Who’s Your 'Triangle'? Mixed-Gender Groups That Come to Mind After Watching 〈Wild Sing〉

It’s one of those songs you’ve never heard before, but it sounds familiar. The stage looks new, yet you get a strong sense of déjà vu. If you saw the film that opened on June 3, 〈Wild Sing〉, you probably felt that. The movie follows Triangle, a group that broke up two decades earlier after an unexpected accident, as they struggle to get back on stage. 〈Wild Sing〉 recreates the mood of the late 1990s and early 2000s Korean pop scene with uncanny precision, drawing frequent laughs. The film doesn’t just borrow the surface trappings of that era: its story pulls viewers toward memories of singers and classic songs. After watching 〈Wild Sing〉, writers at Cineplay each took a trip down memory lane and wrote about the artists and tracks the film reminded them of. We invite readers to share any memories the movie stirred up in the comments.

Ju Seong-cheol - Young Turks Club's 'Jeong'

“If it’s because there’s another woman, if it’s because you want to be alone, how long can I wait, for our love...” The song that came back to me while watching 〈Wild Sing〉 was Young Turks Club’s “Jeong.” The mixed-gender group Young Turks Club — made up of Choi Seung-min (rap), Park Sung-hyun (vocals), Han Hyun-nam (vocals, rap), Song Jin-ah (vocals, rap) and Im Seong-eun (vocals) — took their name to mean “a gathering of young rascals.” They debuted on July 9, 1996, with their first album, Jeong, produced by Lee Ju-no, a former member of Seo Taiji and Boys. All the members were discovered from b-boy and b-girl circles; their strong synchronized dance and stage presence, including breakdance-style moves, set them apart. Above all, “Jeong” combined a trot-like melody with singalong lyrics and became hugely popular. At one point it beat H.O.T.’s "Warrior's Descendants" to No. 1 on music shows. The track was written by hitmaker Yun Il-sang, who today also composes for films and series such as the Disney+ series 〈Pine〉.

Years later, Im Seong-eun said on a documentary that she protested when the agency’s executive failed to handle payments properly, and that she was asked to leave as a result. She left under pressure, released only one solo album and moved to a new agency. Oddly, though, she later contributed to the group’s second album by writing lyrics and singing, provided guest features, and even appeared with the Young Turks Club name on year-end special stages — actions that suggested she still had friendly ties with the other members. In 2018, on the program 〈Two Yoo Project: Sugarman 2〉, Im Seong-eun confessed that she had received her payments in full but that other members had not, and that when she tried to personally resolve the settlement issues between the members and the agency, a malicious rumor accusing her of being money-hungry arose and led to her voluntary withdrawal. That history may be why Young Turks Club came to mind while I watched 〈Wild Sing〉.

Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say the film 〈Everyone Is Fighting Their Own Worthlessness〉 nudged that memory. I suddenly wanted to revisit Hwang Dong-man’s past, so I went back to director Lee Ok-seop’s short film starring Kim Kkot-bi and Gu Gyo-hwan, 〈Fourth Year Bok-kyung〉 (2014). In the film, senior-year East Asian painting major Bok-kyung (Kim Kkot-bi) has been dating Deok-woo (Gu Gyo-hwan) for four years, but she fancies Senior Baek (Baek Su-jang). After visiting the senior’s home, Bok-kyung repeatedly has Deok-woo move an abandoned sofa and a used fan into his studio. The couple nears a breakup, and by chance they see students outside the window practicing dance and playing a song. The long song playing then is Young Turks Club’s “Jeong.” The melody seems to voice the inner hesitation of two lovers on the verge of splitting: “You said you really loved me, that you couldn’t live without me, I believed you like the sky, but now you say let’s break up — what do I do with the love that remains, what about the memories? If I miss you and cry, what should I do, is this really happening? No, this must be a dream, I can’t believe it, you loved me so much, this can’t be~”

Kim Ji-yeon - Turtles' 'Airplane'

They say the songs you hear as a teenager stick with you for life. By that measure, my era was one in which so-called mixed-group tragedies were common. Today, projects like All Day Project are doing well, but in my time the only well-known mixed-gender act most people could name was Trouble Maker (HyunA & Jang Hyun-seung). Acts that only K-pop diehards remember — groups like Co-Ed School (which included Alchan Seong-min, the older brother of singer Choi Ye-na), Triple H (HyunA with Dawn and Hui), and Nasty Nasty (featuring Nine Muses’ Kyung-ri and So-jin, plus Kevin of ZE:A) — disbanded for all sorts of reasons: inter-member dating, and even criminal acts.

