Yet Another BOSS RIIZE update – Total Uproar

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written October 16, 2024)

I can’t believe I have to keep taking my BOSS RIIZE binder off the shelf to put in an update.  Usually I take down finished binders every once in a while to review them and make edits.  But this RIIZE story isn’t ending.

RIIZE has always been marketed as an international band.  And the international fans are FURIOUS about what is happening to Seunghan.  American and European YouTubers I follow, who I didn’t even know were into K-pop, have been posting angry videos about the way Seunghan is being treated, and how toxic fans get to bully major labels into doing whatever they want them to do.  And RIIZE is caught in the middle of all this.

A quick breakdown of what I’ve learned over the past 24 hours:

When SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan would return to RIIZE, the rest of the group was performing at the KBS Music Bank Tour in Madrid.  From the fan postings I’ve been reading on Reddit, the Madrid crowd was excited at the news and chanting about how RIIZE was finally seven again.  Meanwhile, Seunghan was back in Seoul by himself, facing the huge fan backlash with no support system around him.  Cell phone footage is posted online of him walking to the SM Building, having to walk past all those funeral wreaths.  Later, fans got pictures of him leaving the SM Building in tears.  Alone. 

Two days after the announcement that Seunghan was returning, SM posted his letter saying that he was leaving permanently.  Everyone pretty much knows SM made him write that letter.  And the bullies celebrated, but the rest of the K-pop world was PISSED.

The K-netizen bullies may be celebrating, but the rest of the fans are boycotting.  They have cancelled all their orders of products by SM artists.  They have unsubscribed to SM social media accounts.  And starting yesterday, companies all over the world that sell K-pop music and merch have put a hold on selling anything by RIIZE to protest the way SM is treating their artists.  (SM has a loooong history of horrible band management decisions that I won’t get into right now.)

Caught in the middle of all this madness is RIIZE.  The six active members who were so excited about their friend returning to the group watched as their so-called fans bullied their friend until SM backed down.  SM did not take them off the tour.  Fans captured photos of them in airports on the tour with their faces covered in COVID masks and hats pulled down, but So Hee had clearly been crying in one of the pictures. 

They can’t be with their friend to comfort him.  Shops worldwide have stopped selling their merch, and even though it’s in support of Seunghan, it’s still costing them in sales.  And they have to continue on their tour, singing and dancing in front of audiences, many of whom participated in the bullying and are responsible for all this.  They are in the middle of an international uproar due to the mismanagement and cowardice of SM Entertainment.

Seunghan is one of many, many K-pop idols whose lives and careers have been destroyed by the toxic K-netizens who have been allowed to run rampant in the industry.  A few idols have ended their lives over such bullying.  I don’t know why Seunghan is the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it seems the world has had enough.  Maybe the reason Seunghan is the catalyst is because RIIZE has such a huge international fan base.  When you market your K-pop group to the entire world, the entire world pays attention when one of the group members gets mistreated. 

These horrible toxic fans have to be stopped.  K-pop idols need to be better protected.  And SM Entertainment needs to be burned to the ground.  Right now, the intensity is still building, and this story isn’t close to being over. 

Depending on what happens, I may be taking a break from these recaps once I’m finished with I-Land.  Knowing what I know about how idols are treated, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about survival reality shows that groom the next batch of kids to get thrown right into that hellscape of an industry. 

I’m going to leave my BOSS RIIZE binder here on my desk for a while.  There will be more to this story.  I’m just hoping that RIIZE, all seven of them, come out of this okay. 

Back to Site Table of Contents

BOSS RIIZE update – Well, never mind. Everything is awful.

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written October 13, 2024)

The toxic fans have won.  Seunghan has left RIIZE again. 

After several days of death threats on Weverse, funeral wreaths being sent to SM, and awful rumors being spread about him on the internet, Seunghan has decided to leave RIIZE for his physical safety and mental health.  I don’t blame him, but I hate this. 

I hate how awful and self-righteous fans can be.  Not to mention violent and threatening.  According to the message Seunghan posted on Weverse, the funeral wreaths had his name on them.  Can you imagine trying to go to work and seeing that?  Especially  if you had done nothing wrong? 

