K-Pop War: Mamamoo 마마무 vs. MERS

I think we have an idea who'd win hands-down.

Not even this MERS scare in Seoul can stop a K-pop concert. On the news, I saw that the TVXQ concert went on at the Olympic Park. The organizers just had to take a lot of precautions in order to prevent the spread of the most notorious virus in Korea right now.

But as I was passing through the Daehangno area in Hyewha-dong yesterday en route to get the banana-cues I ordered from Junila, everyone's favorite vendor at the Filipino market, I was distracted by the cheering and screaming coming from an alley.

I had to make a detour to find out. 

It was a flash concert  of a K-pop girl group, Mamamoo, whose members were busy entertaining their fans right in under the afternoon summer sun and in the middle of the scariest viral crisis since the SARS years ago.

Although I noticed a few fans wearing masks, I was impressed that they didn't let anything prevent them from watching and lending support to their favorite K-pop group. It just shows that if there's a war between MERS and K-pop, we all know who'd win. Ha-ha-ha!

As I wrote last week, it's actually the best time to come to Korea, and those TVXQ fans and these Mamamoo 마마무 fans must have realized that life goes on in Korea just as long as you take precautions.  They weren't just letting any virus scare to come between them and the thing they enjoy most: K-pop!

Daehangno's Musicale Hwarang 뮤지컬 화랑

                      (The Art Madang Theater Building)

It's the one aspect of Korean culture that needs to be promoted more: the Korean musicale performances and plays in Daehang-no.

While most tourists may not be able to understand the plays as they are in Korean, they may be able to enjoy the music and the dancing of the musicale even if these are in Korean.

                    (Audience lining up to enter the theater)

And while the non-verbal performances in Seoul are already popular with international tourists bussed in to their shows non-stop, I, as a member of the K-Performance Supporters of the Korea Tourism Organization, am helping to promote the musicales, which most international tourists have yet to discover.

The Korean musicale Hwarang has been playing for a few years now. The musicale is a mixture of story of  Shilla Dynasty trainee-soldiers, who are called Hwarang. The five male characters, Ki-Parang, Yu-o, Mun-no, Gwan-rang and Sa-daham, all tell their own story through dialogues, and very K-pop-ish song ang dance routines, which K-pop lovers out there would appreciate. 

Here's the synopsis of the musicale, as provided by the Visit Korea website:

The Hwarang audition announcement is posted in Seorabol, the capital of the Shilla Dynasty, which has a thousand-year history.

The rebel Yu-o who wants to escape from his mother, the audacious and self-centered Ki-Parang, the Hwarang descendant Mun-no, who came down the mountain village with great dreams, the reluctant Gwan-rang, who was forced by his father to apply for Hwarang, and the innocent youth Sa-daham who thought the only purpose of his life is to protect Gwan-rang, all finally become a team after many twists and turns. However, there is no such thing as a peaceful day for this group given their different personalities, backgrounds and talents.

In order to break free from the strict rules and hard training routine, the group decides to make an escape plan. To make things worse, they reach a turning point where they have to decide whether to endure the competition or succumb to the conflicts and misunderstandings arising from the group.

Will they succeed in becoming a real 'Hwarang' and achieve they dream of becoming a superstar in Seorabeol?

(The cast and a lucky audience member.)

As the show has been playing for years now, it has created quite a following, especially among the young girls. But since the musicale is based on history and updated to the current music trend, it's for the whole family. When I watched last weekend, there were a couple of parents with their kids in the audience clapping at each lively song-and-dance number. In keeping with their tradition, the current cast also has very good voices, way much better than the K-pop boy band you'd see on TV.

The musicale holds 'events' every once in a while where lucky audience members are given prizes by the cast. 

  

For directions to the theater, do refer to the photographs and directions on this previous Hwarang blog. Or to their Facebook page.

