Sope Dirisu (left) and Joe Cole (right) star in Neon’s Gangs of London, which you can stream in its entirety. (Photo: Sky)

Pop CultureAugust 4, 2020

Gangs of London and the dark joys of antiheroes

Jean Sergent

Contributing writer

Sope Dirisu (left) and Joe Cole (right) star in Neon’s Gangs of London, which you can stream in its entirety. (Photo: Sky)

You probably shouldn’t expect any happy endings from buzzed-about new Neon show Gangs of London, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

The Hero’s Journey, a 17-stage literary structure popularised by the 20th century work of literature professor Joseph Campbell but present through centuries of storytelling, lays out for creators and consumers a well-trodden path: the departure, the initiation, and the return. These stages can sometimes be easy to spot in a big heroic tale – think Arya Stark’s long journey away from and return to Winterfell in Game of Thrones – but the framework can also be a lot of fun in how it shows us how self-important a hero can become over the course of a story.

It’s not just the good guys, though. In Breaking Bad, Walter White’s departure is in the form of beginning to lead his double life as a meth manufacturer. His initiation occurs when he begins to dabble in the criminal world, which leads to his eventual kingpin status as Heisenberg. It’s the return that gets muddied in antihero stories – how can a bad guy truly become the master of two worlds, or attain the freedom to live? Both are hallmarks of Campbell’s hero’s journey, but both can be harder to detect in a story without a moral centre.

Directed by modern action demigod Gareth Edwards (The Raid), Gangs of London is the latest in a legacy of slick blockbuster dramas to invite the audience into a galaxy of complex allegiances with complex people. What makes this one especially complicated, though, is that all of its main players are objectively nasty pieces of knitting – rather than the conflict between good and evil, it’s the tension of bad versus bad that keeps us on our toes here. Is Elliot (Sope Dirisu), the heavy who is climbing the ranks of the Wallace corporation, more innocent than anyone else? What about Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), the son of the slain gang boss, driven by love and revenge?

Just your average gang funeral, if you’re in London (Photo: Sky)

Gangs of London is driven by this central relationship. Sean is obviously the worse guy, but Elliot has the higher body count. What can an audience do with that, ethically speaking? One of the great excitements of Gangs of London is the almost-but-not-quite over-the-top video game violence. We all become utilitarian philosophers when we watch someone with motives for the greater good ploughing through the streets of London, taking out everyone in his path. What are these individual lives worth in contrast to an anti-corruption mission?

The fun of the antihero story is that when there just simply isn’t anyone who is purely good, you have to shift your allegiances as new evidence arises – as Elliot hardens and Sean softens, our sense of right and wrong blurs and we can sink into the high stakes, never quite sure who to trust, driven only by emotion and instinct.

We can also transfer some of that moral burden onto the smaller players, hoping to find someone we can form an ethical bond to. This is something which iconic antihero dramas like The Wire and The Sopranos managed to pull off, and Gangs of London has a large enough ensemble of supporting players to do the same thing – its underworld clans are easily identifiable and discernible by their looks, their uniforms and their languages. The gangsters are slick, well-groomed and elegantly besuited. The consequences of drug crime, the embodied epidemic of opiate addiction, is by contrast shown in the grotty flats and grottier clothes of those affected.

An example of the kind of hyper-violent, well, violence, present on Gangs of London (Photo: Sky)

One of the brilliant things about Gangs Of London is the way that it plays with our sympathies, and manipulates our affections. This is particularly successful when played out among the gangs lower on the food chain than the Wallaces. The animosity between Asif, the Pakistani kingpin, and Lale, the Kurdish militant turned heroin boss, is made complicated by the sympathies on either side. Asif is a full-blown monster, but his son is someone you could really get behind. Lale is bloodthirsty, but everything she does she does for her people. Meanwhile the Wallaces are ivory tower gangsters, living a life of luxury, trained to kill by a psychopathic patriarch.

Fragile masculinity is abundant in hero stories and antihero stories alike, as characters like Walter White, Tony Soprano and Jimmy McNulty are almost defined by their sulkiness, their inability to deal with their feelings and fears in healthy ways. Similar dynamics play out in Gangs of London – Sean Wallace is an emotional powder keg waiting to explode, and Elliot can’t stay on mission because his feelings get in the way.

The antihero’s return is almost always categorised by death, because we can’t bear to let a bad guy win. Without spoiling the exhilarating first season’s thrilling conclusion, it’s safe to say that death abounds, yet resurrection is always a possibility. And that’s the most wonderfully frightening thought of all – what if the bad guy didn’t die? If you aren’t already on the Gangs of London trip, now might be a good time to hop on board.

Keep going!

Crush, one of the groups formed on TVNZ on Demand’s new show, K-Pop Academy, featuring Rina Chae.

