The Review That Started a Flame War
It might look open and free from the outside, but the entertainment industry is, in truth, a world where the class lines are drawn as sharply as in any other field.
An idol-turned-actor carries the tag to the grave, and even among actors, those who appear in serial dramas and those who appear in films are treated as different species entirely.
And this isn't just the thinking of the old guard who run the industry. If anything, the public is even more sensitive about it.
And of all the crowds out there, the most merciless of them all was—
[ Theater * Musical Mini Gallery ]
A gathering place for people whose entire lives had been staked on theater and musicals.
The details will be omitted.
Anyway... they're as ferociously picky as they are razor-sharp in their analysis!
In this den of hardcore devotees who dissected everything — facial acting, vocal technique, enunciation, down to the smallest gesture — it was inevitable that Team B's play would become a topic of conversation.
[ Went to see the DaeYejong play lolol leaving a review, scroll warning (photo proof) ]
Went to see the freshmen's Romeo and Juliet at DaeYejong today. I'm not stanning either of them, so no bias here..T_T Anyway — Do Gyeo-ul was as good as expected. She's the only thing you see on that stage. With Beyond the Closed Door airing right now, I honestly figured she wouldn't have had time to rehearse properly, but nope lol it's basically Do Gyeo-ul and a bunch of kids. By the end I actually felt bad for her — she's out there running a one-woman acrobatics show while everyone else is just... standing there. Romeo was at least okay-ish, but the rest? Total annihilation. There's a reason she's popular, for real. I used to side-eye her fans going around calling everyone else talentless, but now I get it.
By then, the articles about Team A's Romeo and Juliet had poured out as if they'd been waiting in ambush, and the perception that Do Gyeo-ul excels even on the stage was spreading among people who had never once set foot in a theater.
Anyway, Team B performed during intermission, and quite a crowd streamed out during the break.. Must've been because catching the last train afterward was touch-and-go if you stayed for both. So part two was real ones only sob sob. Same Romeo and Juliet, but the fresh converts were too busy drooling over Myeong Je-ha's face lololol. Except Team B was the actual real deal. The resolution of the play was on a whole other level — I was braced for complete garbage, but holy crap, they must have researched this insanely hard. I could feel it from the opening moments.
A hardcore user, desperate to somehow share with the world the overwhelming experience Han Yeo-reum had delivered in Romeo and Juliet, sat down and wrote a long, sprawling review.
Here's the interesting part — the two teams' Romeo and Juliet carried completely different depths. Because of time constraints they only performed the meeting scene and the moment of falling in love..sob Such a shame. Even so, the whole arc just slammed straight into my skull. Team B staged Romeo and Juliet as a full-on sageuk. And here's the kicker — Myeong Je-ha played the Crown Prince in Rampant, remember? So it felt like the two universes were somehow connected sob sob
The only ally Romeo and Juliet have is the priest — and Catholicism came into the country flying its flag during King Jeongjo's reign, right? Thinking about that gave me legit goosebumps. In the best possible way.
Under the nickname Anonymous(IP 85.152), she had already finished her interpretation from every possible angle while watching Team B's Romeo and Juliet.
"When Romeo's priest showed up at the end — you know, doesn't that remind you of when Catholicism first arrived in Korea?"
Because she had been furiously typing her analysis into a memo app even on the way home, her review turned out to be impressively high quality.
Myeong Je-ha wore one hell of an expensive hanbok — visible even from way, way back — while Han Yeo-reum's hanbok looked like it belonged to a resident of a crumbling mansion. So I'm guessing the Montagues are the Noron moderates who helped King Jeongjo take the throne, and Juliet's family are the Nam-in faction who opposed his ascension. Even general audiences who know nothing about Korean history get an instant 'fallen aristocrat' read off the Nam-in, right?
…(omitted)
And Han Yeo-reum herself? I like her so damn much. Her vocal technique is on another level, like she's done theater for years — on that stage, hers and Myeong Je-ha's were the only voices where every single syllable landed clean. Fine, I'll give Myeong Je-ha a pass since his debut was a sageuk, but I never expected it from her too. Honestly, I absolutely hated that web drama lololol sob sob I screamed every time the trailer popped up everywhere, and now suddenly I'm curious..heh (goodbye, principles)
And so, at the very end of that long, long review, the few final lines she left behind:
…And with that, the flame war began.
Well... convincing the people who weren't actually there was always going to be difficult. In more ways than one.
Manager Ma judged the situation with a cool head. A few users who had been present in the audience waded into the fight and made it swell even bigger, but their side was hopelessly outnumbered.
But here's the important thing! This little cutie is already building herself a genuine core fandom, isn't she?
The tide was coming in. Which meant it was time to row.
The hardcore users who had noticed Han Yeo-reum needed to be shown a brand worth believing in.
Above all, the fans in this particular scene are worth a hundred ordinary ones apiece. Give them a solid craft to believe in, and their loyalty is beyond measure.
If she could get not just drama buffs but the theater-and-musical faithful carrying her on their backs as well, the mere thought of how high Han Yeo-reum might climb sent a thrill down Manager Ma's spine.
"Hello! I'm Ma Su-yeon from JC ENM's marketing team. Just call me Manager Ma — no need for formality."
And that was exactly how Manager Ma came to be heading to Osaka alongside Yeo-reum.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—.
"Yeo-reum, what are you doing?"
"Just texting my friends."
