Megathread
NCT 127 will release a four-part documentary 'NCT 127 : The Lost Boys' on Disney Plus and Hulu on August 30th and September 6th.
The documentary, which is directed by Pak Jayil and created by Cho Youngchul, will feature NCT 127 as they reflect on their success and open up about their childhood.
Use this megathread to discuss your thoughts and anything else about the documentary.
News & Updates
221130 At the 'Disney Content Showcase 2022', Disney announced the production of 'NCT 127: The Lost Boys' (tentative title), to be available on Disney Plus next year.
230706 'NCT 127: The Lost Boys', a Neo essay that looks back on the childhood of NCT 127 as someone's son and ordinary student before becoming a star, will be released exclusively on Disney+ on August 30th.
Teaser & Release Schedule
| Date | r/NCT Thread | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 230801 | Teaser Poster | |
| Teaser Trailer | YouTube | |
| 230807 | Main Poster | |
| Main Trailer | YouTube | |
| 230823 | Unit Posters | Taeil, Yuta, Mark, and Haechan / Johnny, Taeyong, Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Jungwoo |
| 230825 | Episode Previews | |
| 230830 | Episode 1 (with Mark and Haechan) Release | |
| Episode 2 (with Taeil and Yuta) Release | ||
| 230906 | Episode 3 (with Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Jungwoo) Release | |
| Episode 4 (with Johnny and Taeyong) Release |
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the moment of mark stating he worried about his identity of nationality quote “one of the things i’m concerned about is that i cant define myself sometimes. and i korean? or am i canadian? it’s hard to answer that question” really hit close to home for me.
i’ve had similar feelings and always felt like it was my problem that i couldn’t figure myself out. but it’s really comforting to know that mark who i look up to a lot has had similar feeling and validated my experience.
millions of immigrants go through this same experience. not knowing to identify with the birth country or country of residence.
Seems they’re splitting into groups based on age which makes sense because those of the same age would make the best discussion partners
I’ll copy my comment from the post about Haechannie here! But overall I’ve been extremely impressed - it’s beautifully done and gives them the voice and space to engage with these conversations as desired.
From the other thread:
Poor Haechan. He has been through so much. I was also a child sent away because of parental work obligations and, while it has been done for millenia, it comes with its share of baggage. The way he bit his lip to keep from crying while listening to his mom’s message broke my heart.
This documentary series has really felt beautiful so far. I hope it has felt good for them to engage in performance to speak about these things openly.
Mark’s was haunting. When he went through all the doorways, and then stopped himself short before going through the next one, with his voiceover talking about how he feels he is four different people, he just gives the camera this tired look. My heart just broke. I hope this has been good for him. He’s always wanted to write, so maybe this kind of creative expression was helpful.
Also Taeil’s… sigh. I am grateful they feel comfortable being open and vulnerable about things in their life. There’s a very well-known account from years ago by someone who took Taeil’s father’s taxi once, and it was just as described in the show - with his picture on the dash. The person talked about how his father was just gushing and asking them to keep an eye our for this person who was going to debut soon. I hope, if it’s what he wants, they can reconnect soon. ❤️
Re: Mark.
The fact that he also said he learned from young in spite of his competitive spirit for the things he likes, l the body has a limit?? That gave me a bit of hope that he’s aware of that for his idol career as well. I hope he follows through with his words, but human nature. Not always the case.
I’m happy to see a space on the sub to discuss this release - it’s something that we’ve never seen before from NCT and I think it’s important to give it the recognition it deserves.
I didn’t know what to expect from this documentary and ended up truly blown away by the production quality and storytelling.
I’m glad that they went this direction rather than performance-based content. It felt like they really showed us a glimpse of who 127 are as people, apart from their idol and stage personas - what motivates them, what inspires them, what influenced them, what made them who they are today.
Haechan’s story in particular was very touching. It can’t be easy to deal with that much transition at a young age. I’m so glad that he has developed such a strong relationship with his mom. I was mostly holding back tears, but once the message from his mom started to play, I lost it. The animation during the part about his grandfather was heartbreaking. Haechan is such a special person and this documentary really showed how incredibly strong he is.
