I finally got around to watching T-ara’s five-part special "Star Life Theater". I began downloading it awhile ago, but then that whole terrible fracas blew up and I just didn’t have the heart to venture there for awhile. But now that some time has passed and everyone seems to be O.K., I thought it was time I check it out, and BOY am I glad I DID- This was really QUITE and interesting and insightful show! T-ara’s Star Life Theater focused on the girls work on their single and music videos for their song “Day By Day” as well as the preparations for their subsequent Japan Tour. They show the girls practicing in the studios, in the dance rehearsal rooms and even their daily activity and days off. They even take the time to visit some girls in their homes and interview their parents and friends, so you really learn a LOT about what goes on “behind the scenes” with the group. You get to see the girls hanging out backstage with their peers like Girls' Generation's Tiffany, Taeyeon and Seohyun (there for their TTS promos), as well as Sulli, Victoria and Amber from uber cool dance group f(x)!
Tiffany gives her eye-smile of encouragement to the girls!
And Sulli, Victoria and Amber of f(x) are there as well!
But even more that this is the insight to the personalities and dynamics of the group. Hwayoung has stated before that she’s always felt like she never connected with the other girls, and here you DO see a bit of what she’s talking about, but watching further, it seems that actually even Qri, Boram and Soyeon are outside of the “core” trio of Hyomin, Eunjung and Jiyeon. Those three have a very close bond between them, so at times it does seem pretty "clique-ish", but what are you gonna do, they were part of the original 5-ara, and have spent the most time together, so of course they would be closest. There's a segment where the camera n crew goes to Hyomin's apartment and she invites Eunjung and Jiyeon for dinner where they talk story, Very fun and interesting, but feels kind of weird because it makes them seem so distant from the other girls.
Other episodes find the crew following the individual girls on their days off- Hwayoung spends hers with her twin sister Hyoyoung (of Co-Ed School and 5Dolls fame) where she gets emotional talking about the bond they share with each other, and in other clips we get to meet Boram's family as well as Eunjung and Jiyeon's mother when they go to each embers' respective houses. In fact, the only one who didn't seem to have any special segment was Qri! There was a really cute segment where Jiyeon and Hyomin were playfully shooting a CM wherre big sister Eunjung came and watched them with a smile!
Hwayoung and twin sister Hyoyoung
Boram at home with the family
Jiyeon and Hyomin shooting a CM
Soyoen's one was also kind of bittersweet, she says she's always wanted to be a singer (in the vein of Whitney Houston) but singing in an idol group doesn't give her much chance to show her vocal skills. So she really likes songs like "Cry Cry". And it was really sad, during practice (gads, the girls practice for like 10 hours straight, frick) , the girls are rewarded with a late-night meal of pork wraps to eat and re-nourish themselves for the rest of the session, but Soyeon can't because the comeback is coming soon and she has the kind of body metabolism where she constantly has to work to keep the weight off. So sad, she almost looked in tears. And when the interviewer asked who in T-ara can eat and not gain weight, she gestured towards Hyomin, happily stuffing her face. I had to smile, sweet oblivious Hyomin!
I know that T-ara have "rotating leadership", but one thing that struck me watching this is how much Eunjung is really like a REAL leader of sorts. Just listening to her talk about the group’s past and future and you really get a sense of authority in her voice. In fact, she reveals that back in the early days, she actually WAS co-leader of the group! I have to say I really liked the parts with her. Eunjung's really becoming a favorite member of mine, right there alongside Hyomin!
Remembering Bo Peep Bo Peep: Eunjung
Speaking of Hyomin, besides the dinner she threw at her apartment, there was also this really nice segment where she had a "solo" day and went up to film a new episode of Invincible Youth Season 2, where she got giggly reuniting with her friend Sunhwa (of Secret) who was also there to visit, so much fun watching the two reminisce of their days shooting Season 1!
