“BTS: Bring the Soul”: Episode 2

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
September 16, 2019

☆☆☆☆

“Passion” is the title of this second episode of “BTS: Bring the Soul.” I was intrigued by the word choice, because the Korean word for passion is 열정…and I couldn’t help notice that the last syllable of the word is 정.

In English, the closest definition of 정 is a feeling of love and loyalty that people have for one another. And music aside, 정 is at the core of the relationship that the members of BTS have with each other. And that feeling is personified in this episode.

More so than any episode from last year’s “Burn the Stage” (or the first episode of this series), viewers can see how lonely life on the road can be. The seven-man group may smile on stage and charm their interviewers with witty quips and soundbites. But touring can wear them down, even when they know they are in a privileged position that many are envious of.

There’s a scene in the Beatles’ debut film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” where an old man points out the banality of life on tour with the Fab Four:

“So far, I’ve been in a train and a room, a car and a room, and a room and a room!”

I thought about this as RM talked about celebrating his birthday on the road last September. His birthday isn’t a big deal to him, he says, but he regrets not being able to spend it with his mother, who would like to share the day with him. He isn’t complaining as he says this. But he sounds matter of fact and weary. He breaks down what being away from home is like for him. Instead of sightseeing and roaming the streets at will like many of us do as tourists, he is stuck in his room. “That’s hard for me,” he says. He notes that he feels trapped about a week into a long tour, because of his lack of freedom.

For Suga, staying in the hotel is less of a problem than the pressure he puts on himself to create new music. “I don’t want to go shopping and I don’t play games like the other guys,” he says. “I want to sit and write songs. But I’ll write lyrics and can’t come up with music or write music and am stuck on lyrics.” Taking a breath, he laughs and says, “I used to worry about why I couldn’t come up with more songs in the past. But I’ve come to believe in myself that I will write them now.”

They all talk about their fears of whether they would succeed. Their doubts are offset by their popularity, which Suga describes as a miracle. V marvels at how they’re playing venues in the U.S. as big as the ones they perform at in South Korea and says, “We all have a thirst for the stage.” Jin wisely notes that he has never been in a hurry for fame: “Our steady growth is the story we wanted to tell.”

Their naiveté about their own place in pop culture was evident at their TIME magazine cover photo shoot. J-Hope assumed they must be shooting for the inside of the magazine. It’s endearing that he didn’t just assume that of course they’d be on the cover.

The most difficult segments of this docuseries is seeing the group members being apologetic for human foibles. Having woken up with his voice gone, Jungkook looks worried. He says, “There’s a lot of pressure to meet expectations of our worth.” Jimin — clearly in pain — tells his trainer, “It hurts when I bend my leg.” He mentions how he has been breathing hard, because their choreography is so difficult, even for a trained dancer like himself. But in the same breath, he talks about needing to keep his energy level up. RM talks about how they need to adapt their choreography to show more energy during the segments when they’re closer to their fans on stage. He doesn’t want BTS to appear bored just standing there. Their theory is that ARMY deserve the best BTS can give.

As successful as they are, it appears that each member remembers well the negative comments they faced in their early years. “There was a lot of criticism about our vocals,” J-Hope says. He also adds that they were never great at dancing. (What?!)

“We would wake up at 10 a.m. and go to bed at 10 p.m.,” he said. “That’s how hard we practiced. I think about how we were able to do that.”

“We didn’t have many songs for our first concerts,” RM says. “We wondered, ‘Should we do a cover?’ This was before ‘I Need U’ and we didn’t have a hit. Back then, we felt poor in our hearts.”

When “Blood Sweat & Tears” became an international hit single, RM said he thought that would be the peak of their career, because how much higher could they fly?

One of the things I really enjoyed about this episode is how the editing showed the highs and the lows of their life on the road and how their passion and jung made it possible for the group as a whole to thrive, even when individual members felt they were deficient.

At a celebratory dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant, Jimin happily takes videos of the flames as they grill their meat. Jungkook looks ectastic at the bounty of food before him. A hungry RM said, “I just want it to be done!” He lamented that with all the dancing they do on stage, you’d think they’d lose weight. But they eat so well that he always gains a couple pounds on tour.

Jimin couldn’t have been any cuter than when he eyed the food and promised, “I’m going to work out more.”

It’s these everyday moments that make this series so interesting to watch. One moment, you have the leader of the world’s most famous boy band talking about how they can improve their concerts. The next, he knows that the reality of the improvement will mean more work for BTS.

“아이고/Aigo,” he says, like an ajusshi decades older. “I have to go back to work now.”

Airdates: The six-part docuseries debuted on August 27, 2019 on the group’s Weverse app. Read more of my reviews of “BTS: Bring the Soul” here: (Episode 1) (Episodes 3 & 4) (Episode 5) (Episode 6)

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