Popular comedy crew BDNS, led by Moon Sang-hoon, announced a daring project on their YouTube channel, which boasts 2.4 million subscribers, early last year. Their goal? To import the funniest and most affordable comedy movie. Starting with absolutely no knowledge, they began their journey, eventually refining their plan with the help of importer and distributor Green Narae Media.
This journey took them to the Cannes Film Market in France, where they hustled through the heat, watched multiple films a day, and even tried buying tickets on the street. Their quest didn’t stop there; they also visited film markets in Los Angeles and Hong Kong to find the perfect movie. Fans reacted warmly to their journey on YouTube, with one comment saying, “I’m leaving after feeling how beautiful people with dreams are.”
The result of their search, BDNS’s first imported film ‘Nirvana the Band’, is finally set to premiere on the 20th. The official Korean title is quite unusual, spanning 106 characters including spaces and acting as an unfinished sentence: “Nirvana the Band: Matt and Jay of ‘Nirvana the Band’, who have nothing to do with the legendary band ‘Nirvana’. One day, they set out on an absurd operation to build a time machine for a performance and return to 17 years ago when they first met”. From the very start, the title is anything but ordinary.
There was a reason for the eccentric title. Moon Sang-hoon explained, “I thought people could enjoy the movie 200% more if they knew at least a minimum synopsis. I figured if I wrote the synopsis directly into the title, people might be more interested. The length catches the eye, and just as you feel frustrated when someone stops talking mid-sentence, I thought people would search for the rest of the story if the sentence was cut off.”
To get straight to the point, the movie is incredibly funny. It follows best friends Matt and Jay as they struggle to achieve their life goal of performing at ‘Reboli’, a famous venue in Toronto, Canada. The catch? Their plans are always completely absurd, such as skydiving from the top of the CN Tower just to get people’s attention.
Just as Jay, who had endured Matt’s wild plans for 17 years, decides he can’t take it anymore and tries to leave, a time machine Matt built inspired by the movie ‘Back to the Future’ actually works, sending them back 17 years. For the 101-minute runtime, nothing goes as expected. Their chaotic time-travel adventure delivers non-stop laughter and a touching emotional finish.
The film is directed by Canadian Matt Johnson and stars comedian and musician Jay McCarrel. The project evolved from a 2007 web series called ‘Nirvana the Band The Show’, then a TV series, and finally a feature film. Scenes featuring spontaneous interactions with citizens in public spaces create a unique blend of reality and fiction. Additionally, Canadian-born musician Tablo and his daughter Lee Ha-ru participated in the subtitling work.
Moon Sang-hoon compared the process, saying, “If making YouTube videos is like cooking, then importing and presenting a movie is like finding a restaurant that cooks better than I do and letting people know about it.” He added, “With the flood of content on OTT, YouTube, monitors, and smartphones, I think we’ve forgotten the joy of watching movies in a theater. I hope people watch this movie in the cinema while listening to others’ laughter.”
