Vacation – Dong Bang Shin Ki (Review)

For the newly inducted into the fandom of Dong Bang Shin Ki, Vacation was a four part drama filmed back in 2005/6?. U-Know, Micky and Hero each filmed their own segment, while Max and Xiah (*sigh!*) filmed a segment together.

U-Know’s segment is called ‘Cassiopeia’, which is the name of their official fan club in Korea. It’s a sweet love story that takes place in a children’s home/nursery, and pays tribute to their fans. Xiah and Changmin take a holiday in a remote countryside village, where they get themselves into trouble and the two city boys try and help out. Hero’s segment is rather exciting, a lot of action and drama in the city getting mixed up with gangsters. Micky goes back to a village he lived in his childhood and meets a distant memory.

Obviously, we know that the boys are singers/performers first, and not actors.. But Vacation is an earnest attempt at making shorts that are humorous yet sweet, action- filled, and very human.

I particularly like Xiah’s and ChangMin’s segment as it was very, very funny, although I confess to being very, very embarassed for ChangMin. (You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.) Action star Hero proved a little bit too much for me.. somehow his character didn’t suit Hero the person. Which is why I have misgivings about his segment, but there were some particularly good moments, strangely when Hero wasn’t acting as himself. Despite the element of the fantastical with Micky’s story, it was very, very beautiful, and thoughtful, and I really liked the ending, and that moved me to tears most of all. U-Know was brave and great, though there were some moments that proved to be… um.. very embarassing. You have to give the leader street cred for that.

This is a must-have for any DBSK/TVXQ! fan.. It was a perfect way to start off my collection (of originals).  Don’t forget to enjoy the NG’s (bloopers)  on the DVD. I was disappointed that the NG’s themselves did not have subtitles. I only knew what was going on thanks to the properly subtitled one I saw on YouTube. There were more problems with the subtitles on the DVD because I don’t think that it was particularly thorough or timed correctly, there were some moments that there was a lot of talking going on that drew total blanks for me, so I guess I’ll have to learn proper Korean to understand that. A cool extra is that TVXQ! filmed new intros for the feature and the NG’s, you get to see Hero in his platinum anime blonde stage.

What are you waiting for, go get your copy now! Or if you do have one, go watch yours!