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this is K-pop a highly choreographed
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music phenomenon that's thirsty for new
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Talent thousands of teenagers are
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desperate for their place on the K-pop
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production line tell me about your dream
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my dream is to be an idol star but
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behind the perfect smiles and
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synchronized moves there's a harsh
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reality years of training constant
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rejection and a powerful but possessive
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fan base does he have a girlfriend oh
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yeah okay right okay I'm in South Korea
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to meet the next batch of trainees and
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to find out if there's a hidden cost to
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the K-pop dream
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[Music]
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in the high-tech Metropolis of Soul
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they're building K-pop idols and if you
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want to make it big this is the place to
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start the hanlim School of
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Arts it's one of the most prestigious
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art schools in South Korea to get in you
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must score 100% on the entry exam
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everyone here dreams of K-pop stardom
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and they've got a very good chance
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because since this school opened in 2009
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it's produced more than 500
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Stars among those hoping to make it as a
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K-pop Idol is 16-year-old hesu
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Chung kids in South Korea set their
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Ambitions young and for hesu that always
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involved dancing at first she dreamt of
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becoming a ballerina but her dream
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changed after seeing the kpot sensation
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blackpink in concert my dream is to be
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an idol star I hope so it will be
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popular and yeah that's my only dream
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hesu is preparing for an audition later
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this week she knows breaking into the
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industry is extremely tough less than 1%
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of K-pop wannabes make it big
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[Music]
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the K-pop industry is estimated to be
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worth 8 billion it's a global Phenomenon
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with 200 million K-pop fans around the
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world who have high expectations of
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their Idols K-Pop Stars live in a really
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controlled world and have to abide by
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all sorts of rules one of the most
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important is absolutely no relationships
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right now one of the stars of one of
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Ker's biggest groups Asar has had to
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apologize after it was revealed that she
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had a secret boyfriend her fans were so
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outraged that they wrote into complain
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they attacked her on social media some
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even sent a digital billboard round to
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her music agency to complain that she
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cared more about her boyfriend than the
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fans to meet some of these super fans I
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head to music Bank a weekly TV show
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featuring live K-pop
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performances every week hundreds of fans
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wait outside the studio to catch a
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glimpse of their favorite Stars so who
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have you come to
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[Laughter]
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see and how long have you been
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fans one year one year and who who's
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your
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favorite him what's his
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name but why is he the favorite
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does he have a girlfriend oh you're okay
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okay
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real don't
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know of course adoring fans are not
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unique to South Korea but expectations
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here go further than just bands on
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romance K-pop is about perfection and
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stars have to be squeaky clean no
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smoking no drinking no
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scandals near the front of the queue I
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find Lala she's here to see highlight a
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band she's been following for 15 years
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why do people want K-pop stars to be
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perfect instead of just like everybody
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else who makes mistakes
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you know sometimes some of the K-pop
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Idols they they get in trouble or if
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they do something wrong like drink
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driving or smoking or anything like that
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they end up losing everything and they
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lose their careers do you think people
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have too high expectations of K-Pop
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Stars
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the Fan's early queuing hasn't quite
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worked as their Idols are about to come
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out security move everyone
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[Applause]
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away the stars are sure to wave at the
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fans they all know with the power to
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make or break careers it's important to
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keep this loss on
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[Music]
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sign we're back at the hanlim school
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with hesu who is only a few days away
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from her audition
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2 pupils here learn 14 different dance
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genres a skill set that makes them stand
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out against other K-pop
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wannabes each year the K-pop industry
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pumps out hundreds of new Idols hu's
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classmate suie is going to be among them
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she's in a group called candy shop that
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will debut next
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week Point while the girls take a break
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I wonder if I might try and join in this
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next
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[Music]
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routine it's harder than it looks
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[Music]
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too much in fact it must be particularly
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hard even suie is struggling with these
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moves tell me about your Ambitions I
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mean how long have you wanted to be a
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K-pop Star
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[Music]
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I want to find out about candy Shop's
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debut performance but I'm realizing that
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it's not just the dance moves that are
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being drilled into these students su's
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agent and the school dean also appear to
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be teaching her the answers
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suie and her bandmate Sarang have
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invited me along to watch candy Shop's
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daily rehearsal K-pop training schedules
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are notoriously
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hard once a teenager has been signed to
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a record label they can spend years
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being molded into the perfect K-pop
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idle at the end of that training only
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some are selected for a band and even
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then Success is Not
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Guaranteed candy shop will debut their
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first single at a media showcase next
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week if it's panned by the critics their
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dreams of K-pop stardom could be over in
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weeks I ask the girls what the fans will
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be expecting from their first
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single but their agent is back with
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rehearsed answers
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if you make it your life's going to be
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really
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exciting but you're also going to have
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to give up quite a lot of freedom how do
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you feel about that this job it's not
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force this this is what we want so we
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don't have to be freedom and this is we
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have to do it I think so it is okay in
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reality losing control of your life can
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have devastating consequences for K-pop
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Idols last year Min Su from K-pop boy
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band teen toop smoked a cigarette on a
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YouTube live stream his fans complained
