Blood and gore are staples for girl group PinkFantasy

K-pop

Published: 06 Sep. 2022, 09:48

Blood and gore are staples for girl group PinkFantasy

Girl group PinkFantasy poses at the JoongAng Ilbo building in western Seoul. [PARK SANG-MOON]

The world of K-pop “concepts” seems endless. An idol group’s concept, which refers to its theme and aesthetics, is crucial to the group’s career in the highly visual nature of K-pop. Fans of the genre may be familiar with a variety of concepts like cute, mischievous, mysterious and sensual — or ones that take on personas ranging from angels to aliens.

Just when you thought you’ve seen every concept imaginable, girl group PinkFantasy doused themselves in fake blood and put on white contact lenses.

"Tales of the Unsual" dropped last year on Halloween but didn't go viral until months later. [MYDOLL ENTERTAINMENT]

After debuting in 2018, the girl group had its first breakout moment this year after its horror-themed song “Tales of the Unusual” (2021) went viral. With a full-on gory horror concept, a first for a K-pop girl group, the song first raised eyebrows but soon became a cult favorite.

“I got a text from my friends asking ‘Is this you?’” said member Heesun. “And there I was in the screenshot, covered in blood. I didn’t know what was going on at first.”

“‘Huh? This is going viral now?’ is what we all thought,” SeeA said. “We were surprised because it happened all of a sudden, and it had been months since we concluded our music show appearances. On our group chat, we started sharing links of those video clips [gone viral] saying ‘LOL! We did it!”

Naver Webtoon "Tales of the Unusual" (2013-22) [NAVER WEBTOON]

“Tales of the Unusual” was in fact released on Halloween last year in collaboration with the Naver webtoon of the same title (2013-22) but did not see much of a reaction at the time. It was not until months after PinkFantasy had already concluded all its activities for the song that it started spreading via word of mouth.

A clip of PinkFantasy performing the song on stage garnered over 3.2 million views, and a compilation video of reaction comments surpassed 2.7 million. Netizens took note of the members' dedication to the concept, each giving their all to the contorted dance movements and bone-chilling facial expressions.

Other K-pop groups have experimented with horror-inspired concepts like vampires and zombies, but their aesthetics seem subtle compared to PinkFantasy’s efforts.

Scenes from PinkFantasy's music video for "Tales of the Unusual" [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The eight members — Daewang, SeeA, Yechan, Harin, Arang, Momoka, Miku and Heesun — recently sat down for an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily to discuss what it was like to be the first girl group to take on such a concept.

“Since our debut, our concept has been based on reinterpreting fairy tales,” said Daewang, who always appears wearing a rabbit or cat mask. “Our concept has a dreamlike atmosphere combined with powerful performances, as many people saw through ‘Tales of the Unusual.’”

Daewang has kept her identity hidden behind a mask since the group's debut — an idea from Shindong of Super Junior, who produced PinkFantasy’s debut single. She always stays in character and talks in a screeching, animal-like voice to add to the mystery.

PinkFantasy member Daewang always appears wearing a rabbit or cat mask. She has kept her identity hidden since debuting. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Not all of the group’s songs are horror-inspired. PinkFantasy started its career with brighter reinterpretations of fairy tales like "Alice in Wonderland" and children’s games. It started upping the ante in terms of horror elements with its 2021 song “Poison,” but it was still tame compared to its latest release.

“When we first got the song ‘Tales of the Unusual,’ we were planning to reinterpret the traditional tale 'Janghwa and Hongryeon,'" said Arang. “We were aiming for a Korean kind of spookiness. But as we started recording and planning out the choreography, we got more and more intense with the horror elements. It turned out much more grotesque than we originally envisioned.”

PinkFantasy poses at the JoongAng Ilbo building. [PARK SANG-MOON]

The end result was a graphic recreation of zombies, enhanced by Netflix’s hit apocalypse series “All of Us Are Dead” (2022) that launched around the time PinkFantasy started music show appearances for “Tales of the Unusual.”

“K-zombies have become very trendy, and we wanted to catch up,” said Daewang, referring to the genre popularized by “Train to Busan” (2016) and “Kingdom” (2019-).

