IU’s Evocative “Love Wins All” Music Video (featuring V) is Thought-Provoking

It’s not easy for two well-known celebrities to immerse themselves in their roles so well that we don’t see them, but rather their characters. But watching IU’s music video for “Love Wins All,” I didn’t see pop stars IU and V, but rather a pair of anguished characters who were trying desperately to survive in this post-apocalyptic inferno.

“Jinny’s Kitchen” (서진이네)

The concept? A group of telegenic Korean celebrities run a snack bar in Bacalar, Mexico, for one week (haha!). In its own way, it had all the elements of a fun K-drama minus any love triangles. Was there a 2nd male lead? Of course! As well as a 3rd and a 4th and so on. It shifted every few minutes, depending on who’s on screen — Park Seo-joon of “Itaewon Class,” “Parasite” actor Choi Woo-shik, BTS vocalist V, and the dimpled head of Jinny’s Kitchen, Lee Seo-jin (“Behind Every Star”).

Revisiting “Hwarang” (V: It’s Definitely You)

Before I watched  “Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth,” I was looking forward to seeing how the romance between Dog Bird (Park Seo-Joon) and Ah-Ro (Go Ara) played out. But after the finale, I realized that what stuck with me wasn’t their tepid relationship, but that of the young men who formed a relationship — which at times was adversarial, but also based on friendship, honor and righteous morals. In other words, I was all about the poet warrior youth’s bromance.

“Hwarang” (화랑: 더 비기닝)

“You get to decide what kind of King you are going to be.” Don’t remember that line from “Hwarang”? That’s because it’s a quote from the blockbuster film, “Black Panther.” When the newly crowned king, T’challa, worries about how he will rule over his subjects, Nakia tells him, “You cannot let your father’s actions define your life.