I tapped rapidly at my phone screen. Half of it was true; the other half was a lie.
I was messaging Myeong Je-ha, who sat in the row ahead. Manager Ma had given me a quick rundown of the shoot, but asking him directly seemed like the more reliable source.
Clearly I need to hang on the elder's every word from now on and treat him sweetly. All this, over one moment of flustered surprise — he pounced on it like a prosecutor. My brow furrowed before I could stop it.
"What are your friends saying about you missing the after-party yesterday? You look upset, Yeo-reum... Are they sulking over your schedule?"
It was Coordinator Hwang, watching my face with concern. Had my expression been that vicious just now? At her question, Myeong Je-ha stirred in the seat ahead. Through the gap between the seats, our eyes met.
And in that same instant, my mouth moved entirely on its own.
"She's not that petty, unnie. My absolute best friend. Five thousand stars out of five."
"Really? You must like her a whole lot, then, if you'd put it that way."
"Of course. If I had my way, I'd eat every single meal with her for the rest of my life."
I felt the seat in front of me trembling, ever so slightly.
"Je-ha, why are you laughing?"
"No reason. Just in a good mood."
At those words, my eyes went full dead-fish, as though Pi Chae-won's soul had taken over my body. Thank goodness he couldn't see my face anymore.
Once again, Myeong Je-ha shared the situation with perfect accuracy.
...Then how exactly did YOU know? I marveled anew at the sheer reach of Myeong Je-ha's information network.
Setting that aside — thrown together, right after the play ended?
A brand-new project, prepared for me the moment the curtain fell.... Which meant I had done well, didn't I? Just now? The corners of my mouth refused to behave. The memory of applause that had rung quieter than Do Gyeo-ul's yesterday swelled into pride so vast I could barely recall the sting at all.
Well, deserved, I suppose.... Who did they think I was?
A judge at the Seoul International Drama Awards...
Bzzt—.
I had been planning to savor a brief interlude of self-aggrandizing fantasy, but Myeong Je-ha's messages kept coming.
And just like that, I'm sober. I could roughly sketch the shape of the situation. My chest tightened at the mere thought of the upcoming MBS awards ceremony.
I may have won at the Seoul International Drama Awards, but...
There was absolutely no chance of a trophy at this network broadcast ceremony. The genre piece that had taken home an Excellence Award at the Seoul International Drama Awards had aired on MBS.
Which meant the odds of me — who had filmed a single-act drama special — winning the Newcomer Award were exactly zero percent.
It'll go to that genre piece's rookie instead, presumably.
And that would make the framing easy all over again. Merely being placed on the same scale as Do Gyeo-ul, who was riding a full-blown Beyond the Closed Door syndrome, left me hopelessly outmatched.
...Fine. Either way, I'll nail this schedule.
This year was already behind me, and I had been faithful to my own work. That was enough. The lens set before me was still pointed my way, framing me.
My camera.
There was a camera filming me. That alone changed everything about my mindset. I felt like I could do this well.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the aircraft will be taking off shortly. Please fasten your seat belts and return your seat backs to the upright position in preparation for departure..."
The in-flight announcement began. Slowly, my body began to lift off the earth.
This was the Kyocera Dome in Osaka. Rehearsals for tomorrow's awards ceremony were in full swing.
"Let's run the blocking one more time!"
"You're blocking the teleprompter! The teleprompter!"
Massive rigs churned overhead while staff sprinted every which way, walkie-talkies clutched in their hands. Clutching a thick script of my own, I trailed after them.
"The opening will start from this side, and the MC seats shift at several points as the show moves along. We'll walk you through it each time, but let's do a quick check now anyway!"
"Yes, understood."
Seo I-deun and I committed to memory the routes each of us would have to take as MC at every stage of the show. The inside of the Kyocera Dome was vast — and then vast again.
"Part one's opening starts from the far left, and you can see the interview cues on the cue cards as we go, right? You'll come down from there and position near the singers' table..."
This is the kind of thing I'd only ever seen on TV. Surreal.
Seo I-deun, apparently determined never to repeat his earlier mistake, stood at full military attention through the entire briefing.
"And during part two, while I-deun-ssi is performing on stage, Yeo-reum-ssi will handle the MC duties alone. You'll move through the passage that connects to the MC backstage."
Perhaps because the ceremony would stretch a full six hours, there was a dizzying amount to keep track of. Seo I-deun and I nodded along to the seemingly endless briefing.
Though if I'm honest, I nodded extra hard because I wanted to look cute.
Come on, 'Han Yeo-reum, devastatingly good at her actual craft' — time to work the crowd. Manager Ma was still hovering nearby with the vlog camera, after all. Seo I-deun, of course, had his own in-house content camera trailing him too.
"That's it for today's walkthrough. We'll see you tomorrow!"
"Yes! Thank you for your hard work!"
The marathon briefing was finally over. My lipstick had smudged somewhere along the way, and Coordinator Hwang tidied it up for me.
Mmm, nice and moist.
"Cutie, let's get going—."
"Yes. What's next on the agenda?"
"In my bag in the hotel room, obviously. Did you pack your suitcase all cute?"
Just as I was about to turn my back on Seo I-deun at Manager Ma's urging, he hesitated, lips fluttering like he wanted to say something.
Something to tell me?
Just as I was thinking, he seems like he has something to say, our eyes happened to meet. And sure enough — my hunch had been right — Seo I-deun's pupils wavered.