Is iii’s Forbidden Midnight the most K-pop song to ever K-pop?
I ask this knowing that K-pop — at its best — goes far beyond the easy critiques lodged at the industry from people who’ve never actually listened to the music or engaged in the fandom. But boy, does a pre-release like this give fuel to the haters.
First off, iii are a real group of women subjected to a ridiculous level of facial filtering/editing to make them look like uncanny valley AI. Can you imagine debuting in a group only to have your face hidden behind computer-generated trickery? Heavy make-up is one thing. Enhancing existing features is commonplace. This AI approach takes things to a whole new level.
Second, the song itself is largely an interpolation of Edvard Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King, placed over a thumping dance beat. I guess it’s one step up from a nursery rhyme, but that’s not saying much. The whole thing just feels cynical and sad, devoid of warmth or personality. I want to believe the industry is better than this.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 5 |
| RATING | 5.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
in the hall of the mountain king’s melody only works in its original context considering its a classical piece. when trying to interpolate it in your chorus, it just devolves into nursery rhyme-like garbo 🫠
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the production is really good here and the interpolation is a great choice, but the melodies are very flat. this could’ve been another LOVE DIVE but alas.
the AI filtering is a terrible choice too. I could not tell any of those people(?) apart. I don’t see anyone willingly stanning this group. either you go full AI or you don’t.
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It’s not AI. They just used a cheap filtering app most likely due to the low budget. The AI rumor comes from another one of those K-Pop content farms on YouTube like Kookielit. People saw the short and ran with it even though one member was even on that Universe Ticket survival show and only one digital editor worked on the MV while there were 3 makeup artists and 2 hair stylists. You’d need to reverse those staff numbers for it to be deepfake.
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I enjoyed it the first time though. The verses and bridge and production work for me. I would’ve been cool with the chorus if it was followed by an original part that soared. The “lalalala” was really underwhelming. I didn’t know about the ai thing before (barely) watching the video and listening to the song. I have to ask how much are people’s opinions influenced by this, because I immediately felt sick when otherwise I might’ve given the track a chance
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I don’t think it’s really that bad but it could have been better. It’s actually quite good for an interpolation
With that being said though I’m giving it a 7.5/10 simply because the MV feels like it’s devoid of life
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In all honesty,the song surprisingly listenable. I kinda enjoyed it,
Probably give it a 7.75/10
But the MV, who thought it’s a good idea of editing their face like that…
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Oh no, not the nugu group horse race set 😭
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Since this is a pre-release, some people are guessing that the filters over their faces are a way of avoiding “revealing” all of the members as of yet…?
Seems like a crazy choice because it’d be so much easier to just release the track without a video, if we are supposed to be focusing on the music. But okay.
I feel awful for the girls, so hopefully there’s some truth to this, but the whole thing is wacky.
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This is getting ridiculous. All because one of those rumor/news aggregator YouTube videos, everyone is believing that they are AI even when one of the members was just on Universe Ticket and another had their face revealed through a different predebut group she was in before iii. Even if you look at the credits at the end of the MV, there is only one single, solitary digital editor. But there were three makeup artists and two hairstylists….. which you wouldn’t need if you were going to deep fake their faces. They’d be wearing those neon green face coverings to make it easier on the VFX team, yes, team. There is no way one digital editor could handle deep faking every girl’s face on their own. What we do have is some bad plastic surgery for a few girls and an extremely low budget video where they just used an app like Snow or Facetune instead of painstakingly editing each face in post so that the idol looks perfect but still enough like themselves that it doesn’t look odd.
I just feel sorry for these girls. People are boycotting them over an unsubstantiated rumor. Now people are boycotting these kids for being AI when it’s just a damn filter.
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