Take a look at the picture on the right.  According to Korean news outlets, there were 1,000 of these wreaths in front of the SM building.  All with Seunghan’s name on them.

All he did was have a girlfriend before he became an idol.  He’s a human being.  Humans fall in love.  He is not genetically an idol.  “Idol” is just a job title.  He does not deserve this.

I hate that these bullies have succeeded in getting him fired again and are probably now celebrating.  Like I said, I don’t blame Seunghan for leaving – I probably would, too. 

I also can’t imagine what this is going to do to the rest of the group.  They were excited about their friend coming back.  Won Bin had posted a message on Weverse, expressing his happiness and welcoming his friend back.  That message has now been taken down.  

RIIZE will probably resent their fans so much after this.  I can’t imagine being onstage, smiling and waving to the fans who bullied your friend and sent him death threats.  I wouldn’t want to continue in K-pop.  I’d just want to go home and disappear.

It’s not just K-pop, and it’s not just South Korea.  The world feels like it’s become such a stupidly angry, ignorant, violent place.  This is so depressing.

I hope that Seunghan is able to recover from this and find happiness and fulfillment in his life. 

And I hope that I can find some hope.

 

Yet Another BOSS RIIZE update – Total Uproar

Back to Site Table of Contents

BOSS RIIZE update – Welcome back, Seunghan!

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written October 11, 2024)

It’s official.  RIIZE is once again seven.  I woke up this morning to headlines, Reddit posts, happy BRIIZE reactions, and anti-fans losing their minds.

Seunghan has been out of the group for ten months.  He’s missed a lot, including BOSS RIIZE, which I now do plan to recap if there’s a second season.  It will be good to see him back with his friends in the group.  He didn’t deserve to get kicked out in the first place.  I’m happy to see that SM Entertainment pushed back against the toxic fans, known as OT6 (named for their belief that there should only be six members, not seven.  Those who have hoped for Seunghan’s return are called OT7.) 

Of course, OT6 is not happy, and we are once again treated to news about how borderline criminally insane K-pop anti-fans can be.  They are actually leaving funeral wreaths at the entrance of SM Entertainment.  That, to me, sounds like a death threat.  And funeral wreaths are expensive.  According to PannKpop.com, nearly one thousand of these wreaths were sent to SM. How much money do these OT6s make?  Do they have actual jobs?  If so, do their bosses know this is what their employees are doing with their free time?  Leaving sinister messages at entertainment companies over boy band decisions?  If I ran a company and saw one of my employees on the news doing this, there would be a meeting with HR the next day.

It’s also a bit frustrating that Seunghan had to wrote a long letter of apology to appease the OT6.  For having a girlfriend before becoming an idol.  Unfortunately, he’s not the only idol who’s had to write apology letters to the fans for normal things like dating.  He also had to apologize for the fact that he smoked cigarettes back in high school, which is a bad habit but also none of anyone else’s business. 

Whatever happens going forward, this is happy news, and I’m looking forward to seeing performances and videos with all seven members back together.  What a nice way to end these recaps. 

Welcome back, Seunghan.  Enjoy your career and all the craziness that goes with it.  And if there is a season two of BOSS RIIZE, watch out for Eun Seok.  

BOSS RIIZE update – Well, never mind.  Everything is awful.

Back to Site Table of Contents

BOSS RIIZE, Episode 2: The peasants revolt.

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written September 13, 2024)

Welcome back to this endearingly awkward little show.  When we last left our boys, So Hee was BOSS with a national treasury of $150, and his worker Won Bin was plotting revenge.  I’ve seen worse storylines on these reality shows.  Let’s see where this one is going.

Our RIIZE guys are hungry, so they take their $150 USD to a famous restaurant known for its seafood.  So Hee is still wearing his flower wreath.  Sung Chan, perhaps trying to make up for slacking off on the beach cleanup, gives his BOSS disinfecting wipes and tells the crew, “Is there ramen?  Our BOSS needs ramen.”

