After the success of American Vandal and the "mockumentary", Netflix continues to exploit the parody documentary, but this time Overseas, going as far as South Korea. The video-on-demand service tackled the K-pop phenomenon by offering a fake documentary about YG Entertainment, the best-known Korean music agency. In YG Future Strategy Office, we can follow Seungri, one of the singers of the Korean group Bigbang. They are considered the Kings of K-pop, but the members had to take a break from their careers, as most of them went on military service, which is mandatory in South Korea.
Seungri is the only one who has not yet been called and he finds himself relegated to the "Future strategy office" of the agency. This is the losers' service, where we send those we do not know what to do with. The goal of the series through the experience of the singer is to make fun of all the clichés of k-pop and it is successful! The first episode is reminiscent of the sex scandal in which Seungri was entangled, while photos of him asleep were revealed by a Japanese woman with whom he had slept. To prevent a new scandal in the documentary, he must wear fake eyes stickers when he sleeps.
A hijacked critique of K-pop
Shot like a documentary and sprinkled with jokes, the series breaks all the taboos that are numerous in South Korea. The production does not stop any subject and plays with black humor: it attributes an entire episode to the drug while the employees of the agency promise to purify YG, the reference to the marijuana scandal is barely hidden. The documentary refers to T.O.P, one of the members of Bigbang, currently in prison for using drugs.
All jokes are good to make even when they are heavy. This is where YG Entertainment, which produced this documentary, shows its intelligence: it achieves a real coup de force by mocking itself and making fun of all the criticisms that are made of it. Yang Hyun-suk, the agency's president, is portrayed as a dictator who constantly monitors employees and terrifies Seungri with his surprise phone calls.
This documentary also represents a way to clear all the complaints made against the company: indeed, many artists accuse the agency of exploiting them. To answer its detractors, the production stages its flagship bands such as Blackpink, Winner or iKON, in wacky tasks such as the construction of a building.
Seungri reveals his acting
The game of self-mockery makes the series funny and light while dealing with serious subjects. So there is a double issue, but it is important to ask if the fact that YG produces this series does not discredit it. Isn't the agency making this documentary to get out of a bad patch because of repeated scandals? We can also see this documentary as a way to stand out from other rising agencies like Bighit which manages the world-famous group BTS. YG seems for several years to have trouble producing bands that stand out from the crowd.
However, there is no denying the quality of the realization. For a result more real than life, the parody takes all the codes of a real documentary as the testimonies in front of the camera. Seungri is the hero who believes he has the mission to save YG to have the good favors of the president of the agency. It's his particularly well-interpreted disbelief that makes the jokes punchy. The singer proves in this series his talent as an actor while he planned to enlist in 2019. In addition to his solo album that is a hit, this parody documentary allowed him to add a new string to his bow before leaving for military service for two years.