Hyomin and Sunhwa
The most interesting segments were the parts with Jiyeon. She’s quite candid about her past trials and tribulations and future concerns, and I kept forgetting she's the maknae of T-ara, she seems REALLY mature. In one episode, she took the crew to her apartment, where she said she was going to cook dinner for a "friend", the doorbell rang, and it was IU! So much fun, they kept making fun of each other, accusing the other of being the worse cook, LOL! They met through variety shows and have been very close friends sinc,e and it really shows!
Jiyeon and IU
Later the interviewer was talking to Jiyeon who said that because she was shuffled around so much growing up that she never really had friends. She said that in her life, she only has TWO real friends, IU and Luna.
I was like "Huh? LUNA Luna? Like f(x) Luna?" I typed in "Jiyeon and Luna" into the google search engine, and was happy to discover that it was TRUE!!! So many fan-shot videos of Luna and Jiyeon huddled together like this one at the Idol Olympics, soooo heartwarming:
Then there is this episode of "Come To Play" where the three friends came on and talked about stuff, where we learned that Luna and Jiyeon have been friends since school.
There's this one interesting part where IU is talking about auditioning for some singing contest, and she didn't win, but she said she understood why the girl that DID win won, years later when KARA debuted, she saw Hara, and said, HEY! it's that girl that won the contest! So Funny! At the end, there is the part where the girls say their thanks to each other, Jiyeon got all emotional thanking Luna, and Luna explained that they're always there for each other. Then Jaesuk wrapped the show up, and I thought, hey, they didn't let Luna give her thanks! D'oh!Anyway, after watching these Star Life Theater episodes, I have to say once again, what a cryin' pityin' shame that all that nastiness had to go down. I really wish things could have worked out, I feel horrible about Hwayoung’s departure. At least, to date, T-ara has gotten back on track, hopefully we'll see Hwayoung in some capacity in the future. All ex-T-ara members come back, right? LOL! Queens Fighting!!
Maybe a year or so back, I was talking to my friend Dan-O about the music he was listening to, a subject I’m always interested in with him, as Dan-O was in fact the guy that first introduced me to the world of J-pop all those years ago… Back when he was still living in Hawaii and he was hooking em up with the sounds of CoCo, Trf, Namie Amuro and shows like HEY HEY HEY Music Champ and POP JAM…Ah, those were the days!
Well, in that time, Dan had moved back to his hometown of Guam, gotten busy with work, and with his busy schedule, he admitted that he hadn’t kept up with the music of the j-pop world, and when he DID go out with friends to dance clubs or karaoke, it was now K-Pop that he was primarily listening to! After getting over the shock of the news, he went on to link me videos of Korean groups he liked so I could get a feel of what he was “into”…
So a few weeks ago I’m downloading the latest video of Girls’ Generation (or SNSD or Shoujo Jidai, whatever you want to call them), and when I click play to watch the video, find that I’ve downloaded the WRONG PV! This might have been bad news, but I found I really liked the song I was watchng, and the girl was cute, besides! Looking alternately between actress Riko Narumi and BoA, this girl instantly captured my attention and I realized I needed to get this song!
Taking a glance at the video credits, I read that the song was called "Good Day", and the artist singing was named “IU”, and suddenly, bells went off in my head! Going back and checking our last correspondence, I checked, and sure enough, Dan-o had cited this girl as his current favorite Korean artist! What a Happy Coincidence!
It was thrilling to see that one of Dan-O's fave Korean artists had found her way into my circle of new music singing Jpanese versions of her korean songs! I immediately emailed Dan with the exciting news! Happily, he hadn’t yet heard the song , so I sent him the youtube link, and we both went back and watched it, agreeing that IU was quite talented indeed, her song “Good Day” was a wonderful little tune, and OH MAN, we gave BIG applause to that “high-sustained” finishing note she wrapped up the pop-perfect song with! Just fantastic!
Above: IU in her Good Day video. Is it jsut me, or does this courtyard look exactly like the one where Captain Von Trapp danced with Maria in The Sound Of Music?
