There’s no denying that BTS is one of the most beloved groups in the world – and one of the most well-documented. Throughout their nearly 13-year career, BTS members RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook have shared many parts of their journey through their Weverse lives (formerly V Lives); their MANY variety shows like Rookie King, American Hustle Life, GO! BTS!, their Summer and Winter packages, Run BTS!, Bon Voyage, BTS Gayo, BTS Memories, In the Soop, Bangtan TV; concert documentaries Burn the Stage (2018), Bring the Soul (2019), Break the Silence (2020), BTS Permission to Dance (2022), and BTS Yet to Come (2023); BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star (2023); their solo documentaries for j-hope, SUGA, and Jimin; and even a documentary on BTS fans, a.k.a. ARMY. It made sense that BTS would want to chronicle their comeback after completing their mandatory military service.
Directed by The Greatest Night In Pop’s Bao Nguyen, BTS: The Return’s main objective was to document the process and the decision-making in their album ARIRANG. There was a lot at stake with this project, because it wasn’t just about creating songs and finishing an album, but redefining who BTS is now.
The Weight of the Crown
RM, the group’s leader, explains that being part of BTS for the past 12 years has been a blessing, and they’ve been granted this long career. But to evolve, they needed to change. Because no one had been in this position before, including their chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, RM shares, “There are no references. So we’re doing a lot of experiments just trying to find out what makes us special and what makes us BTS.” The documentary frames this not as a general overview of BTS’s rise, but as a “snapshot of a moment” in their careers: the making of ARIRANG. Nguyen gives a quick breakdown of who BTS are, including their time in and out of military service. When SUGA, the final member, was discharged in June, six members flew to Los Angeles to begin their songwriting camp for the album.
Jin, the first to be discharged a year earlier, was on his solo World Tour during the first month of songcamp, but later joined them to work on the tail end of the project. That’s when the documentary truly begins, as he catches up with them over the album plans. He asks, “So, right now, are we still planning on a March release?” With only a month to complete the writing portion of the album, the group officially began recording in September to meet the November deadline, leaving them with less than six months to complete the entire thing. So the pressure was on. RM shares that they have a framework, but it’s possible they’ll be inspired again and create some new, better songs. Though the album is nearly finished, they are still missing their lead single and remain conflicted about certain track decisions.
A Portrait of the Creative Process
Nguyen is no stranger to capturing major moments in time. In his Emmy-nominated music documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop, he had to assemble archival footage of '80s pop and rock legends singing “We Are The World,” adding layers to the story with narratives and behind-the-scenes footage. The film was praised for its focus on the songwriting and recording process, rather than on the celebrities who participated. With BTS: The Return, it feels very similar: Nguyen couldn't care less about which angle made the artists look good (though they still did), but honed in on the music, capturing every aspect of the decision-making, thought processes, writing, and detailed conversations. He also recorded their concerns, stress, and exhaustion.
RM explains they chose Los Angeles to record their music because they could experiment more, giving their music a different energy than they’ve had before. V called LA “an amusement park” for their creativity. BTS worked closely with LA-based producers and songwriters, including Diplo, A. Chic, and others who appeared in the documentary. HYBE also brought along BTS’s longtime producer, Pdogg, for the album.
Throughout their stay in Los Angeles, recording and writing music, BTS became stuck in a creative rut. At one point, they were told they had only two weeks to finish, leaving the members looking defeated and drained – except for the youngest member, Jung Kook, who was ready to finish the album: “No risk, no reward.” While previous ‘making of’ album documentaries did show the artists in the sound booth singing, they typically post the correct one due to time constraints. Nguyen added both the good and the bad vocal takes, emphasizing the guys’ hard work and efforts toward perfection.
While morale was low, there were happy moments as members comforted each other through fatigue. V even holds a tired Jin’s hand, telling him it’ll be okay, hyung (big brother). At one point, RM is sick of trying to find the lead single, he tells them, “let’s just have fun,” as they all rock out to SUGA playing the electric guitar.
Navigating Global Expectations
One has to remember, at the height of their fame, they had to step away temporarily. And now, with their comeback, all eyes will be on them. RM briefly references the quote, “One who wears the crown, bears the crown,” carrying the weight of all that responsibility and expectation. BTS gets to wear this “big, incredible crown,” which is often heavy, almost unbearable, and “scary to wear.” Nguyen didn’t shy away from those insecurities and concerns, especially given the fast pace at which they had to finish the album. The members commiserate over feeling rushed and stressed by the looming deadline.
During a dinner between members, j-hope wanted to have fun making music, but he feels like they’ve been restraining themselves and “operating like a factory.” They begin to worry about the expectations of the fans and audience – except Jung Kook, who remains confident that people will love it.
The documentary is not all serious and stress-fueled over the album. There are moments of levity where the members get to be boys and bond with their brothers – especially during their breaks, when they eat and drink together, and when they just spend time together after being apart for so long. Each member was given their own camcorder to record their thoughts, feelings, and memories. This grainy, archival-like footage adds a sense of nostalgia to their memories, showing the fun moments they shared and their perspective on what it means to be BTS 2.0. V even treated one of the clips like a moment from MTV’s Cribs, showing the audience the studio where they record. In some instances, Nguyen has a pool scene with J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook that feels like one ripped from a coming-of-age summer movie (yes, pool scenes).
Nguyen even added some knowledge Easter eggs for ARMY – such as RM’s ability to manage to break something (in this case, a light bulb), Jin engulfing food, and V breaking the fourth wall to make a cute face.
