired by Korean sensibilities. And at the center of it all is Korean American producer kimj. kimj is fully immersed in the creative process, having collaborated with rising hyperpop stars like 2hollis, ericdoa, SEBii, and Nate Sib. As one of the musicians furthest out on the bleeding edge of the music world today, and unbound by the labels the industry imposes, he’s helping to build a whole new scene by exploring the unique sensibilities of our hyper-connected, Internet-driven society.
What makes kimj’s work stand out among all the Internet kids out there is his clear sense of cultural identity. Among a sea of artists who draw from a well of creativity dug in the grounds of a borderless world in the digital age, kimj is unmatched in the distinctive way he wields his cultural heritage. For him, Korea was his home until age six and the cultural roots that shaped him—a destiny bestowed upon him at birth and a new world of possibilities he discovered inside himself.
“KOREAN AMERICAN,” released on August 15 to coincide with Gwangbokjeol, or National Liberation Day, is another album from a prolific artist—but this time, kimj’s determined to introduce the world to other musicians. The music—embodying typical late-2000s “Billboard” pop à la Kesha, 3OH!3, and Katy Perry, plus Skrillex-style complextro and the heart of 2010s trap—lives up to the ppalli ppalli, or hurried, image Koreans have, including in his work with the Deep, Effie, and Extra Small.
kimj also possesses the objectivity and international connections of a global citizen, and he makes full use of those to his advantage. The album features the likes of Chinese rapper jackzebra from label Surf Gang, underscores, umru, and more. One song, first titled in Chinese, is also given the English title “#chinesekorean” in brackets. Whether Chinese American, Korean Chinese, or American Korean, this blending of boisterous hexd, digicore—really, this genre-defying avant-garde wave washes away any and all preconceptions and expectations.
These musicians already experimented with hyperpop’s juxtaposition of escapism and dreams of grandeur. Now, kimj and other new names have entered a new stage of experimentation with their music—a version of hyperpop that isn’t restricted to the confines of the digital and instead connects them through a real-world network.