>>56275 It more or less disappeared for a bit once the mandatory military service requirement kicked in.

A really limited theatrical release of the film (that has sing-along lyrics) somehow ended up becoming the top spot last week. It seems like it's the highest grossing Netflix film released in theaters so far. As an aside, one of the directors, Chris Appelhans, is married to author Maurene Goo, who is a Korean-American writer (their son is a hapa too). https://archive.is/1AQoe https://archive.is/8qyjw >>56269 >>56321 It's already here to stay since there's gullible people in America (and Europe and Australia) that really love South Korea and their entire modern culture that's totally not Western.

>>56344 I haven't seen it really popoff like in the past, though with this film succeeding it most likely will cause another massive resurgence.

>>56321 Wasn't it mandatory already? Or are you talking about the K-pop band members?

>>56344 >marine goo

>>56382 I sometimes wonder about overseas Korean interest in general besides Best Korea. I can't help but think that it all began around the 2010s despite having their own history decades ago. Did it all began when PSY did that horse dance?

>>56388 I still believe this was some sort of deliberate shill-psyop campaign for testing out attention draining techniques in apps and other shit. No one actually likes this song and people cover it only because it's a meme.

>>56388 >Did it all began when PSY did that horse dance? K-pop or interest in "Korean culture" in general? Because the latter has had it's ups and downs. Manwha, MMOs, and films have had a dedicated following since the Aughts, but none of the them have really "taken off" to the level of mass pop-culture recognition when compared to Chinese films and Japanese manga/vidya. Until the 2010's, the most popular things Worst Korea was known for in mass media was doing the animation work for Western cartoons.

>>56382 >I haven't seen it really popoff like in the past You didn't see NewJeans' Get Up EP go to number one on the Billboard 200 and them also being the first foreign band to perform on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve? You didn't see Twice's With You-th album hit number one? To go slightly further back, you didn't see BTS's Butter go to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and their compilation album hitting number one the following year? You didn't see Blackpink's Born Pink album hit number one?

>>56474 NTA, but this is the first time I am hearing any of the first time I am hearing any of those names, except for BTS. >Billboard Hot 100 Unrealated, but I've only ever heard about these so-called "billboards" from news articles. Never really thought about them as actual entities before.

>>56494 >NTA, but this is the first time I am hearing any of the first time I am hearing any of those names, except for BTS. How is that possible? As I said, I know that I'm (at least somewhat) interested in the genre, but how can you not have heard of Blackpink? I knew about them before I even started listening to K-pop. The others I can kind of understand, but at the same time, it seemed like NewJeans was everywhere in 2023. >I've only ever heard about these so-called "billboards" from news articles. Never really thought about them as actual entities before. They're different charts by Billboard Magazine. https://archive.ph/kCFrJ

Oh, now that I think about it, here's something relevant for /co/. NewJeans had a partnership with Cartoon Network where they were portrayed in a Powerpuff Girls style. https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=kcelgrGY1h8 https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=m6pTbEz4w3o https://archive.ph/zV54G https://archive.ph/hYOAN

I found a funny analysis on YouTube where this movie is accidentally Christian.

>>56647 It's not accidental. Apparently the director was raised Christian.

>>56647 >this movie is accidentally Christian. First time? Shit like this always pops up with popular media. I remember the Methodist Church my mother did music for 20 years ago had a study group around the book "Finding The Bible In Harry Potter".

>>56647 South Korea has more than a quarter of the population identifying as a Christian so not really surprising. This is the country Moonies are from too and you can find plenty of images online of the mass weddings they do. South Korea probably has the most Christian influence of any East Asian country currently.

>>56656 I think you're confusing her with one of the songwriters. https://archive.ph/PCs7U >>56659 >South Korea has more than a quarter of the population identifying as a Christian so not really surprising. >South Korea probably has the most Christian influence of any East Asian country currently. Yeah, I think this comes as a surprise to most people.

>>56662 Sorry for thinking this isn't surprising. I've known about Moonies and prevalence of Christianity in South Korea for years and kinda assumed a lot of people online with a Christian background or even just being raised with it or knowing enough about the religion and how prevalent Christianity is would be aware of this. Even if not being Christian, if you look at the history of these countries missionary expeditions in East Asia were very significant. Korea specifically a huge part of why Christianity is so prevalent is Japanese occupation and American influence. There was a significant anti-Japanese resistance that was Catholic or Protestant. Part of it was a lot of Koreans just refusing to worship the Japanese Emperor. Korea has its own brand of Christianity heavily influenced by European missionaries and getting oppressed or invaded by their neighbors. With how European missionaries influenced East Asia China would definitely have a much larger percentage of Christians if the CCP hadn't actively suppressed and persecuted religion in general because of communism.