The others also start sucking up, providing soy sauce and asking if there’s anything else he needs.  The boys look a bit more relaxed in this episode.  Won Bin seems to have checked out, though.  He’s the only one not participating in the sucking up.

So Hee looks over the menu.  This place isn’t cheap.  The order of king crab costs half their budget.  So Hee wants the king crab, so now I’m waiting for him to impose a new tax on the BRIIZE fandom to pay for it.

Eun Seok and Anton want their BOSS to order two sets of king crab.  I hope neither of them is appointed Minister of Coin. 

So Hee calls a vote on the food.  They decide on one order of king crab and sashimi, rice, spicy stew, and beverages.  They have 50,000 won (about $37) left over, which So Hee decides to put back in the budget.  Our BOSS is fiscally responsible.

Wait – he gets talked into another order, and now they have about eight bucks left.  Somehow they work it out and are left with more money in the budget, but I am math’d out at this point.

So Hee sends his two workers, Won Bin and Sung Chan, to fetch water for the table.  Does this restaurant not have wait staff?  Why is this a famous restaurant?  

Sung Chan brings a plastic thermos of water, and Won Bin just sits.  He’s lost whatever fire he had at the end of the last episode.  He does come to life when the other band members demand water, and he tells them to get their own.  His exact words are, “We didn’t bring this water for peasants.  Why aren’t you working?”

The non-workers start plotting a revolt, right there in the restaurant.  The food hasn’t even arrived yet.  Eon Seok appoints himself the BOSS’ second in command.

BOSS So Hee worries that they need more money.  Eun Seok whispers to him that he should make the workers go earn some more money.  So Hee, who appears to be an easily-led ruler, orders his workers to do just that.  Won Bin gives a fake laugh, and both workers stay put.  I’m starting to feel really badly for Won Bin.  He looks like he’s hating this.  When the food arrives, he tosses some lettuce at Eun Seok, saying that’s his dinner.

So Hee orders his workers to serve the food.  “There’s a reason why this place is famous,” Sung Chan says as he puts the plates on the table.  I imagine it’s because no one actually works here.  Is this even a restaurant, or are they filming this at someone’s house?  They got the food from DoorDash, didn’t they?

Eun Seok keeps telling So Hee to make the workers do things, to the point where So Hee warns us that Eun Seok will be a tyrant if he’s ever the BOSS.

We get several minutes of our boys just sitting there and eating.  Several long minutes.  But the fans seem to be entertained.

Is Melissa his mom?

At one point, Shotaro looks at the production crew and asks if they’re just going to film them eating.  “Don’t worry.  Just eat,” commands So Hee.

We do get a funny moment when Anton looks up the definition of “worker” on this phone and says, “There’s a word GOON in English.”  Please, production team, let them start calling the workers goons.  

The king crab arrives, and this is rather impressive.  I can see why it costs half their budget.

I need to put some context here.  The reason we are spending half this episode’s runtime watching these guys eat is because mukbang, a trend of watching people eat, is very popular in South Korea.  It started as a calming thing of just enjoying the sight of other people enjoying a meal, but then it came to American YouTube content creators and spiraled into a fetish thing of watching people binge.

Just like with queerbaiting, mukbang is WAY too complex a topic to cover here.  Just know that we’re probably going to get a LOT of footage of these guys eating.  Meanwhile, Won Bin looks like he wishes he were literally anywhere else.

Suddenly, we get a drumroll sound effect.  Everyone around the table stops mid-chew and looks at the crew in alarm.  They are told there’s been a coup against the BOSS.  Oh, thank goodness.  Please tell me my prediction about Monsta X is about to come true.

Nope.  The crew is opening the polling booth to pick a new boss.  This is less of a coup and more of a free and fair election, but whatever moves this show along is fine with me. 

Wait – there’s a twist.  We flash back to the previous episode where Won Bin and Sung Chan (but mostly Won Bin) are cleaning up the beach.  The production team tells them they’re being given a chance to pick a new BOSS.  This is called a Mission Coup.  This is the happiest I’ve seen Won Bin so far.

According to the rules being flashed on the screen, if these two get caught in their mission, the coup fails, and the BOSS and workers stay the same.  So there’s a lot at stake here, because if a coup is discovered, the BOSS is gonna be PISSED.