I was not familiar with the story behind Taeil’s father being a taxi driver. The ending performance video of him singing his new song “Will Be” in the back of a taxi was really moving. I hope that they’re able to reconnect when Taeil is ready. Johnny talking about how important Taeil is to 127 on the context of the current situation with his accident was like a gut punch.
I’m happy that they briefly touched on Mark and Haechan splitting their time between 127 and Dream. We know that they’re committed to both groups, Mark said as much during his section. It was hard to hear that he’s pulled in so many directions that at times he feels like he’s losing himself. Mark debuting so many times has long been a Kpop meme, but there is a real person that had to deal with this. It’s a testament to his resiliency and mental toughness that he shows up and gives 100% every time.
Yuta’s part did a good job of showcasing how much he and the group have matured and grown through the years. Yuta mentioned that he considered leaving SM while he was a trainee due to “useless” arguments they had, but that his mom convinced him to stay (another thing learned from this documentary: 127 moms are the best). Fast forward to now and Yuta said about the members, “I feel really grateful and now I want to work harder for them”. This on top of Johnny talking about how he wants them to be friends until they’re “grandpas”. I love 127’s friendship. I truly hope this is just the beginning for them and they’re able to continue together for a long time.
I watched the first episode with my 13 yr old yesterday. we were both blown away. saving the next one for tomorrow. the production quality is amazing, and the story telling is very touching
Was looking for a discussion post when the documentary came out and was surprised there was none. Better late than never I guess?
Will gather my thoughts. But preliminarily, I am glad we get to understand them in this light. If I ever had doubts going all in for the next comeback, this restored my will.
I really empathized with Mark talking about how hard it was to make friends because he moved around a lot as a kid. I went to a lot of different schools during grade school, including three different high schools, and it was really isolating. I gave up making friends at my last school because it was senior year and everyone already had their friend groups. I'm glad Mark eventually met all the NCT members and now has some great friends. 💚
Also idk why I find it funny to realize Mark and Jaehyun might have actually lived fairly close to each other for a couple years when they were kids? Mark said he moved to NYC when he was like 6, and Jaehyun lived in Connecticut until he was about 10? Idk the realization just shook me a bit.
I'm gonna have to be that girl. This show is extremely bad. My expectations were low but this still failed to meet them.
I just cannot agree with anyone claiming this has made them understand the members a little more. I hesitate to even call this a documentary because it has more scripted sections than anything I've ever seen share that moniker.
If you pay any small amount of attention you can see in both Mark and Yuta's portions especially them clearly having their talking heads chopped up because the production is so thoroughly uninterested in hearing them out which goes counter to the stated purpose of this thing.
These are anecdotes being used for unnecessary dramatizations, bad, meaningless animation stretches, and a mere prelude to actually poignant info. This is a documentary that finds its subjects uninteresting and does its best to decorate around their words, which actually ends up undermining them. I'm dreading the Jaehyun episode because I remember that it's supposed to be a stand up routine. These two episodes felt like a teaser trailer to an actual upcoming documentary but no, this is the final cut.
This show is at its best when it actually lets us listen to the members but it doesn't, really. Mark seemed particularly willing to talk about his faith, his identity, and how his schedule might have affected his passion for music but that's all footage we won't get to see because this damn studio thought we'd be more entertained by three child actors playing chess and Taeyong playing his brother in what I'm gonna call the worst sequence of the two episodes.
This is not a dig at the top comment here or anything. This is fluff meant specifically to satiate a particular kind of fan, the one who's already invested in these people, but overall I thought this doc was insultingly infantilizing and dismissive of these men who sometimes clearly have something to say. Instead of a look inside their heads and how the see their work we just got another layer of their personas, their actual selves being hidden further by the editing and just meaningless guff.
I think it is navigating the challenges of how much they are at liberty or want to publicly share. They don’t need to divulge everything to us, and the directors have responded to fans saying they intentionally cut out things the members themselves were uncomfortable being in the final cut. Whether or not that makes it a fluffy piece or whatever can be critiqued from a documentary standpoint, but for their safety and careers - in an industry where people already know and have access to a huge chunks of these boys’ time and lives - I think them having the control in how heavily these things are exposed is thoughtful and respectful.