>>56659 >>56662 >>56662 >>56663 I take it that you guys haven't heard of the Unification Church. It's a real thing and should not be taken lightly: https://infogalactic.com/info/Unification_Church

>>56674 Not sure why you quoted me for not knowing about Moonies when I explicitly mentioned them. Unification Church people are derogatorily called Moonies because Sun Myung Moon was the founder who claimed he was he was a new messiah. South Korea has a lot of Christians, but also a dominant form of Christianity there is considered a blasphemous cult by most other Christians.

The film is popular because its a competent narrative which lacks most of the problems with modern films i.e. irony poisoning, cheap expectation subversion & and pozz. Its nothing special, but I don't think that was in question.

>>56676 >but also a dominant form of Christianity How dominant?

>>56822 Exact numbers are unclear and there was a decline after Sun Myung Moon's death, but South Korea has over 8 million Protestants and over 5 million Catholics. The Moonies still claim over 10 million followers world wide, but it's very likely significantly lower than that and most Moonies are Korean or Korean descended in other countries and the majority of non-Korean moonies are in nearby countries like Japan. "Dominant" may not be the right word, but it would be kinda like if Mormons managed to get a double digit percentage of total Christians in the US (currently it's something like 2-3 percent and mostly in Utah and surrounding states). The Moonies are definitely in decline though and having a lot of difficulty converting younger people. I think they're viewed similarly to Scientology at this point even in South Korea. They've still got a lot of money and political influence backing them up, but a lot of people see them as either a joke or a dangerous cult. Just this year Japan's courts ordered the Unification Church in the country to disband following Shinzo Abe's assassination because the killer confessed his motive was Abe's political ties to the Unification Church which led to some investigations into political corruption related to them.

>>56823 But who's crazier? Moonies or Mormons?

>>56839 Mormons believe when you die you become God of your own planet of intelligent life, I don't know what moonies believe afterlife wise

>>56843 Kinda don't get why that part of Mormon beliefs gets mocked and criticized so much. Yes, to most Christian denominations it sounds weird and blasphemous, but there's plenty of religions that aren't Christian where the point is some form of transcendence and apotheosis with the current gods possibly also having been once mortal like us or mortals are already the same sort of being as gods and just have to learn to be aware of it. Buddhism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Greco-Roman mystery cults, plus plenty of mythologies and religion where specific mortals who did something particularly great ascending to godhood either by their own will and power or being granted it by the gods. Mormonism isn't even unique as a Christian religion that believes something like that. Gnosticism existed since early Christianity and the common aspect (which is a major part of why the Catholic Church persecuted Gnostics and considered it heretical) is humans are divine beings bound in the physical world and through gnosis can transcend permanently to their true divine nature.

>>56848 We mock pagan shit like that too because it's ridiculous & based on nothing.

>>56848 >which is a major part of why the Catholic Church persecuted Gnostics The Apostle Paul persecuted gnostics for, among other reasons, denying that Christ resurrected in the body in other words: the definition of what a resurrection actually is or that he even incarnated in human form to begin with since to gnostics the physical is inherently evil. This is main tenet of gnosticism, by the way. Not merely that the physical world is corrupted, but that the physical world itself is the corruption. It’s a boy’s philosophy. As for Mormonism, you can jewgle for yourself the main problems people have with its teachings. For me, the hedonistic lifestyle its founder lived, most notably in having numerous wives, is suspect to say the least.

>>56856 God told Smith that he could have multiple wives. You just need to have faith.

>>56856 I agree that the biggest criticism of Mormonism should be the hypocrisy of the early leaders (their views on polygamy and women is commonly criticized as serving the preferences of the early church leaders mainly) and the violence associated with early Mormonism. There's also the very racist beliefs about Indians. The Mountain Meadows Massacre is sometimes cited as the worst example of religious terrorism in the US prior to 9/11. For those who don't know a Mormon militia killed almost an entire wagon train of men women and children and after a few days of sieging this wagon train they sent people to pretend to be rescuers while blaming it on the local Indians only to turn and shoot them when these people let their guard down. The only survivors were children that the militia didn't think would be reliable witnesses. There's repeated instances violence in the 1800s of Mormons either inciting it or actively committing the violence. It's some horrific stuff and is just one example of how fucked up and violent early Mormonism was. Early Mormonism had repeated violent conflicts with their neighbors which is why they ended up moving to Utah away from everyone else. The Mormon war in Missouri (where Mormonism got started, not Utah) happened because of how many Mormons were going there and buying up land while trying to force their views on others. As for Gnosticism that's a bit of an oversimplification as it wasn't just Gnostics that believed Jesus ascended only in spirit during early Christianity. Early Christianity in general in the first few centuries prior to the formation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches was very fragmented with contradictory beliefs from different sects being common. Gnostic sects didn't even agree on the exact nature of the material world and the Demiurge so they shouldn't be painted with a single brush. Some believed the material world was simply a place for spiritual growth and elevating souls to a higher existence so not inherently evil or corrupt while others believed the material world was merely flawed with the Demiurge at worst being a fool or ignorant for trying to create something in imitation of the true divine. Some Gnostic sects also got in trouble with non-Gnostics due to their views on sex and vice. Some Gnostics believed that sex was only a problem if it bound you to the material world and viewed vices in general as similar. Some Gnostics were surprisingly sex positive compared with other Christian views of seeing it as a vice you shouldn't do outside of marriage or for reasons other than procreation. This was tied into their dualistic views on the divine masculine and feminine. Another issue with Gnosticism for why it didn't become as widespread as other Christian religions is it being a religion of elites that didn't appeal to the masses much like the Greek philosophy and mysticism it had some basis in. There was a similar problem with Buddhism so Pure Land Buddhism and similar ideas resulted where one didn't have to personally achieve enlightenment. Another thing to add is that there's some debate among modern Christians too on whether Jesus ascended physically. One of the issues is that at the time of early Christianity is Heaven was commonly believed to be a literal physical place above the Earth, but this obviously conflicts with modern astronomy. There's a lot of Christians now that view the ascension of Jesus as not being literally physical and Heaven as an immaterial spiritual place in contradiction of common beliefs of early Christianity. I agree with other Anon that it's a bit weird to focus on the apotheosis part of Mormon beliefs specifically when it really isn't that strange when it comes to religious beliefs and only in the context of more common denominations of Christianity that don't believe that is it really an issue on its own. Aside from the violence and hypocrisy of church leaders there's what South Park parodied of how silly it sounds of Joseph Smith sticking his face in a hat to dictate the Mormon holy texts and that the golden plates were hidden and only a few people claiming to have directly seen them .

