ILLIT Faces Backlash for Excessive Use of Japanese in Brand Film

Recently, the HYBE girl group ILLIT unveiled a brand film in anticipation of their upcoming comeback. In this video, the members share their personal dreams and aspirations.

ILLIT features a diverse lineup of both Korean and Japanese members, which is reflected in the video through the use of both Korean and Japanese narration, complemented by hard-subbed subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axQmWplSlXw

ILLIT (아일릿) ‘I’LL LIKE YOU’ Brand Film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axQmWplSlXw)

However, this approach has sparked criticism among many Korean netizens, who feel that incorporating Japanese into a K-pop girl group’s content is excessive, especially considering the complex historical relationship between Korea and Japan. Some fans also noted that while other groups with Japanese members typically utilize Korean, and sometimes English, for their narratives and subtitles, ILLIT’s strategy was seen as an outlier.

Here are some reactions from netizens:

Our nation experienced invasion by Japan and was compelled to conform to their culture, so the tensions remain high. How could they make a decision like this?
Other groups with Japanese members don’t overtly display Japanese in their videos; this seems unique to HYBE.
They could have opted for Japanese subtitles in the closed captions, yet they chose to hard-sub them into the video, which is frustrating.
Why choose Japanese? This strategy is unlikely to be well-received in Korea.
It’s always HYBE… Are they trying to cater to Japan too heavily?

In contrast, another HYBE girl group, LE SSERAFIM, faced similar backlash for including Japanese elements in one of their music videos.

Source: theqoo

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