When the F*ck MY Life: Life in a Minute video dropped on April 13, teasing the upcoming SEVENTEEN FML album release, the first thing fans took a note of was its shared similarities with the 1998 film The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey in the titular role. Endless comparisons noting how from the get go the teaser taps into the same themes and scenes as the movie with a huge set camera light falling down, reminding us that their lives have been manufactured for the screen rather than them shaping up organically.
The first few moments of The Truman Show capture the rest of the titular show’s cast in exclusive interviews as one of them speaks up about how “nothing on the show is fake… it’s merely controlled”. However, this also ties in with the idea (yet another quote from the move itself) that “we accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented”, which is associated with the image of how Truman himself has no idea about his life being controlled and televised to the whole world. Being caught in this invisible cage, he turns into a “prisoner, not a performer”.
The same concept is followed through in the lives of K-pop artists. With them being present in front of camera (and sometimes even their live broadcasts being monitored by the corporations they’re working under) at almost all times (considering the humongous volumes of comebacks they have in a year), the thin line between their personal and professional lives gets blurred instantly. The only difference between them and Truman then is that unlike the former, K-pop idols have wilfully opted for this “reel life”, but at what cost?
Allusions to themes like ‘exploration’, ‘spontaneity’ and being caught inside one’s ‘limitations’ in the Life in a Minute video are grand recollections of Jim Carrey’s movie. Following the same pattern, the constructed characters of each SEVENTEEN member in this video are striving to make it out to the sea while fighting against the constant voyeuristic focus on their lives. If Vernon is racing against the spotlight, then Seungkwan and Woozi are escaping the stagnant and mundane cyclicality of a corporate life, much like Truman feeling out place in his settings.
Vernon’s narration is a resounding announcement of what they’re hoping to gain – freedom, the desire to break free because otherwise “you’re not allowed to feel happy”. The ultimate goal behind writing this piece is not just to map out the parallels between the movie and SEVENTEEN’s video, but also how these aspects of life relate to the K-pop work cycle, with the hustle culture barely leaving any room for the artists to breathe while upholding a mirror of uncalled for perfectionism, in turn, inciting an identity crisis for them.
How the Kpop Panopticon Concept Figures Into This
NCT’s Mark Lee has debuted innumerable times, and while this has now turned into an inside joke that reels in memes, it’s equally disturbing to witness how much pressure and burden has been laid on the shoulders of a single person. When he released his digital single CHILD, his responses in some interviews could be summed up as him putting up a question for himself through this song. Since he’s been doing so much for the brand of these various sub-units of NCT and SuperM, it must’ve led him to wonder what he was doing for himself alone.
The same sense of identity conflict is worded out in his song, but he’s not the only one to speak about it. BTS Jimin dropped the pre-release track Set Me Free Pt 2 for his solo debut album in March 2023, and the video for this in fact centres around the same panopticon vision while he constantly reiterates the idea of wanting to break free while he’s “going insane to stay sane”.
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BTS’ Suga has similarly hinted at the divide in one’s personality while simultaneously MAP OF THE SOUL overtly brought terms like ‘Persona’ and ‘Shadow’ into the picture. The basic underlying question is – are K-pop stars at liberty to do what they want? Or are they just working around the orchestrated and closed-in reality that’s been presented to them like it was to Truman?
Another dark turn starts to set in when you release that not only are their performances captured on camera, but several variety show segments put the onus on them to reveal more parts of their lives to the world. Variety shows like Going SEVENTEEN (GOSE) may portray their happy-go-lucky sides and push for the evergreen images of the members’ brotherhood, but ‘Inside Cams’ or vacation shows like In The SOOP that put on the garb of healing and therapeutic getaways are heavily centred around them going on about their unfiltered lives as if there are no cameras around them, but we all know that’s a lie.
A lot of K-pop stars begin their trainee lives at a young age. For SEVENTEEN, too, the program Seventeen TV caught their actions at that time and broadcasted it, so the group has never not been in front of a camera. Even in GOSE episodes, you can see the members reminding each other that they have to channel their funny sides to make the show entertaining – so at what point does it stop being about entertainment?
Thereafter, these fabrications only end up warranting for the boundaries of parasocial relationships between artists and their fans to be pushed forward. It may add to the entertainment of the fans, but to what extent is this truly healthy? In SUGA: Road to D-Day, the BTS member opens up about the unjustified hate they get, and it all comes from fans believing that their favourite artists owe it to them to behave in a certain way, like the audience watching Truman’s actions was keeping a check of every move he made.
Final Thoughts
This conversation could go on and on forever, but one of the final interactions in The Truman Show perhaps captures the essence of it all. The program’s creator finally opens up about how Truman’s life was being televised as a show and that “it gives hope and inspiration to millions”, which makes Truman wonder about who he is and he gets the answer that he’s “the star”. The next question he puts up is if any of it was ever real, and the creator comes back with the response that “you were real… that’s what made you so good to watch”.
When Truman finally decides to make the leap and leave the set upon consciously becoming aware of his surroundings, the creator warns him “there’s no more truth out there than in the world I created for you. The same lies. The same deceit”. Which proves that once the artists also accepted it all to be a part of their lives, they eventually gave into it too and internalised it all, leading them to live their speculative realistic lives on camera.
However, in the end, each bit of it, just takes the shape of an ‘episode’ of a show, put on for the world to see, perpetuating the same paradoxical and scary loop of a routine-based life, which can also be envisioned as being stuck inside a corporate office’s cubicle, day in and out.
Watch the SEVENTEEN FML Album’s Life in a Minute Concept Video
Do you agree with this thought process? Let us know your thoughts on this matter in the comments section below.
Wow you wrote such an interesting piece! I was specifically wondering about the link between “Truman syndrome” and Kpop idols so it effectively explored the subject.
thank you so much!