You think you hate LLM generation enough, but you don't. https://kotaku.com/kpop-demon-hunters-soda-pop-ai-vince-chatgpt-soundtrack-2000626044 This era of AI generated slop is only going to get worse. Remember when we commonly thought artificial intelligence would free us from menial physical labor and automation and mindless robot slaves with zero ethical and moral issues would allow humans to focus on personal pleasure, exploration, and creative pursuits?

>>56861 >Early Christianity in general in the first few centuries prior to the formation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches The Apostles were around well before the formation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and at the very least Paul explicitly condemned the notion that Jesus's physical flesh and blood body was not raised from the dead. >and Heaven as an immaterial spiritual place Whether or not Heaven is an immaterial place is immaterial. The NT teaches at the end of time there will be a new Heaven AND a new earth. So, the position it teaches is clearly not an "either spiritual or material" but a "yes and". >Some Gnostics believed And others did not. I'd say those ones were closer to the logical conclusion of gnosticism.

>>56856 >For me, the hedonistic lifestyle its founder lived, most notably in having numerous wives, is suspect to say the least. This is why Mormonism is mocked. Everything else is just the cherry on top. Especially when these nuts were about to start am unironic religious crusade until they finally established Utah. >>56861 >Early Christianity in general in the first few centuries prior to the formation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches was very fragmented with contradictory beliefs from different sects being common It should also be noted that it's because of this fragmentation that you have the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament. >Some Gnostic sects also got in trouble with non-Gnostics due to their views on sex and vice. Some Gnostics believed that sex was only a problem if it bound you to the material world and viewed vices in general as similar. Anon, I think you're mixing up Gnostic beliefs with Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. >Another thing to add is that there's some debate among modern Christians too on whether Jesus ascended physically. One of the issues is that at the time of early Christianity is Heaven was commonly believed to be a literal physical place above the Earth, but this obviously conflicts with modern astronomy. There's a lot of Christians now that view the ascension of Jesus as not being literally physical and Heaven as an immaterial spiritual place in contradiction of common beliefs of early Christianity. Has no one ever pointed out that Heaven could still be a physical place, and that it doesn't conflict with astronomy? Just because there's a universe that we can see, touch, and study, that doesn't deny the existence of heaven. Even badly written sci-fi can hand-wave such contradictions as "heaven" just being another dimension, or some "outer layer" of the universe we currently live in. At the end of the day, it's fucking magic, so it doesn't have to make sense or adhere to "stupid boring science". Serious, the religion is built around a fucking zombie who can walk on water and has access to reality's "Console" which he uses to copy-pasta fish and drink wine. Yet the one thing people are hung up on is if Heaven is a real physical place? >specifically when it really isn't that strange when it comes to religious beliefs <Anyone ever study Chinese religions? >>56871 >Remember when we commonly thought artificial intelligence would free us from menial physical labor and automation and mindless robot slaves with zero ethical and moral issues would allow humans to focus on personal pleasure, exploration, and creative pursuits? No, the only people who believe such stupid ideas are the fucking Communists.

Post the archive, newfaggot. >>56871 https://archive.ph/6Rpsi The Saja Boys "Soda Pop" song itself is supposed to be coming from a bunch of gook demons that want to literally steal your souls although that might be redundant to say. Considering everything about South Korean culture being all fake and gay, what did you expect? Godliness?

>>56871 Nah, it’s fun for shitposts.

>>56388 >Gangnam Style Has there been any greater example of a one-hit wonder in human history?