She, along with SeeA and Yechan, also participated in writing the lyrics for “Tales of the Unusual,” adding references to uniquely Korean elements from nursery rhymes to black magic. While the concept became much eerier through each step in the production process, members say they were glad to challenge themselves with something so extreme.

PinkFantasy poses at the JoongAng Ilbo building. [PARK SANG-MOON]

“I thought a spooky and grotesque concept like this was something we could be so good at,” said Arang. “It felt like our previous fairytale concepts had evolved into something much darker. There couldn’t be a better concept to show what PinkFantasy can do. I thought if we were going to do this, we have to do this right.”

“The only thing I worried about was that my parents might not recognize me behind the zombie makeup,” said Momoka. Japanese members Momoka and Miku had to make themselves familiar with Korean horror tropes in preparation.

K-pop idols often prepare for new concepts by monitoring what other groups have done in the past. But for PinkFantasy, members had to binge-watch horror movies since reference materials related to other girl groups were virtually nonexistent.

A scene from PinkFantasy's music video for "Tales of the Unusual" [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“We watched ‘Train to Busan,’ ‘Kingdom,’ ‘The Walking Dead’ [2010-] and ‘All of Us Are Dead’ together as if we were studying them,” said SeeA. “We really paid attention to the way zombies moved and practiced it ourselves.”

“I used to be unable to watch any kind of scary movie,” said Momoka. “But in order to prepare, I watched so many that I can now watch the goriest scenes without batting an eyelid.”

“Apart from actual horror films, we referred to VIXX a lot,” added Arang. VIXX is considered to have pioneered the horror concept among K-pop boy bands in 2013. “Daewang and I watched pretty much every performance video by VIXX, taking notes on what specific movements and facial expressions we should make.”

A scene from boy band VIXX's music video for "Voodoo Doll" (2013). PinkFantasy members say they studied VIXX as a reference, as the boy band is considered to have pioneered the horror concept among K-pop acts in 2013. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

PinkFantasy members took that inspiration to the next level — drenching themselves in fake blood and donning white contact lenses that cover their entire eyes. The extreme look comes at the cost of an equally extreme beauty routine.

“When you wear scleral lenses, you can only see through a tiny hole over the pupil,” said Heesun. “So my field of vision is very limited while dancing.”

“After we take off our makeup in our group dormitory, the bathroom sink is literally blood red,” said SeeA. “Cleaning that up is the real horror.”

PinkFantasy performs "Tales of the Unusual" earlier this year on a television music show. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The special effect makeup look was deemed “too scary” under guidelines for broadcasting and PinkFantasy was told to tone it down while performing on television.

“Music show producers told us that our makeup was too graphic, and that our facial expressions were so extreme they wouldn’t pass broadcasting regulations,” said Daewang. “We had to keep toning our look down, sending photos back and forth until the producers finally approved. Compared to the original look in our own music videos, I think we almost looked demure.”

“The special effect makeup is our must-have tool that helps us get in character,” said SeeA. “It was a bummer that we couldn’t show everything that we had prepared.”

PinkFantasy released a feedback version of the song in April after it went viral. [MYDOLL ENTERTAINMENT]

After the hard work paid off and related videos went viral, PinkFantasy made another unexpected move: It released a “feedback version” of “Tales of the Unusual,” reflecting opinions from listeners that the male narrator’s voice in the chorus was distracting. The new version has removed the narration. While the K-pop industry is known to be open to feedback from fans, an agency officially releasing an updated version of a song is a first.

“We enjoyed both versions, but I think our agency did a great job gathering listeners’ opinions and responding accordingly,” Heesun said.

In its future works, the group said it aspires to incorporate more Korean horror elements from traditional folklore to ghost costumes. Every fairy tale, members say, has room for eerie reinterpretations and twists. According to Arang, PinkFantasy is currently preparing for another comeback.

“It’s going to be our first comeback since gaining traction for ‘Tales of the Unusual,’ so we are preparing extra hard,” she said. “We’re also working on a full-length album. I hope that’s going to include a lot of tracks so that we can have a setlist ready for a standalone concert.”