Pop CultureAugust 3, 2020

So you want to be a K-popstar? Kiwi kids get a shot at stardom in K-Pop Academy

K-Ci Williams

Guest writer

Crush, one of the groups formed on TVNZ on Demand’s new show, K-Pop Academy, featuring Rina Chae.

What happens when New Zealand’s queen of K-Pop rallies a room full of kids to become homegrown popstars? You get TVNZ On Demand’s K-Pop Academy.

Korean pop music – or “K-pop” – is, arguably, the biggest musical genre on the planet. BTS is its most famous name, but South Korea is home to plenty of other huge acts, including Blackpink, Ateez and Stray Kids. Think of K-pop and you probably think of high-octane performances, impressive dance routines, artists with brightly-coloured hair, and of course, ear-worm melodies. But there’s more to making it big in K-pop than just singing and dancing. Like any art form, it requires a lot of hard work too – as demonstrated in TVNZ OnDemand’s K-Pop Academy, which follows a group of Kiwi kids as they refine their skills under the tutelage of choreographer Rina Chae, whom the NZ Herald last year dubbed “New Zealand’s Queen of K-pop”

Across eight episodes, K-Pop Academy is an entertaining way for children (and keen adults) to have fun and learn about the secrets of K-pop. We get to know the five groups – Crush, Crazy, High, Hasty and Balmsae – as they encounter the glitz and glamour of K-pop, including make-up sessions (yes, even for the boys) and styling advice.

These five groups are comprised of 25 young teens, representing Korean, Māori, NZ European, Chinese, Samoan, Indian, Japanese, African, Russian and Cook Island cultures. Some have rigorous dance experience across multiple disciplines; others have taught themselves by watching K-pop music videos online. Representation matters, and how special for our youth to find a welcome in the world of K-pop, irrespective of their background.

Of course, many of the young hopefuls come from Korean backgrounds. In episode one, fifteen year old Sam talks about the importance of K-pop in his life. “Without K-pop, I wouldn’t know who I am ‘cause K-pop is our culture in Korea,” he says. “Doing a lot of K-pop is a way I can stay in touch with my Korean culture while I’m in New Zealand.” Alongside his cast mates, Sam moves through a process of auditioning, before moving on to a two-week boot camp in dancing, singing and rapping, all in preparation for a final live performance.

Rina Chae and the contestants of K-Pop Academy. (Photo: TVNZ)

Guiding them all is Rina Chae, who began her dancing career as part of the NZ Breakers cheer team. She lived in Los Angeles for five years, where she danced with the likes of Beyoncé and Justin Bieber, before moving into choreography, mostly for Korean musical acts like Monsta X, SF9 and BoA. Now she runs her own studio on Auckland’s North Shore, En Beat Dance Academy, while continuing to work with Korean acts remotely. Chae has made it big, and is now back to teach the next generation.

Speaking to The Spinoff, Chae says it’s remarkable how K-pop culture has spread across the West in recent years. “In the 90s, I couldn’t talk about K-pop or share the excitement for K-pop at all, at school, because nobody else would know what it was even about,” she says. “I used to keep my mouth shut, and keep quiet about K-pop until outside of school when I’m actually with Korean friends to talk about it. But now it can be shared anywhere and everywhere.”

High, one of the teams formed on K-Pop Academy. (Photo: TVNZ)

And it’s true. K-pop music has increased its Kiwi following with each new release. Global megastars BTS have spent the last 17 weeks on the NZ Top 40 Albums Chart with their best-selling album Map Of The Soul:7 . Meanwhile, Auckland’s MDC dance group represented NZ at the 2019 Changwon K-pop World Festival in South Korea. K-pop is still something of a niche interest, but the net is widening all the time.

Chae hopes that K-Pop Academy can inspire young people, to show them that showbiz dreams can come true – even here at the bottom of the world. “You’re just a girl from New Zealand,” Chae recalls being told. “All that stuff happens in America, it’s not gonna happen.” But it did. And now other Kiwi artists are chasing the same type of success overseas. “We’re actually putting them forward to some of the big record labels for them to audition in person,” she tells us. “K-Pop Academy was a stepping stone for a lot of kids to think, this is possible.” While remaining tight-lipped on the agencies themselves, Chae reveals the demand for talent is there and it is real.

Watching K-Pop Academy you can’t help but groove along to the music, or catch yourself imitating the dance moves. You’ll learn valuable styling tips, like spray-painting shoes fluoro pink to achieve the best look, and you’ll probably learn something new about K-pop, too, no matter your level of interest in the genre.

Or, as New Zealand’s Queen of K-pop puts it, “If you can grow to be dope, then I got you.”

HEIHEI’s K-Pop Academy is available on TVNZ OnDemand from today.