Super Junior members reflect on 18-year K-pop career in new Disney+ documentary

Years of sleep deprivation, tough training and endless competition were paid off by every fan’s handwritten letter, voice of cheer and profession of love, boy band Super Junior said as it revealed its secret to continuing its 18-year career as...

Kim Hee-chul talks in the Disney+ documentary ″Super Junior: The Last Man Standing″ [DISNEY+]

Years of sleep deprivation, tough training and endless competition were paid off by every fan’s handwritten letter, voice of cheer and profession of love, boy band Super Junior said as it revealed its secret to continuing its 18-year career as one of the longest standing acts in the K-pop scene, in the new Disney+ documentary, “Super Junior: The Last Man Standing.”

The show not only celebrates the past, present and future of Super Junior but also questions whether Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, is sustainable for the artists who stand at the forefront of the strenuous galore. It covers the whole course of the boy band's career and touches upon issues within the K-pop industry.

In a daring attempt to reflect upon not only Super Junior’s history as a group but also the K-pop industry's system of endless cycles of trainees, debuts and contract renewals, “Super Junior: The Last Man Standing” takes a deep dive into the group’s never-before-seen honest, personal stories.

Each member — Kim Hee-chul, Choi Si-won, Shindong, Eunhyuk, Lee Dong-hae, Kyuhyun, Leeteuk, Yesung, Lee Sung-min and Kim Ryeo-wook — appears in the documentary to tell stories from their childhood, leading up to their initial contract with SM Entertainment, the long sought debut, the early stages of their struggles within the K-pop industry and their rise to fame.

Many members, particularly Dong-hae, candidly recount their personal backgrounds of having come from not-so-well-off families and having to cope with financial burdens pre-debut. Each member talks about their own personal circumstances that led to them signing with SM Entertainment, and how grueling the process of training was for them.

Main poster for ″Super Junior: The Last Man Standing″ [DISNEY+]

“Signing with SM Entertainment was like going to one of the most prestigious universities, to make an analogy,” said member Leeteuk in the first episode of “Super Junior: The Last Man Standing.” “It was a great stroke of luck and an opportunity. But at the same time, there were so many trainees, so many hurdles to jump through to get to debut — it was very competitive.”

Other Super Junior members also talk openly about how fierce the bloodbath for debuting was within the agency.

“Every day we would wake up and there would be a trainee missing from the roster, and a new person who had just arrived to fill up that spot,” said Dong-hae. “In the midst of that, I had to earn a living for myself because my family wasn’t well off, and it was a constant battle.”

Subtly questioning the sustainability and justification for such a competitive system within the K-pop industry, Super Junior members continued to tell their battle stories and also touch upon their success story as a boy band.

“Hee-chul spoke when we first won the top spot at one of the music shows,” said Leeteuk. “We ended up saying the name of our manager wrong — we were that nervous and happy.”

Member Eunhyuk reflected on how much he had cried during the acceptance speech when the boy band won the No. 1 spot on the SBS Inkigayo show for the song “U” in 2006.

“I didn’t know that I could cry like that,” said Eunhyuk. “I thought to myself later that I cried so sadly, I should never cry again. But of course that didn’t happen.”

Talking honestly about their feelings during and after their first bout of success as a boy band, Super Junior members go on to talk about their most successful songs, including “Sorry, Sorry” (2009), “Mr. Simple” (2011) and “A ‘Good’bye” (2012).

The behind the scenes of the production, choreographing the performances, and coming to terms with the overwhelming love from fans worldwide and their growing fame are also dealt with in depth in the documentary.

The first episode in the two-part documentary was released on Wednesday.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]