PD Woo Han-suk made an additional request to the person in charge at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium.
"Before the match, during the rehearsal, we’d like to secure as much time as possible if that's feasible."
"Hmm- alright. We'll prepare accordingly."
"Will the lighting and stage direction be possible as per what we sent you?"
"Yes. No problem."
PD Woo Han-suk nodded and asked.
"How full do you think the audience will be for the volleyball match on the 26th?"
"Usually, we get at least 70% occupancy no matter what, but since that day’s match is a popular one, it’ll probably be more packed."
"I see."
"We actually need to be even more careful with the reporters."
The meeting ended in about 30 minutes, and as soon as the stadium representative left, writer Kim Se-hee, who had been waiting in the back, rushed over.
"PD nim!!"
She waved her phone.
"The ratings, the ratings!"
PD Woo Han-suk chuckled.
"Yeah. What are they?"
Kim Se-hee and the other writers shouted in unison.
"23.2%!!"
Breaking 23%. Once again, 'Produce That 100!' broke a new record, and the news had already been spread widely by the reporters.
《‘Produce That 100!’ heading toward 25% ratings, Episode 6 officially surpasses 23%!》
No. 1 among all variety shows, No. 1 in its time slot, and the track 'Produce' was also No. 1.
'Produce That 100!' was in the midst of a No. 1 party, like a runaway locomotive, and public interest in the surprise performance for the third evaluation was exploding on SNS and various communities.
Netflix Korea did not miss this momentum.
-[Hello, this is Netflix Korea. Today, 'Produce That 100!', the sensation sweeping the nation, is officially launching......]
Starting with their official SNS channel, Netflix Korea did not neglect media play either.
《'Produce That 100!' finally enters Netflix》 seaʀᴄh thё NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
《From tonight, you can watch ‘Produce That 100!’ on Netflix too... countdown to overseas expansion?》
At this time, similar news was breaking not only in Korea but also in Japan.
-Just saw in an official Japanese article that it’s launching on Netflix Japan on the 31stㅇㅇ
-Woooow are they already targeting Japan?
-Japanese people are super interested in Korean idol industryㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It’s already going viral on Japanese SNS
-Right ㅋㅋㅋㅋ the participants' photos are being shared like crazy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ No. 1 the most popular
The Korean and Japanese Netflix launch dates for 'Produce That 100!' were confirmed. A double score. For reference, 'Produce That 100!' was the first Korean variety show to launch on Netflix Japan. This was enough to excite both Korean and Japanese fans.
'Produce That 100!'
《Japanese fans buzzing over official Netflix Japan launch of ‘Produce That 100!’ on the 31st》
It took the number one spot on the real-time rankings of a famous Japanese SNS.
At the same time.
Participants at the Paju Campus were focused on practice. Of course, except for Kang Rojun. After completing his daily mission and checking the viewership rating for 'Produce That 100!', he headed straight to the break room.
A laptop was placed in front of Rojun, who was sitting alone.
"Hmm-"
On the turned-on screen, the lyrics of the rap track 'Witch' were densely written. He had already finished writing the lyrics, but was doing a final check before handing them over to No. 58. Kang Rojun crossed his arms and focused on the lyrics he wrote.
"......"
A quick glance showed the beginning of the lyrics for 'Witch' like this:
-[Wi- tch, the curse you cast is a vicious type, get your face out of my sight]
[Grinding teeth, you're my only failure, 실패] (TL Note: In the original raw text, 실패 (fail) is in English, so in the translation I changed it to Korean.)
[You should exist in myths or fairy tales, why are you fueling my anger]
.
.
.
Of course, it wasn’t written carelessly. Kang Rojun had studied by searching about lyric writing. As a bonus, he had thoroughly read through a lot of rap lyrics. From that point on, it was all about Rojun’s intuition and sense. Lyric writing was unexpectedly easy for him. Like when he wrote scripts, it flowed naturally.
‘Well, ultimately, it’s up to No. 58 to judge how it is.'
Then, Kang Rojun closed the laptop.
Meanwhile, at the SBC Drama Department.
Key staff members including PD Jung Soo-ryeong gathered in a meeting room. Most of the key staff who had attended the pre-meeting were present. It was the final production meeting before the script reading.
Rather than a full meeting, it was more like a final check.
All confirmed elements, shooting set, locations, actors’ outfits, filming schedule, and so on, had to be double-checked again. Even with all this, once actual filming began, various issues always popped up on set.
A break was called in the middle of the ongoing meeting.
Key staff members stretched and left the meeting room for coffee or a smoke, but PD Jung Soo-ryeong, sitting at the head seat of the ㅁ-shaped table, said.
“Hm-”
As she retied her hair, she closely studied the script of 'Rental Lover'. Her expression showed deep thought. A junior assistant director, who was on the way to the restroom, asked her.
“What’s wrong??”
PD Jung Soo-ryeong scratched her head.
“...It’s about ‘Lover No. 4’. Do you think it looks okay?"
"It seems fine to me."
“There’s no problem per se. But I still think we should remove the English lines for ‘Lover No. 4’.”
“Why?”
The junior AD tilted their head, and PD Jung Soo-ryeong replied, thinking of Kang Rojun’s face. (TL Note: Assistant Director)
“Writer is good at Japanese. But in comparison, his English is pretty average. Just normal. But when they’re both in the same frame, the English stands out as really weak.”
The junior AD’s expression shifted to one of understanding.
“Whoa, so writer-nim is good at Japanese too, he’s totally OP. I almost dropped my jaw during the pre-meeting when I saw his acting. But it seems like the other key staff didn’t get to see his acting?”
“No one except the camera director had the time. We kept the writer’s identity under wraps the whole time. Everyone will see at the script reading anyway.”
“Ahh. But if we take English out of ‘Lover No. 4’s setup, doesn’t that remove some of the fun from the character?”
PD Jung Soo-ryeong let out a small sigh and agreed.
“It does. The charm drops too. Foreign languages are the hook for ‘Lover No. 4', and it’s fun that the communication gap with the female lead comes from all the different languages.”
“Right, but if the Japanese is too good, it could feel off. The setup could get messy.”
“Exactly. If both are fluent, there’s no issue, but if only one stands out, the English comes off as obviously practiced, and the character feels off. It’s smoother to just go with Japanese.”
"Hmm, but it's a shame to lose that character appeal."
“Well, I’ll look at it again during the script reading. If the result is as expected and it stands out too much-”