A member of a famous K-Pop boy band, whose face has been disfigured by an accident, must undergo surgery to repair his fracturing image.
Director’s Vision for ‘Boy Band’
In high school, at the height of the “Gangnam Style” craze, I dressed up as PSY for a Homecoming skit/dance. For those brief minutes, I was no longer the insecure goofball of mediocrity I thought I was… I was a super-funny, mega-popular K-Pop star that united global audiences and set off a renewed interest in K-Pop groups to come. That feeling of becoming someone people loved unconditionally, someone hailed in the spotlight, it stuck with me, even though it was all for a silly performance.
Korea has a reputation for valuing beauty, often with the help of plastic surgery. Their boy bands spout messages of positivity, even as tabloids report on darker scandals. And with the recent hiatus of BTS, a worldwide phenomenon no one can escape even if they tried, I was inspired by the progress of their solo careers, speculation on their reunion, and a potential vacuum for new groups rising up, to explore the interconnectedness of fame and identity. Making this film allowed me to explore my feelings about Asian-Americans gradually becoming sexy and cool alongside the visible rise of K-Pop stars, when I spent so much of my own coming-of-age feeling ugly and inadequate.
Boy Band is my horror take on a K-Pop movie. It’s about Jung, a member of QT7, who gets in an accident that horribly disfigures his face, at a critical moment when he’s considering leaving the group to start his solo career.
I had a lot of fun making this film, with a fantastic team during the height of the double strikes in 2023. We created a fake K-Pop group, did some promo shoots, and even created an original song (that you’ll hear in the film!) We shot in a creepy, abandoned hospital and used wider angles and negative space to create a sense of dread and isolation. No one disappeared mysteriously in the process… that we know of. Whether you idolize boy bands or are sick of hearing of them, I hope you enjoy our film.