Reflection and Growth
There’s even a retrospective moment where BTS watches old footage of themselves, serving as a reminder of how far they’ve come and of their memories with ARMY. From their very first dance performance (RM yells out, “Okay, stop!”) to their last performance together before ARIRANG (Yet to Come Busan) to their emotional 2022 BTS Festa, the members reminisced over these happy moments. It gave BTS a perspective on how much they’ve grown and the impact they've had on music and so many lives.
Though they struggled at first to find songs, inspiration finally hit the members through BIGHIT MUSIC’s Executive Creative Director, Boyoung Lee, who has been the company's secret weapon for the past few years and is finally getting the recognition she deserves. Lee came up with the ARIRANG concept. As she describes the story of the seven Korean men at Howard University and the definition of “Arirang,” Nguyen beautifully illustrates the concept with historical images, videos, and music, lending greater weight to ARIRANG's impact on Koreans and its reflection of BTS.
Lee, Bang, and BIGHIT MUSIC VP Nicole Kim suggest incorporating “Arirang” into their album, including mixing the traditional folk song into “Body to Body.” Pdogg makes some mixes, which j-hope and V thoroughly enjoy. RM initially disagrees with it, comparing it to mixing sliced bread, pork cutlet, and kimchi into a bibimbap. Jimin hilariously responds, “I mean, that sounds fucking delicious to me.” RM suggests it may be because they're Korean; it sounds off to him. The members begin to discuss whether having the folk song makes them sound like they're trying too hard to be Korean (patriotism), while the others love it. They eventually realized how well it worked together, but ran into another issue: should they use the long or the short version of the track?
The entire decision-making meeting with BTS, management, and producers was the biggest surprise of the documentary – seeing BTS push back from the creative team. Bang, who supports the long version, tells them to imagine the impact of foreigners singing the folk song at the concert. The members prefer the shorter version. Bang tells them to keep the global audience in mind, reminding them, “We all know an act like BTS only comes around once every few decades. And, there's no denying that you're Korean. So now we find ourselves in a situation where your target audience is extending beyond just Korea and is increasingly more global.”
That isn’t the first time in this album that the push for global reach is brought up. SUGA and RM wanted to add more Korean to the rap lyrics to make them sound more authentic, because “there's too much English,” and there are concerns about their English pronunciation. In “NORMAL” and “Aliens,” the vocal line – Jin, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook – sings these long English phrases, which they found difficult. Jin even suggests making a line in Korean, since they could easily use three syllables instead. Even RM, who speaks English fluently, became frustrated over writing a song in English, telling the co-writer, “I'm not a native, I wouldn't know.”
When it came to the lead single, there was a lot of hesitation from the members in making “SWIM” the lead single. Even after the nearly-final cut of the song, the members just didn’t agree that it fit their vibe as the lead. They enjoyed it as a regular track, but as a lead, because, to them, it “didn’t sound like BTS.” SUGA was the only one who was fine with it, reminding the group that they felt the same about “Dynamite.” The group felt they were taking a risk by having “SWIM,” but eventually agreed because it was different and because this was the time to take a risk.
Though Jin couldn’t join the group due to his solo activities, he had a moment to address the missing half of the song camp. He admits he was stressed that he couldn't be part of the writing. But instead of feeling bad about it, he just needs to figure out where he'll fit into everything. The members never made him feel bad about it; they appreciated how hard he worked.
The Unbreakable Bond
This was one of the highlights of the documentary – the camaraderie between the members throughout the process. Sure, there were times when the members just stayed quiet from exhaustion, but for the most part, they were constantly rooting for each other. Nguyen admits that after reviewing all the footage, BTS’s brotherhood was the epiphany he wanted the documentary to focus on while making the album. There is so much love that exudes from the members. Jimin tells them the entire LA experience had been fun because he did it with them. He recalls, “It's like how it used to be.”
For the most part, BTS: The Return focused on the creation of the album and its meaning for the members, both individually and as a group. But there were some scenes that, although thoroughly enjoyable, felt disjointed from the narrative of the “snapshot of the ARIRANG's development.” It was nice to learn about their mental process of dealing with fame, especially Jimin's loneliness and Jung Kook's (sometimes) yearning for anonymity (“I just want to be a singer”). There were also special appearances from V’s best friends, known as The Wooga Squad, consisting of popular Korean celebrities: Park Seo-joon, Choi Woo-shik, Park Hyung-sik, and Peakboy – and Park Hyung-sik's brother, Min-suk. During their dinner scene, they talked to V about the album, but it felt unnecessary and boisterous because they didn’t really listen to the music or offer any feedback.
Throughout the making of the album, BTS worked long and hard to put together ARIRANG. Even though there were many disagreements with management over what they wanted to put out there, the members gave their input and voiced their concerns. Though all the members had their own stressors about the album (and each was highlighted), the heaviest burden seemed to have fallen on their leader, RM, who has been leading the songwriting and production and serving as the bridge between his members and the American producers. It had been like this since he first debuted, leading his members through all the obstacles and celebrations, ever since he was 18. There's just this weight and burden that's been on RM throughout the documentary. He recognizes all these changes, trends, and the constant influx of new talent debuting, and he leads them. It definitely gives you a broader perspective and a deeper appreciation of what it means to lead and to have been like this for most of your young adult life.
Nguyen ends the documentary the same way he starts it, with the seven members reuniting happily. In this case, the group performs “SWIM” together for the first time, cementing it as their lead single. BTS: The Return serves as a great companion piece for their new album, ARIRANG, offering a glimpse inside the minds of those who made it. It goes to show that, no matter what one thinks of the album, no one can deny that BTS worked hard, that they did it together, and had fun while doing it.
Source: Forbes News