A day of doom with Super Junior
MANILA, Philippines - I watched as the boys disappear into the darkness, their goodbyes still lingering in the scream-tainted air. The stage lights dimmed, and the once menacingly loud speakers are now tame, murmuring happily in their respective corners. There is a ringing in my ears as the decibel level in the coliseum went down at least a hundred notches in the last 10 seconds. Around me, several fans sobbed into each other’s sapphire blue shirts, their previously lively penlights now dangling limply from their necks. Some were giving each other hugs and belting out hearty laughter, while others were silently exchanging looks of utter contentment. In the creepy parallel world I found my feet to be planted in, I almost believed that I was standing in the middle of a celestial joke, where some unfathomable force found itself with too much time on its hands and nothing but movie reruns on TV to console it. I dared to finally ask: What in the world just happened?
Flashback to several hours earlier — I found myself leaning against a pillar, trying to ignore the growing pain in my feet as they were unsuccessful in starting a friendship with my four-inch heels. The press conference was already running late. A couple of iced teas and rolls later, we were finally ushered into a dimly lit room where a low stage had been set up — the stage that K-Pop group Super Junior was to appear on in a few minutes. After a quick survey of the room, it did not come as a surprise that the media population was comprised primarily of females. We were, after all, expecting a group of boys with flawless skin, gorgeous features, and a knack for singing and dancing to materialize before our eyes at any given second — and materialize they did. After a quick introduction by the emcee, a wall panel gloriously slid open and the boys walked in one by one in an almost eerily soundless manner, gliding on stage with an air of regal composition, handsomely clad in suits of black and white. “Annyeonghaseyo, Super Junior oaeyo!” came their greeting. The applause came in broken and hesitant surges, as the sound of shutters clicking away proved to be more overwhelming.
To the unfamiliar, Super Junior is a 13-member idol group from Korea, and is one of the most successful K-Pop groups to date. Solely through videos uploaded on the Internet, Super Junior was able to win over a Filipino fan base, eventually becoming one of the K-Pop artists to open up a Filipino market for themselves. With the release of their third album’s title song Sorry, Sorry, they became a mainstay in Philippine music countdowns, at one point even claiming the number one spot for three consecutive weeks on a local music channel — admittedly quite a feat for a song whose lyrics cannot be understood by most Filipinos.
Despite the handful of K-Pop artists who have already touched Manila soil this year, Super Junior is the first ever K-Pop artist to hold a full-length concert in the Philippines. “We wanted to include the Philippines in our tour because we noticed the growing number of Filipino fans coming to Korea just to watch our radio shows and musicals,” one of the vocal leads Yesung said in Korean, “In addition to that, we noticed the growing number of Filipino fans uploading videos of themselves dancing to Sorry, Sorry.” This was probably said in reference to the dancing video of the Cebu inmates, among other videos, of which a Korean broadcasting network even showed a clip of the boys watching it in amazement.
When asked about their stay in the Philippines, member Donghae, who was voted the most popular Super Junior member among Filipino fans, gamely expressed his wish to become a part of a Filipino telenovela someday. He wanted to use his newfound popularity to further the boys’ success in the Philippines, with the hope of gaining more love for the members.
The boys also revealed that they are currently working on their fourth album. Though there is no official date of release just yet, the boys promised that it would be out soon, and asked for continuous support from their Filipino fans. With their closing remarks down pat, we were whisked away as the boys did their final preparations for the concert later that afternoon.
Hours later, I stood in the midst of a screaming body of blue as the boys put all their efforts on stage, engaging the audience in a rollercoaster of emotions. Their ability to strike a balance in performance was impeccable as they took us through thunderous dance numbers, soft ballads, and surprisingly even comedic acts; at one point, they did a number by another K-Pop girl group, complete with feminine clothes and outrageous wigs. Despite arriving only a day before, member Shindong impressed the audience by counting from one to 10 in Filipino, then hilariously shouting “Ano ba yan?” in true Filipino form. Two members of their subgroup Super Junior M also performed on stage, with Chinese member Henry engaging the audience with his violin skills.
The boys also seemed to have already mastered the ability of courting the audience. During idle moments, the members busied themselves by trying to get as close to the audience as possible, receiving gift bags, eating dried mangoes, and wearing quirky headbands and hats that were handed to them by fans. Leader Leeteuk and member Sungmin comically unrolled a ball of red lingerie and tricked dancing machine Eunhyuk into picking it up. Donghae gamely reached out for a female fan’s Polaroid camera and took a picture of himself onstage. A lucky member of the audience even got a kiss on the hand by the youngest member, Kyuhyun.
As the fans filed for the exit in tears, smiles, and laughter, I couldn’t help but marvel at Super Junior’s ability to wreak havoc; they can easily break the hearts of an entire coliseum by the mere sight of their retreating backs. Whether or not it was really the handwork of a celestial being, one thing is for sure: This is only the beginning of Super Junior’s much welcomed reign of fanaticism doom.
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Special thanks to Gracie Glory-Go, Vernon Go and Happee Sy.