Won Bin is given a red card with an act of treason on it.  His assignment is to get fed by the BOSS at least three times.  Sung Chan’s card says he must get head pats from the other non-worker members – all four of them.

Now we cut to when the band first arrives at the restaurant.  The BOSS and his goon, Eun Seok, have arrived first and are just waiting for the others.  Sung Chan enters, scratching his head.  He goes right up to So Hee and bends over, asking if he has something on his head.  Eun Seok looks at him suspiciously and says no.  Sung Chan gives up for now and sits down on the BOSS’ other side.  This won’t be as easy as he thought.

Now Won Bin enters.  He’s hesitant to pick a seat because the ones on each side of the BOSS have been taken.  He can’t choose a seat directly across from So Hee because all the members have to sit facing camera.

Sung Chan takes a tissue from the table and slides a couple of pieces of it into his hair.  Meanwhile, Won Bin impatiently waits for the food to arrive.

So Hee notices the tissue in Sung Chan’s hair and pulls it out.  One head pat accomplished.  

Won Bin gets So Hee to feed him something from the table.  His second attempt fails because So Hee can’t reach his mouth, and Won Bin has to take the food with his fingers.  This probably explains why he’s been looking so bummed all during the meal.  But he keeps trying, and he’s having better luck than Sung Chan. He finally gets three bites from his unsuspecting BOSS, and the show tells us that if just one worker completes his mission, the coup succeeds.

Now we’re caught up to the present, and we get the drumroll and dramatic music interrupting the meal.  The coup is announced, and Won Bin looks so happy.  At least until the production team tells So Hee that Won Bin was the traitor.  Then he looks downright triumphant.

Sung Chan reveals his failed coup attempt.  I actually feel sorry for So Hee.  He was a kind leader, if easily manipulated by Eun Seok.  If I were in this band, I would vote for him again to maintain peace in the kingdom and watch him get revenge on these traitors.

So Hee has to return the fund, the laurel, and the BOSS stamp that he used to sign his appointment letter.  I feel sad.  RIIZE will regret the day they stabbed this guy in the back.

Voting begins again.  There’s no campaigning.  I don’t know what motivation anyone other than the workers has to vote for someone else.  Seriously, So Hee was doing fine.  Re-elect the guy.

Eun Seok and Anton are plotting.  Eyes around the table are darting.  And this episode is ending.

For the next episode, I’d like to see So Hee be re-elected and exact revenge on his traitors by making them build a sedan chair and carry him around in it.

See you then.

Episode 3:  The Riize of a Tyrant

Back to Site Table of Contents

BOSS RIIZE, Episode 1: Dawn of a New Regime

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written September 12, 2024)

Welcome to BOSS RIIZE, a show that should go by pretty quickly, since each episode is less than 30 minutes long.  Let’s start Episode 1 with a couple of fun facts.

Fact 1:  This is the first group I’ve written about that doesn’t have a designated Leader.  Shotaro, the oldest member (and incidentally, the only Japanese member), often takes a leadership role, but he’s not officially the leader.

Fact 2:  RIIZE has dealt with a lot of anti-fan problems that I covered in the introduction, but at least one of their problems came from within their own management.  The original fandom name for this group was SUNZ.  That made the band and fandom names together sound like “Rising Suns.”  However, no one stopped to consider that “rising sun” is the name of the Japanese flag that is still used by some branches of the Japanese military.  The reason that’s a problem is that Koreans mostly remember that flag as the one that was waving when Japan invaded and annexed Korea in 1910.  You would think SOMEONE at SM Entertainment would have made that connection. 

So instead, they changed the fandom name to BRIIZE.  Because RIIZE is pronounced “rise,” the fans understandably thought that the fandom name was pronounced to rhyme with it, and they didn’t understand what it meant.  Fans on Reddit finally figured out it’s pronounced “breeze,” which still doesn’t make sense when connected to the band name.  Why not words that make sense with “rise,” such as TIIDE or SHIINE?  But at this point, SM Entertainment had pretty much had enough of the whole thing, so BRIIZE it is. 