I think the larger point is not that this is a tell-all, it’s how they are using artistic expression to engage with their childhoods.
The artistic expression is not coming from them clearly so it's reductive, ham-handed, and infantilizing. And this could have easily been about their own perspectives on their careers and more chiming in from people who know them from debut onwards, like the other members who were heavily underutilized.
I have no way to know how the members feel about this but respectful wouldn't come close to the first 20 words I'd use to describe this. Haechan's portion in particular visibly read like something he was not comfortable sharing anyway as from what little I've seen of him he's particularly private and likes to keep his personal and idol personas clearly separated. I wasn't looking for a tell-all because I'd like them to keep their careers lol, just a competent production.
It felt manipulative overall and the production quality of the animation portions are particularly lacking and jarring and the dramatizations just muddled the messages further. This could have been a concise 40 to 70 min doc that respected their boundaries and had them speak for themselves but instead this overwrought and hyperbolic exercise is what we got and I'm still miffed.
How do we know the artistic expression is not coming from them?
And again, you don’t know them. The documentary creators said they removed anything the members did not want, so how can you say what Haechan does and does not want to share?
Edit: So, I actually went ahead and asked Jayil Pak through a DM. He says prior to the documentary he and the head writer met with each member and just had free-flowing discussions. Through these, ideas came from them, the member, or through discussion on the approach for each of their vignettes, organically/collaboratively.
He also said that each member had said it had been meaningful for them, some said it had been life-changing. Ultimately it had served as an opportunity for reflection.
The boys were not surprised by questions that were raised - all had been discussed through off-the-record interviews beforehand, and they were free to remove anything from the record or bow out of a question.
He asked I not share screenshots and I will respect that, but said I could summarize what he shared. I’m sure he’d respond to anyone who had questions - I’m no one special lol. He said it was important for him that the fans knew the boys were cared for.
I'm glad to have had the context provided and I don't really see a reason not to take you on faith as I think NCT is established enough by now they're less succeptible to SM's nearly unfathomable penchant for control.
Still, that doesn't change my opinion of the final product. If Mark okayed casting four actors to dedicate about a minute of running time to an anecdote about peeing himself with the added bonus of one child actor simulating I'll proceed to question his taste level.
Upon rewatching the first episode just to make sure Mark's portion is especially strange because it tackles the largest number of topics and never concludes or punctuates any of them. It's his mom's dream that leads into his faith he doesn't discuss in depth, that leads into his work ethic which is where the chess dramatization comes in, then into a feeling of not belonging and of mistaken identity that concludes with Taeyong playing his older brother and his SM audition. There's no connective tissue at all there but it tells us there is.
Like I said before if you pay attention you can hear his speeches being chopped up. Haechan's portion was just insulting to me but if he okayed those 5 minutes of poor animation that's on him. Yuta's talking heads being in a crowded subway bc he's Japanese... If those were all the members' ideas then production, the directors specifically, should have put a.stop to that and remembered what they were trying to make.
It's still scattered, still incoherent, clearly catered toward children which I guess would justify all of that, but they called it a documentary and that comes with a set of responsibilities they failed to fulfill. It's a genre that's very much a push and pull being the subjects' boundaries and the production's creative intent, and regardless of how it came about, what I saw was very much lacking the balance that is expexted from that type of work.
Well, I guess no need to dwell on it further since it's evident it did the job for some fans and I'm evidently in the minority here. But it's nice to have your context added to it as it explains much about the final product.
It pains me but I kind of agree. It’s strange though, because I am enjoying the documentary but I think that’s because I knew it would be like this. The members are kept under such tight control I really wasn’t expecting a real or raw look into their lives. I feel like everything that’s been included so far is things they have talked about previously, with very little further detail added. When there is new information (e.g I was unaware Haechan didn’t see his mother for some(?) most(?) of his childhood) I feel like it’s really lightly touched on and leaves me with so many questions! It’s a shame because they clearly have so much they want to express.
I have Disney+ but the show still isn't there.. I'm from Austria but I thought the series could be watched worldwide... Does anyone else has the same problem?
It’s only on Korean Disney+. In the US it’s available on Hulu - not sure if that’s an option for you?