Burn The Stage The Movie Offers Wholesome and Uplifting Experience to Fans

*The following review contains some spoilers.*

Never in a lifetime did I dream that I’d be sitting at my local theater watching a documentary-style film on a Korean artist. 10 years ago, when I first became interested in Korean music and culture, anything Korean-related was hard to come by in most places in the U.S., outside of large Korean-American communities. In my smaller city, there wasn’t even a Korean restaurant or grocery store. K-Pop concerts came to us only once in a while, and when they did, it was only to New York City and Los Angeles. Needless to say, times have definitely changed.

Last night’s showing of Burn The Stage was an interesting experience. The turnout was better than I expected for the size of my city on a weeknight showing (maybe 30 people max), and I’m thankful that I got to experience the film in relative quiet.

The movie version was advertised as a re-cut of the YouTube Red series with some new footage spliced in, but to me, there’s a pretty big contrast. The versions are quite different: sure there’s some overlap here and there, but there is enough unseen footage edited together distinctly enough that it’s almost like watching a different story entirely. It’s familiar, if you’ve seen the Youtube Red series, but not the same. Among the new footage is a few short interviews with fans, longer interviews (that are more recent) with each BTS member, and various unaired content from the course of the documentary filming.

Beyond just the differences in footage, the movie version carries a much lighter tone than the YouTube Red series. The movie is edited together with poetic storytelling, whereas the series version is shot more like a true raw-and-real documentary. Thus, the series version comes off as more emotionally taxing than the movie.

That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t emotional moments in the film. There’s a good balance of serious and lighthearted, making the audience contemplate BTS’s fame and journey one moment and laugh out loud at Seokjin struggling to exercise or Taehyung playing the wedding march on the piano in the next. There are scenes that depict BTS’s struggle, whether internal or external, such as struggling to perfect a performance or getting injured. The YouTube series features an argument between Seokjin and Taehyung and the extent of Jungkook’s overexertion, but these are largely absent from the film version. Though there’s a good balance of silly and funny with serious, sad, and moving, the movie does seem to gloss over the negatives a bit more than the series did. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since we’ve already been given a more serious-toned docu-series, and it’s nice to have more of the silly moments mixed throughout. The scenes where they’re relaxing and playing by the pool and real moments like Yoongi struggling to work on a song help humanize BTS, something many fans like to see.

The film has a narrator, which makes it less personal than the docu-series. I personally don’t doubt the authenticity of BTS or their team, so I have faith that the narrations not done by the members themselves were true to how the members feel, but someone unfamiliar with BTS may not come away feeling the same. Yoongi does do a narration at the end, and we get direct interviews with each member, so hearing them speak in their own words definitely helps reinforce the authenticity of the film and its message.

The film is somewhat more cohesive in its storytelling than the docu-series, but that’s to be expected for a 1.5-hour film versus an eight-episode series. I found some of the editing with orchestral music to be a tad over-dramatic at times, but watching BTS’s journey through 2017 into early 2018 presented in film format is definitely something I won’t soon forget.

Burn the Stage The Movie is something that any fan will enjoy and connect with, especially if they went on this journey with BTS during The Wings Tour. Others who are interested in music documentaries in general can also glean something from this film; it’s appropriate for a wide range of audience members, rather than just fans.

Don’t skip out on Burn The Stage The Movie just because you’ve seen the YouTube series–the film is completely worth the watch, and it’s a rare experience for fans of K-Pop. If you haven’t seen the film yet, most participating theaters are showing it on Saturday and Sunday as well, so there’s still time! You can find theaters and tickets at burnthestagethemovie.com.