Ah, the chaotic, bewildering business of K-pop.  I truly love it with a passion.

With that out of the way, let’s hit the road with RIIZE.

Right when the credits hit, I meet a fellow viewer who posts the following:

I already love this girl and hope she keeps posting over the course of this series.  She’s a perfect example of how the joy of K-pop connects with people who really need that joy.

We get a super-fast animated intro set to RIIZE’s hit “Get a Guitar.”  Then we open on a lovely beach in Gangneung.  Our boys show up, awkward and nervous in front of the cameras but excited to be doing their first reality show.  (This band was not formed on a survival show.)  They don’t know the name of the show or what they’ll be doing.  They take a group photo, and then they run to the ocean of sparkling, crystal-blue water.  This is a lovely beach.

They seriously don’t seem to know anything about the show they’re doing.  I know it sounds unlikely, but given how much control the K-pop industry has over its artists, it’s entirely possible these guys were just put on a train to the Gangwon province and told to look happy for the cameras.

The boys spot a sign on the beach with their band name on it.  They run the few hundred yards to the sign and then collapse from exhaustion.  Seriously, guys?  Someone get Julien Kang in here.

The sign turns out to be a voting booth, and they take a closer look.  They are clearly ill at ease in front of the reality show cameras.  I love these guys, and they’re doing their best, but they’re not great at sounding real on a reality show. 

The RIIIZE guys (RIIZE GUYS would have been another great fandom name) try to guess what they’ll be voting on.  Boys, you’ve got about twenty minutes left in this episode.  Maybe get in there and look for clues.

They find instructions.  They have to enter the voting booth one at a time and vote for two members they are most grateful for.  They cannot share their choices with each other.  They ask the offscreen production crew if they can vote for themselves.  They discuss this awkwardly for a while and then decide that voting for themselves would be no fun, but some of them decide they’re going to do it anyway.  Again, guys, tick tock. 

The voting process meanders on for quite a while.  Given the short runtime, I was expecting a faster pace.  As each guy goes into the booth, the others guess what the two elected ones will have to do.  Get thrown into the ocean?  Buy lunch for the rest of the band?  Edit this footage into something resembling a storyline?  PICK. UP. THE. PACE. ALREADY.

Finally, almost eight minutes in, voting is finished.  Whoever edited this should be thrown into the water and forced to swim the 800 kilometers to Japan.  The boys are told by an offscreen producer, “During our pre-show interviews, you said you make many band decisions through majority rule.”

We then cut to the interview session at SM Entertainment, where the boys tell the offscreen interviewer, “We make band decisions through majority rule.”

Then we immediately cut back to the beach.  I have to admit, I laughed at that.  What made it especially funny is that I don’t think they were trying to be funny.  I hope that those unnecessary, redundant flashbacks become a running gag on this series.

The show explains what we already know from the series description.  The boys will travel and vote for new bosses along the way.  We get preview clips of the series that look way more exciting than what we’re seeing now.  LET’S GOOOOOOO!

We finally learn who won the first vote.  This person got five votes, so I assumed it would be de facto Leader Shotaro, but no.  It’s vocalist So Hee.  He’s very happy, and I’m happy for him, now let’s hit the road already.

But no, we have to watch a “very fancy appointment ceremony,” right there on the beach.  Seriously?  Just slap a ribbon on him and LET’S GO.

So Hee is presented with a BOSS appointment letter and a laurel.  He reads his appointment letter out loud.  We are now 12 minutes into this episode.  If this were a survival reality show, the first round of trainees would have been cut by now.

The other band members applaud.  Sung Chan says, “Wow, they say power reveals the true nature of a person.”  Dude, relax.  You didn’t install a military dictator.  You elected a K-pop idol who’s probably going to decide which of his bandmates have to cockfight over a bag of chicken snacks. 

Actually, I may be wrong.  This newfound power might be going to So Hee’s head.  The production team brings out a nice beach chair and umbrella for him.  He gets a cooler of beverages and a nice blanket while his bandmates stand around awkwardly.  