Come to think of it, the fictional Triangle in 〈Wild Sing〉 also broke up amid an ugly incident, so you could say it walked the same tragic path many mixed-gender groups have. The film doesn’t specify exact dates, but Triangle and Choi Sung-gon seem to have been most active roughly from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. 〈Wild Sing〉 recalled for me the retro boom kicked off by shows like 〈Infinite Challenge〉’s 'Totoga' specials and 〈Hangout With Yoo〉’s projects like SSAK3, programs that resurrect ’90s artists. I assumed 〈Wild SIng〉 would simply trade on that nostalgia. But instead of taking the easy route of nostalgia, the film opts for an unpredictable road movie and farce rather than settling for easy sentiment.

If I had to compress the film’s rhythm and mood into a single song of that era, Turtles’ “Airplane” fits perfectly. Lyrics like “I’ll fly high up into the blue sky, on the airplane I dreamed of as a child” pair neatly with the film’s tone. In my memory, 〈Wild Sing〉 is a movie about hopping into a jeep rather than a plane, but the Triangle members are racing toward the stage — the “airplane” they dreamed of as kids. Like the lyric in “Airplane,” “Everything’s ready; dressed up nice, even the scenery outside feels excited. The time to fly up into the sky has come. I’m a little scared but I can’t show it. It’s my first time, but we flew often before,” they head to the venue full of both thrill and nerves. The journey, though, is truly wild: they even end up killing someone by accident, the car becomes a wreck, and members who hoped to make a comeback end up stranded on the roadside. The lyrics to “Airplane” become sad the more you think about them. Lines such as “Passing through crowds of people, it’s the final gate; I’m fidgeting without knowing why; at times like this, be calm, act natural” show a narrator hesitating at the final gate of an unreachable dream. Yet the Korean sentiment of wiping tears with a laugh — the bittersweet brightness that underpins K-pop — is exactly what “Airplane” captures. 〈Wild Sing〉 is funny and sad, exciting yet faintly melancholy; it radiates that bittersweet, refreshing K-pop feeling.

Seong Chan-eol - UP's 'Sea'

When I first saw Triangle, the group that came to mind was H.O.T. I’m not entirely sure why a fresh-faced mixed-gender group made me think of an all-male act, but tracing the source led me to Hyun-woo (Kang Dong-won)’s hairstyle. The heavy, swept-forward bangs and the look of long hair hidden under a bandana immediately read to me as H.O.T. Also, H.O.T. was my first idol; even though there were many great artists before them, H.O.T. was the first group whose members I remembered individually rather than just their songs. Triangle’s second concept in the film also recalled H.O.T.’s daring style on their second album.

Then I tried to think of actual mixed-gender groups, and two names popped up. One is COOL, a group whose status as a national favorite needs no explanation — their hits still get airplay every summer. The other is UP. In the era when I couldn’t decide how to pronounce the name — “UP” or “Yupi” — their songs “Puyo Puyo” and “Sea” introduced a fresh sound in the ’90s. Over beats that felt like a collage of sound effects, each member’s distinctive voice and the lyrics’ narrative and humor created the kind of refreshing energy of summer. The choreography was simple and catchy enough for anyone to copy, making it a staple for group recreation and helping the songs’ longevity. Listening to them again after a long time, my body started bobbing almost involuntarily. After the energy of 〈Wild Thing〉, I found myself wishing for a legendary mixed-group reunion gala — just a small wish, but a sincere one.