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and it caused a massive
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Scandal minu quit the band and now lives
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above his mom's Cafe from where he's
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pursuing a career in
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art oh LS chrishan hi
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nice it's cool
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stuff MSU wants to literally paint me a
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picture of what the K-pop industry is
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really
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like in the meantime I'm interested to
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know what his expectations were when he
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started out aged
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18 explain to me about the the power of
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the
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fans too
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powerful too powerful yeah too
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much according to Ms Su the fans
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complained about his tattoos and his
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girlfriends one time a fan hit him in
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the face but the record label made M Su
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apologize
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[Music]
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do you think lots of K-pop artists feel
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the same
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way M Su says he became an alcoholic
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some of his friends paid an even heavier
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price e
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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South Korea has one of the worst suicide
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rates in the world it affects all parts
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of society but there's also an unusually
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high number of deaths among K-pop idols
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it's the night before jesu's audition
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and her family have invited me around
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for dinner hello hi hi there thank you
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hello hi she trains so often that she
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rarely spends an evening at
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home thank
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you I hope you haven't been waiting for
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us do you normally eat um early what
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time do you eat me cuz you're never here
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yeah about 6
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months really about you haven't had a
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meal at home for 6 months yeah so tell
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me Jan what did you think of her saying
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she wants to do
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K-pop when I was her age I didn't have
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that specific dream or passion as her so
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I'm very proud of her that she knows
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what she likes what she wants to be so
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these days I'm very supportive of her do
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you ever worry that there are so many
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kids who want to do what she wants to do
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there are so many broken hearts in this
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world you know that you don't want her
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to be one of them
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I'm interested that you know about all
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of that stuff how do you feel feel about
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it very sad about them
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yeah do you do you understand why
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there's so much pressure yeah do do they
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talk to you about those pressures at
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school and in the academy you know about
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how to deal with it um not
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really so I think I'm learning in myself
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yeah I ask ISU what her teachers think
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she needs to work on in order to get
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past her audition Di
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diet
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really you're
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joking no I'm not your teacher told you
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you had to diet yeah about 10 kog no
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like five your teacher told you to lose
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five kilos what are you going to do how
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how are you going to do
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that don't eat yeah
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[Music]
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the pressures faced by Young Idols are
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an Open Secret yet no one from a record
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label or K-pop Academy agreed to be
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interviewed back at the hanlim school PR
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director jinny Kim says they do prepare
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students for life in the industry and do
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you teach them all of this that they
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have to be well behaved yes because how
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do you tell them how do you tell a
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16-year-old that they have to be thin
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and that they can't have a girlfriend or
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a boyfriend every day they have they are
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monitored really yeah
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the
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to they get weighed yeah yeah here in
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school and
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some some Department right yeah some
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teachers can actually do that right yeah
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how do you teach children to deal with
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that kind of pressure
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it's the day of hu's audition Hi how are
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you it's held at the Academy where hu
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trains every evening after
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school with a few hours to go there's
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time for some last minute rehearsals
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[Music]
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tonight she'll be singing and dancing
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for a scout from a big record
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label but this isn't hu's first audition
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she's had them at least once a week for
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the last 6 months what do you find hard
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about
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auditioning I always fail audition so
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much so that's make making me nervous so
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much because you've done so many yeah
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and I almost fail every audition so I
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have to get in so what do you tell
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yourself now to make yourself feel good
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don't be
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nervous I need to enjoy In audition it's
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all about up here you can sing and you
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can dance but if it's not there you
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won't persuade them
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outside the practice room lots of young
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wannabes are starting to
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arrive record labels hold hundreds of
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thousands of auditions every year a
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Relentless process which rejects the
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majority of teenage hopefuls time and
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time
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again it's hu's turn to go in
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[Music]
00:19:29
it's over in less than 2 minutes how' it
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go nice nice what did they say anything
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nothing were they smiling they was
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filming filming but it felt
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good after seeing how much training hu
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had put in I'd hoped our last meeting
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with her would be more of a celebration
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but it turned out the audition was
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unsuccessful
00:20:01
for sui and Sarang from Candy Shop it's
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make or break time their hope of K-pop
00:20:07
stardom all rests on tonight's debut in
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front of the Korean
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media the record label are leaving
00:20:16
nothing to chance and have given the
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girls a strict
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script forget individuality this is an
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industry with a money-making formula
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as the press arriv the nerves are
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starting to kick in the debut has to be
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[Music]
00:20:47
perfect it's the big moment
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[Applause]
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welcome to
00:21:03
Cy first up is their deut single good
00:21:15
[Music]
00:21:17
girl then comes the Q&A
00:21:31
it's all gone smoothly so far and all
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that's left is their second performance
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it's a tiny slip but any mistake can be
00:22:03
costly in a music genre that demands
00:22:08
Perfection fortunately it hasn't
00:22:10
dampened Spirits
00:22:11
backstage and the Korean media have
00:22:14
decided candy shop is heading for
00:22:21
success but there's been a setback candy
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Shop's dream is temporarily on hold
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after the label announced one of sui's
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bandmates has quit citing ill
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health meanwhile there's a long line of
00:22:37
hopefuls still out literally in the cold
00:22:40
doing whatever they can to get noticed
00:22:43
there's almost a dreamer on every street
00:22:45
corner here but whether it's the buskers
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in Soul or hesu desperately trying to
00:22:49
get signed you wonder whether they
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realize that fighting for that place in
00:22:54
the enormous K-pop production line
00:22:56
really means giving up all control over
00:22:59
their lives
00:23:02
[Music]
00:23:13
[Music]
