If you were on Kpop YouTube between 2017 and 2021, the chances are that you have seen a Kpop imagine with a thumbnail fit for a Netflix trailer.
These videos had a copyright free piano cover and a dream: what’s not to love?
14 year old me was obsessed with them, even though I knew they were cringe as heck. And that’s because they were actual movies.
Here me out…
As someone who wasn’t really allowed social media when I was getting into Kpop, Youtube was the next best place to be in order to be involved in fandom. And YouTube fanfictions were huge at the time.
And when I say huge, I mean huge.
Getting 300,000 views in 24 hours was normal and we used to passionately fight in comment sections about what would happen next. That intense community energy fueled a massive wave of creative content, which quickly took on a life of its own.
These video fanfics often came in two main formats: the powerpoints and the fake subs.
The powerpoints are exactly what they say on the tin. A powerpoint video going from scene to scene, with the lines popping up for you to read.
They were just like the written fanfiction on AO3 and Wattpad but were just turned into a video and the powerpoint structure allowed for a bit more creative freedom. Mafias, CEOs, dystopia and college romances were all frequently used tropes and casted the kpop idols alongside y/n as the main characters.
14 year old me was quite partial to a good old enemies to lovers story (set in a workplace if I was being super picky) but this format had its limits.
It was almost always a y/n focused story and as someone who just loves an interesting storyline, they didn’t always do it for me.
Then, there was the fake subs style.
These took videos from kpop idols’ livestreams, social media accounts, performances, variety shows etc, and added fake translations in order to evoke the illusion that these were the words actually being said.
These types of fanfics were usually romances. So think, ex-boyfriends, current boyfriends, crushes, even husbands, every possible trope of love was explored.
But, the most popular format of fake sub imagines, was the facetime format. This was usually a video taken from a VLive (this was a live app just for Kpop idols before they all got Instagram and started doing livestreams on there instead) and fake subs were added to make it seem like you were on facetime with your boyfriend.
14 year old me (yes, she’s back again) loved these. I always thought of y/n as a separate character so it just felt like I was watching a tv show where a couple were sorting out their issues.
However, these videos also had their limitations. The idols were always idols and never had any other jobs due to the nature of the clips being used.
But, the true masters of their craft (in my opinion), were the people who were able to combine both of the styles to create stories with independent characters that weren’t y/n. This would push the boundaries of video fanfics and really had me enthralled. Because they were the ones doing it for the love of the game.
My personal favourite was a BTS fanfic where all the members had their own wives and girlfriends whilst being on a reality tv show. They used videos from BTS and popular female influencers/youtubers at the time to create the ships. I had a great time for all three seasons that were created before it got wiped from the internet for copyright (rip).
But as Kpop fandom has become even more parasocial, I fear that I’ll never experience such cinema again. Nowadays, it’s all y/n stuff because the viewer just has to be dating the member in question.
I yearn for the days where I was experiencing real creativity, storytelling and drama. Not just someone’s boyfriend fantasy.