At least So Hee shares his drinks with his bandmates.  I’d like to remind him that we have less than nine minutes left in this episode.

Suddenly, something surprising happens.  So Hee says something that the translators put on the screen as, “Eon Seok, get comfortable.”  But that’s not what one of the viewers heard.

I play it back a few times, and weirdly, it does sound like he said, “Seunghan.”  There’s no way SM Entertainment would have allowed that to stay in, unless they were trying to hint that they’re bringing Seunghan back.  Is this show playing mind games with us?  Because that would be kind of awesome.

So Hee signs his BOSS appointment letter while the others joke that if Eon Seok had been picked instead, he’d be a dictator.  They spend a while on this joke, which means they’re either foreshadowing something or this show really does not have a single video editor on the production team.

According to the appointment letter, the tenure of the BOSS lasts until that night.  So Hee now has instructions for his team.  They must retrieve a safe from the ocean.  The safe contains operating expenses for their trip and is floating on a raft just offshore.  After the other bandmates get the safe, the BOSS will choose two of them to serve as “workers” during his “regime.”  Workers, once chosen, cannot be changed.

Won Bin, my personal bias of the group, may have been out in the sun too long because he asks, “Is it a good thing to be a worker?”  Of course, Won Bin.  That’s why the BOSS’ term of office is called a “regime.”  Only good things can come from that.

So Hee must have noticed that we have maybe six minutes left in this episode, because he suddenly orders his bandmates into the ocean to get the safe.  The water really is beautiful.  I’d jump in.  Anton reaches the safe first because he’s the only one who actually gets in the water.

The other bandmates decide to steal the safe from Anton when he gets out of the water so they can present it to the BOSS and steal his thunder  So Hee can see that Anton actually retrieved the safe, right?  It’s happening right in front of him.  Whatever the reason, the chase is now on, and we get more gorgeous shots of the water.

So Hee enjoys his beverage while watching his bandmates battle over the safe.  The show keeps making reference to the face that the water is Anton’s domain, so I paused it and did some Googling about Anton because I knew I was missing a reference.

As Anton escapes further into the ocean, he taunts his bandmates, “I can be an otter!”

He finally returns to land, where other bandmates who didn’t want to get wet are waiting to tackle him.  Anton opens the safe while running and finds fake gold coins and real cash.  The other bandmates grab the safe, but Anton has the cash.  He successfully makes it to So Hee and gives him the money, while the other bandmates scramble for the fake gold coins in the sand. 

The amount of actual cash Anton grabbed is two hundred thousand won, or about $150 USD.  They’re a little let down at the amount.  “There’s no way this is it,” says Shotaro, who needs to zip it before So Hee sends him into the water to look for more.  If anyone should be mad about the amount, it’s Anton, who went into the ocean fully clothed and is now standing on the beach in wet jeans. 

Time for So Hee to choose the two workers, who will have their names written on the appointment letter.  (This is one formal reality show.)  So Hee is powerful and demanding, but fair and wise.  He decides that the only two who didn’t go anywhere near the water, Won Bin and Sung Chan, will be the workers. 

Our workers are ordered to clear away the stuff on the beach while everyone else goes off to rest for a couple of hours.  But Sung Chan decides to sit in So Hee’s chair instead of cleaning up, leaving Won Bin to do all the work alone.  Won Bin decides that if he’s the BOSS tomorrow, he will have his revenge.

The episode ends here, which is a pretty good cliffhanger.  I’m hoping the pace and energy pick up in the next episode.  In the meantime, here are other things I’m expecting from the series:

• One of the BOSSes will be overthrown by the workers, who then go on to form the first anarchic K-pop group.
  
  
• Monsta X will invade the beach, conquer a RIIZE BOSS, and install Minhyuk as the new BOSS.  Minhyuk’s first official act will be to ban all cucumbers from craft services.
  
  
• Anton will become BOSS and unify power with the girl groups through an arranged marriage with Jennie Kim of BlackPink, ensuring their heirs will rule all of South Korea forever.

History is being made, folks.  I, for one, welcome our new K-pop overlords.  See you next time.

Episode 2:  The peasants revolt.

Back to Site Table of Contents