In the SOOP SEVENTEEN ver. (season two)

Lee Yejin: A small village in the forest when you can get away from your busy life and bask in the natural atmosphere to your heart’s content. A getaway fitted with everything needed for total relaxation. A totally isolated place free of responsibilities and obligations where you can do whatever you want—or nothing at all. Working tirelessly since 2022 to promote their latest album and its repackaged version, including with a world tour, SEVENTEEN took a breather ahead of their dome tour in Japan to once again be In the SOOP.

The SEVENTEEN members put 200% of their fully stocked surroundings to use, including the personalized areas and supplies, various ingredients for cooking and assorted tools, to do just about everything that comes to mind when you think of time off: exercise, nap, fish, cook, read, drive around, kayak, hike, firespacing and more. THE 8 speaks solemnly over tea with DK about how he no longer seeks out stimulation-fueled happiness now that his values have shifted, then rushes to put the tea set away so he can go wild on an ATV, saying how it actually is best to seek out stimulation-fueled happiness. SEUNGKWAN cracks jokes and goofs around with the other members when they’re all eating together to keep things fun, but once he’s alone with JOSHUA, SEUNGKWAN ends up finding some emotional release as he confides in him. In another scene, one of them starts cooking in the kitchen, but he’s soon joined by someone else, then another, and before you know it, they’re cooking five different meals, giving them a feast. Similarly, when one of the members starts out flying a kite by themselves, he’s soon accompanied by several of the others, who share in the fun. In the SOOP is yet another example of some of the 8,177 combinations possible between the 13 members of SEVENTEEN and allows their affection for each other to fill even this vast, relaxing space. A word of advice, though: The show features food like jjolmyeon, yangpun bibimbap, coconut chicken, foil-wrapped samgyeopsal gui, fried tofu, dakgalbi fried rice, kimchi mandu jeongol, haejang ramyeon, Chinese-style jajangmyeon, deung galbi, jeyuk bokkeum, cheesy corn buldak, dakgangjeong and more, and with so many different types of eats gracing the screen, you’re going to want to avoid watching In the SOOP late at night. It’s already a group of good-looking, kindhearted people spending some much-needed time off together. Then they throw in endless tantalizing meals? There’s no better entertainment to accompany your meal.

“Seoul Survival Tips” (Lucy Gang)

Kang Ilkwon (music critic): There’s more and more women rapping, but in the smaller Korean hip hop scene, Lucy Gang is drawing a lot of attention. She’s so active that she’s already put out three albums in the two years since she debuted. On top of that, her rap skills keep improving, and her topics of choice are extremely unique, too. Her lyrics are a far cry from straightforward sex appeal and boasting, which have become just as clichéd in Korean hip hop as anywhere. Her single “Seoul Survival Tips” really lets you feel the qualities that separate Gang from the rest. Some people might be happy to call Seoul home, but for others, it’s a battleground where they’re constantly competing just to survive. Gang sheds light on the latter and explains what it takes for someone who’s outside the mainstream or just new to the world to get by without falling into despair. Her approach, spread out across 10 chapters, is clear-cut. For example, “Chapter 10, wit is a weapon / Forget kindness, it’s a luxury, act swiftly.” It’s a clever twist on an oft-visited theme of American rappers: how to survive in the hood. The music is minimal and catchy, and she keeps her rap tight. The Korean hip hop scene ought to be paying more attention to her.

You Can Age Slowly, Too: Keeping Your Body Young While You Age (Hee-Won Jung)

Kim Gyeoul (writer): This book was written by Hee-Won Jung, a geriatric doctor who rose to prominence on Twitter in a flash discussing “accelerated aging.” It's usually around this time of year that people who make dieting their New Year’s resolution start to lose their zeal, but if you read this book you’ll see that it’s not about the dieting—it’s about how your entire lifestyle is connected to life and society as a whole. The author argues that blood sugar that exceeds the capabilities of our muscles and all the developments in technology push us toward an addition to low-quality gratification, which in turn leads to cognitive decline and accelerated aging as well as obesity and various lifestyle diseases, and consequently an increased social cost. His opinion covers both the sociological side as well as self-improvement. The book suggests a need, and a way, to take a holistic approach to managing our lives in everything from diet and exercise to tempering our tendency toward pleasure-seeking and desires and maintaining good posture. It’s a great guide for how we can keep our bodies and minds healthy in our modern society where everything is played out to excess.

Unlocked

Im Sooyeon (CINE21 reporter): A person’s smartphone can tell you almost everything about them—where they go, what they secretly search for, and even who they privately like and dislike. In the film Unlocked, Yim Si-wan plays Jun-yeong, a psychopathic criminal who hacks into people’s lost phones and invents murders. His latest target is Na-mi (Chun Woo-hee), who drunkenly drops her phone on the bus. Posing as a good Samaritan who’s going to return the phone, Junyeong instead uses it to get details on her work life, her family, the baseball team she roots for, her favorite musician and more before confronting her directly. What makes Unlocked so compelling is the modern universal fear of our personal information getting into the wrong hands. The movie also makes clever and immersive use of the screens on our smart devices, making for an entertain, well-directed and commercially viable genre film. A detailed character analysis of Yim’s part alleviates any concern that his character overlaps with another villain he played in Emergency Declaration, and Chun pulls the drama along thanks to the breadth of her acting chops, going from an everyday woman caught up in a crime to a menace to deal with.