The documentary feature “Bring the Soul: The Movie” premiered on August
7th, 2019 and was shown exclusively during a limited five day run in
selected cinemas worldwide. Despite these limitations, it was the widest ever
release for an event cinema title and it sold a record 2.55 million tickets
across 112 territories worldwide. Why? Because this was a documentary about
BTS.
“Bring the Soul: The Movie” is produced by BTS’ company Big Hit
Entertainment and directed by Park Jun-Soo and it comes with English subtitles
in the west. It is the third cinematic release featuring the most popular music
group of our time, the South Korean BTS.
In the evening following the final concert of the Europe leg of their
“Love Yourself” world tour in 2018, the seven BTS members gather in a rooftop
apartment in Paris to have a meal together and reminisce about their tour so
far. At this point they have had concerts in Seoul in South Korea, in Hamilton
in Canada, in Los Angeles, Oakland, Fort Worth, Newark, Chicago and New York
City in the USA and in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris in Europe and we as
audience are now making the journey with the band through their stroll down
memory lane.
The documentary is a great mix of amazing concert performances, intimate
backstage footage and candid behind-the-scene shots where we follow RM, Jin,
SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook for two months on tour and see their hectic
schedule, the tolls it takes on them and the immense fun they have with each
other on the road and performing in front of tens of thousands of A.R.M.Y.s, as
their fans are called.
Having seen BTS in concert in Berlin on this tour, my personal high
lights from the feature are Jin’s hilarious reactions to the animals in Zoo
Berlin as well as j-hope’s outings to the East Gallery and especially the
Reichstag. I was in the area at the same time as he was at the Reichstag and I actually
caught a glimpse of him filming, so it was nice to finally learn what he said
on camera! As a Dane, my favorite scene has to be the last one, though, where
BTS try out the Danish snaps Aalborg Jubilæums Akvavit. Seeing the guys, mostly
V, struggle with the strong drink is hilarious, especially as the snaps they try
is only 42%, where most Danes are used to snaps on 45%.
The documentary feature is skillfully filmed and edited, which brings
much more life and nerve to this movie than was the case with the previous two.
My only complaint is, though, that all the nerdy goofiness of the band has been
relegated to after the credits. Too bad as we as A.R.M.Y.s love to see BTS
being the odd goofballs that they really are. At least, we were asked on screen
to stay seated until after the credits as we would then see footage that
wouldn’t be available anywhere else afterwards. I guess this was also a
“subtle” hint at the “Bring the Soul” series in six episodes that is now
available on BTS’ new fan community app Weverse.
To me “Bring the Soul: The Movie” is the so far best of BTS’ cinematic
releases, but with a runtime of only 1 hour and 43 minutes, it feels too short,
but I guess the series is going to compensate for that.
Four out of five stars: ****
© Lise Lyng Falkenberg, 2019