Naksan Park: Hyehwa-dong's Quiet Corner

High above the busy alleys of Daehang-no in Hyehwa-dong is the quiet, breezy sanctuary of Naksan Park.

This place overlooks the whole Hyehwa-dong and seems to be a less noisy alternative to all the noisy and chaos happening below. It is just within the area of the artsy Ihwa-dong neighborhood.

The Park has a gallery of Naksan's history, where you can read up about its past, its rehabilitation and its present geography.

                                             (Mrs. Lee's coffee shop)

When I visited this place last weekend, I dropped by the Naksan Cafe and chatted with Mrs. Lee, the owner. This cafe is her own, although she said she doesn't live in the neighborhood. And as always, everyone within earshot of our conversation was curious as to where I was from, since we were chatting in English.

                              (The Naksan Park Museum)

Of course, I told her I was from the Philippines. Although I didn't tell her that her iced cafe mocha was a bit pricey as it cost a few more hundred won than my favorite subway station cafe, and considering we were up a hill, in a public park and there was no barista was around. Ha-ha-ha! I guess she knew she was running a monopoly since the nearest cafe was at least 300 meters down the zigzag road!

And after walking up the Naksan Park, I saw a part of the Seoul Fortress, which is part of the huge project being built by the city government. 

Around the Naksan Park lies Dongmanbong, where, Queen Consort Jeongsun of King Danjong was said 'to have climbed everyday and looked to the east to Gangwon Province where her husband was exiled'. 

Also around the Park lies Hongdeok's vegetable patch, which was given to her by King Hyojong 'in appreciation for her loyalty and her delicious kimchi'. Hongdeok was one of the king's maids. Wow. A vegetable garden as a royal gift.

The Park is part of the Seoul Fortress, which stands guard around the Park and its neighborhood, much like a spine of walls running from one end at the Hyewha-dong side to the Dongdaemun side. This Seoul Fortress is another huge government project to resurrect the historical walls that once guarded the old city.

Tracing the Seoul Fortress walls afforded me another view of  the city: the NSeoul Tower, the Dongdaemun area and the northern front of Seoul.

As I walked around the Park, I thought, even in summer, this place must be a cool alternative with the breezes and trees.

But for those trying to escape the chaotic life downtown, Naksan Park offers a quiet corner. Aside from the artsy character of the Naksan neighborhood, which is more like the tourist attraction of the area, those who want to find a less crowded space have to be brace themselves for the steep climb up to the highest point, where the view is more interesting and the breezes cooler.

Unlike going up Namsan where you can take a bus, one has to be prepared with comfortable shoes and stamina when heading to Naksan Park. I'm not sure when I may be able to visit this neighborhood again. But when I do, maybe I should bring my own iced cafe mocha. Ha-ha-ha!

If you also want to visit Naksan Park, just take the Subway Line 4, and get off at Hyehwa Station's Exit 2. From that exit, turn left and just meander your way up towards that hilly side of the area. You can actually just lose yourself and enjoy the art works along the way...

For K-Pop Fans in Seoul: A Must-See Korean Musicale, HWARANG

At the Korea In Motion (KOINMO) opening ceremony last September 1, 2012, my friend Sharise and I were seated right in front of the stage eager to see for the first time these performances which make up Korea In Motion's showcase. There were non-verbal performances complete with drums and other percussion instruments, but what really caught our attention was the only featured Korea musicale, Hwarang, performed by five male actors. 

Even on the first bars of the opening song sung by one of the five actors, one could already tell that these guys can really sing. It was obvious they had vocal training. And even after just one song, whose lyrics we didn't even understand, we were totally impressed! I asked myself, how come I didn't know about this show?  I have heard about JUMP or Nanta or B-boy Who Loves a Ballerina, but not this musicale?

But that night's excerpts from Hwarang were just a preview for the KOINMO audience. This was after all the opening ceremony to launch the campaign to promote performances available to tourists and locals in Seoul. And that campaign lasted the whole month of September 2012, where excerpts from these performances were featured at the Korea In Motion open stage right outside the Korea Tourism Organization main offices near Cheonggye-cheon. 

