‘RM: Proper Individuals, Fallacious Place’ evaluate: An perception into RM’s music, artistry and the making of an album

RM in ‘Proper Individuals Fallacious Place’

The music video for RM’s track ‘Misplaced’, from his album ‘Proper Place, Fallacious Individual’, begins with a poster that claims, “Inside Namjoon’s head”. We quickly discover ourselves transported right into a maze, to a chat present known as ‘The Misplaced Present’ starring RM, as he navigates lengthy corridors that lead nowhere, office drudgery, and the sensation of being caught in a crowded elevator. 

There’s a fixed chorus that signifies a duality, or a dichotomy of kinds all through his movie RM: Proper Individuals, Fallacious Place that encompasses RM, the chief of the massively widespread South Korean seven-member group BTS, and Kim Namjoon, who desires to immerse himself into all that his music has to supply as he goes about making his second solo album.  

A poster for the documentary

Through the years, we’ve seen the discharge of a number of live performance movies that chronicle the journey of a musician from the recording room to the stage. RM’s movie RM: Proper Individuals, Fallacious Place nevertheless is extra of a documentary, one which follows him and his staff by means of the eight-month-long manufacturing of his album. The outcome? We get greater than a peek behind the scenes; into the music, the method, the camaraderie, and the musician himself as he goes by means of the motions of changing into a storyteller. The documentary premiered on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition final yr and has had a restricted launch internationally since. This weekend, it was launched in India. 

“I’m the icon of ups and downs,” RM jokingly says to the digital camera, talking about how he has been feeling over the previous few months. By way of the movie, he stays his most candid and susceptible self, typically reflecting on his ten-year profession within the limelight. It isn’t arduous to see the place this album, hailed amongst his most actual and reflective music but, got here from. The 11-track album featured on a number of year-end lists recognising one of the best music of the yr, and was Billboard’s greatest Ok-Pop album of 2024. The album itself, with songs reminiscent of ‘Groin’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Across the World in a Day’, and ‘Domodachi’, is an attention-grabbing mixture of genres and kinds from hip-hop and R&B to jazz and afrobeats. 

There’s immense pleasure that radiates from the display, within the musician’s inventive course of as he works on the lyrics, the movies, and completely different elements of the album with a close-knit group of collaborators he calls Workforce RM. Prominently featured amongst them is San Yawn of the Korean music group Balming Tiger. We observe the staff as they head to a quiet, secluded place away from Seoul to lie within the fields and take heed to the uncooked recordings of the brand new songs, and to the outskirts of Tokyo for a photoshoot for the album.

There are numerous hours spent in cramped flats and studios brainstorming lyrics and in high-end studios recording and collaborating with artists together with rapper Little Simz, and a photoshoot with Wing Shya, a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Wong Kar Wai. “I really feel just like the star of a Wong Kar Wai movie,” RM says, visibly thrilled to be working with the photographer. Through the years, a lot has been written about RM’s curiosity in artwork and books, and it’s attention-grabbing to see his alternative of collaborators. Amongst them is Lee Sung Jin, who created the critically acclaimed Netflix collection Beef. He directed the music video for the track ‘Come Again to Me’. 

Whereas his staff talks about his distinctive vocals and the way they work on preserving it, their interviews by no means come off as overly evangelising him. It as an alternative discusses elements of his artistry and his course of we all know so little of. RM himself explains the method greatest, and talks about how he loved not having too many eyes on him once they shot and filmed the photographs and the songs. 

RM says whereas engaged on ‘Proper Place, Fallacious Individual‘ that it looks like the primary time shortly he’s present as himself. The fantastically shot documentary will little question be an vital archive to mirror again on the time that his solo album got here collectively.  

RM: Proper Individuals, Fallacious Place is presently operating in theatres