Ron Does Stuff

I was supposed to watch this on the last days of August, leading up to Jungkook’s birthday, but unfortunately, WordPress decided to be uncooperative. So you guys are getting this now and in the coming days!

We start off with baby pictures of Jungkook, and isn’t he just the roundest boba pearl you’ve ever seen? I wanna squish him. And then we flash forward to him in his pop star era, with a lip piercing and all, and he’s still the roundest boba pearl ever. And then we flash forward a little bit more, to the moment before he performs on Times Square. So we at least know the timeline for these three episodes!

And speaking of Jungkook’s Times Square performance, why don’t we all watch it before we dive into this documentary?

Then we go back — I think we go back? — to whatever month it was before the whole Golden press tour started. Jungkook shares that he often feels like a joke, but it’s not like he wants to feel that way. I’ve found that this is a common thing among the members of BTS. They always seem so unsure of their own place in the pop culture landscape, and I know this is some armchair psychologizing, but I feel that’s because they’ve mostly been in the outskirts, even within the Korean idol industry, that being the center of it all now still feels surreal for them, even after all these years.

Then he starts talking about how it’s not just him behind the music that he makes or that he’s a part of, and that as the public-facing part of that production, he shouldn’t be seen or act like a joke since he’s representing the efforts of everyone that’s helped him to get to where he is now.

Then — my goodness, I’m using then a lot — we get to the start of the “Seven” journey, which Jungkook says felt like the start of a time, which is kinda true, as it essentially started the countdown to him entering the military. And speaking of “Seven”, why don’t we add some views to the music video?

Stream it on Spotify too!

And then we’re in Los Angeles, where Jungkook is trying to master a new sound he’s heard while doing straw phonation, and I really gotta admire his musicality because how do you just recognize you’re making a new sound? Because I’m guessing when he says a “new sound”, that sound is probably more nuanced than I’m expecting. Kinda like the way he recognized the error in that K-Pop Demon Hunters song.

I think ARMY already know this about Jungkook, but it doesn’t hurt to have a third party like the producer for “Seven” acknowledge the hard work that Jungkook puts into a project. People still think that BTS and its members are industry plants, when they’ve had a harder journey than some of the artists that people think had to schlep their way up to the top.

One thing that I kinda want to ding this documentary for is the censorship of swear words. I say kinda because I do recognize that this is being shown on Disney+ and was also shown in theaters and that Jungkook has a lot of young fans, but come on now.

Also, I couldn’t feel this at during the time when all of it was happening, but Jungkook really put in a lot of work during this press tour. As the transition text — I don’t know the proper filmmaking term — tells us, he really went to five countries, recorded 12 tracks, performed 10 shows, and filmed and released three music videos and four performance films in the space of eight months. I’m tired just from typing it!

I did not expect the docu to show him visiting a doctor for…whatever it was that was inflamed in his throat. And I do hope that whatever it was that was inflamed was looked at after when he was feeling 100 percent! Follow the doctor’s orders!

Jimin appears! That must have been a lot of cameras over there because I know this was being shot alongside Are You Sure? Episode one of that shows bits and pieces of the things that are happening here.

Also, so this is where that particular Jungkook shirtless screenshot came from! I didn’t watch this in the theaters because life was lifing, and I didn’t immediately watch this when it came out on Disney+ because, again, life was lifing, but it’s fun for me to see where stuff came from that I’ve been seeing on these accursed social media sites.

We also get a look back at the GMA performance and that really was unfortunate because the rain had to cut it short. But it is interesting to hear that Jungkook felt the London performance for The One Show was less chaotic than the GMA one, because as someone who was following it from the other side of the world, The One Show performance felt so chaotic because the chatter online was of people trying to find out where it was being held in the first place. Or maybe it was just the people I follow.

And it’s so endearing to see Jungkook be so stressed out because he wants to put on a great performance for us? I feel like a proud mom watching this because for all his stress in the lead to these performances, it all turned out well and ARMY were happy. I wanna carry him in my arms like a baby and pat his back.

All in all, this first episode tells the same story that’s been told in the different documentaries that have been made about BTS and their solo efforts. Everything that they have now has been the product of hard work, whether it’s a group endeavor or a solo pursuit. And at a time when people are looking for different shortcuts for an easy win, isn’t that an outstanding message to put out there?