         (The Hwarang billboard in front of the Star City building)


So, when another friend, Cielo, who came to visit last month from Manila, asked me which performance to watch, I recommended this musicale. But I warned her though that this was entirely in Korean. 

And off we visited the Star City building in Hyewha-dong, where Hwarang was staged. We got our tickets, our seats and just resigned to the idea that, even though we may not understand the lyrics and the dialogues, we may actually enjoy the show. 

     (We caught the Super Team's performance that night)

And we were impressed!  We didn't understand the Korean lyrics and dialogues, but we tried to decipher from the acting, the expressions, the dancing on stage and of course, the songs and the voices of these actors. Their voices had range, were firm and technically good, which brought out the melodies of songs throughout the performance. And how well they all blended! It was very obvious that they had hours and hours of practicing the songs together.

There are two teams who alternate during the week: the Super Team and the Star Team. And that night, it was the Super Team's turn.

The whole show lasted almost two hours with no intermission, but we were never bored. It was the melody, the showmanship and the voices that actually made it interesting for us, two of the non-Korean speaking audience. There were a few foreigners in the crowd, but I could not say if they understood the language.

                       (The Super Team taking a bow)

And one thing we also clear: most of the audience members were female, which must explain the draw of the all-male cast. These guys were picked to play the roles, not only because they have very good singing voices, but also they are good-looking! The handbill of the musicale says that the story is set in the old Korean times, but is presented in the K-pop style: from songs to dancing to the looks. And I guess the formula has succeeded in drawing the giggles in the crowd!

The title, Hwarang, represented a group of young elite soldiers during the Silla dynasty. And this story of how these five young Hwarang aspirants struggled attain that status in their society was written by a young writer, Lee Ojin and the songs were composed by Cha Gyeongchan. Lee Ojin also wrote the lyrics. This is being directed by Mr. Seong Cheon-mo.

This musicale has been staged at more than four theaters for a couple of years now, and there have been eight to nine teams who have played these roles, with some former cast members, I was told, going on to play bigger roles in other shows. 

If a new team is being groomed to replace an old one, it takes about three months of training and rehearsals to perfect the songs, the dialogue, the stunts and of course, to get into the character of each of the five Hwarangs, which, by the way, has its own fan club. It's not a surprise that these actors have a following. 

                     (The Super Team cast that night)

So, if you're a K-pop fan and have a free time to watch a Korean musicale...

• just take a quick subway ride to Hyehwa Station, Line 4.
•  And from Exit 3, make a U-turn until you reach an alley marked by Coffine Gurunaru, a purple-colored coffee shop. 
• Follow that alley for about 50 meters until you see the tall building, Star City. 
• The front of the Star City building displays the Hwarang billboard. 
• The theater is on the 7th floor, where you can get tickets.

As of this writing, the performance schedule is:

Tuesdays to Fridays: 8PM
Saturdays: 3PM and 7PM
Sundays: 5PM
Mondays: no performance

Ticket prices:
Regular price: KRW 40,000
Students:        KRW 20,000 (student I.D. required)
Employees:     KRW30,000 (business card 
                           or employment I.D.)
Fans:              KRW26,000 (must show the old Hwarang
                               ticket or Hwarang point card)
Handicapped: KRW 20,000 (must show a certificate 
                               of disability)

Or you can call these numbers for inquiries in English:
    +82-(0)70-7623-6443
    +82-(0)2-468-6443

Their Korean website:

http://cafe.naver.com/hwarangmjcompany

And in case you want to know more about the musicale and the actors, a few behind-the-scene videos are on their Youtube channel.

P.S. Thanks to Miss Esther of the MJ Company, the producer, for a few tidbits and some of the photos above.

And they also have music CDs of the musical which contains a few selected songs.