‘SuJu’ storms Manila with nearly 4-hour show

Super Junior during Boom Boom. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

MANILA, Philippines—After almost two years of absence in the Philippine scene, phenomenal Korean pop idol group Super Junior, otherwise known as SuJu, brought excitement once again to the lives of Filipino Everlasting Friends, also known as ELFs, their official fans club’s name.

They returned to the country for the fifth installment of their global “Super Show” tour, which was brought to us by Pulp Live Productions on October 24.

Being held on a busy Thursday, it did not stop the flocks of vivacious fans, whether students or harried workers, to arrive early at the concert venue for various agenda like having their last minute shopping of their concert paraphernalia—sapphire blue light sticks, towel banners, floral crowns and distributing fan project banners.

On the other hand, some other fans won’t let it slip as they went to welcome their beloved “oppas” (Korean term of endearment) at the airport, making every possible ways to see them up close.  I even got there as early as I can just to be able to show my warm welcome to these lovely creatures.  And as always, SuJu’s welcoming bandwagon are as deafening and cheery, and despite being held on by a steel barricade, ELFs’ earnest waiting earned them a sweet “hello” wave from Super Junior’s gesture guy, Choi Siwon.

The super entrance

At around past 3 p.m., fans were advised to fall in line to get inside the concert venue.

Sapphire Blue Ocean during SS5 Manila. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

Inside the Mall of Asia Arena, ELFs’ emotions exploded seeing the amazing “Super Show” stage in front of them. The stage setup, having a main stage and a long runway in the middle and on the sides,  was very skin-ship conducive, not only for the VIP standing fans, but also to those at the lowerbox area—which made it a very favorable setup for die-hard fans hoping for a memorable moment with their bias.

While waiting in their seats, clad in floral crowns and blue clothing, ELFs excitedly sang along SuJu’s songs that were being played at the venue.

Some minutes past 7 p.m., ecstatic fans began to panic as the lights went out.  With loud, deafening screams, ELFs eagerly waved their blue light sticks as it seemed the show was about to start.  The crowd’s momentum never went down as the VCR started rolling—an intro video with the illusion of breaking glasses, and SuJu’s shadows shown one by one.

With that, the curtains were pulled up with SuJu members suddenly popping out from who knows where, being scattered from main stage to side stages and middle stage, confusing fans where to concentrate their eyes on.

Lee Donghae during Mr. Simple. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

It was a very intense start with their popularly hit “Mr. Simple,” showing powerful dances and charismatic singing.  Luckily, charmer Lee Donghae of Super Junior stood in front of our area—a very up-close experience—who danced sexily, making blood gush out of his adorable fangirls, including me.

Same as almost all other “Super Show 5” tours, they also performed their other hit songs “Bonamana,” “It’s You,” “Sexy, Free and Single,” and of course, “Sorry, Sorry.”

Together with the nine members (Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Siwon, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Ryeowook, and Kyuhun) of SuJu out of the original 13—without LeeTeuk and Yesung who’re in the military and Kibum who is inactive, Super Junior M members’ Henry and Zhoumi also joined this superb team.

Super Junior miss their fans, a lot

Super Junior expressed their great miss of their Filipino fans.

Henry, a member of SJM and also the member who was fluent in English, said that they really missed ELFs a lot since it has been a long time the last time they performed here. On the other hand, Eunhyuk, SuJu’s temporary leader, remarked that since they haven’t seen the fans for a long time, he noticed that ELFs became prettier, but jokingly added that the reason behind it was because they also became more handsome.

To add more fuel to the already titillated fans, SuJu wanted more from these deafening screams.   They even jokingly said that the screams were not loud enough, but as they tested the screams from the first floor to the third, the whole arena roared like thunder.

Heart-warming return

Kim Heechul (center) played around with Sungmin (right). PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

What made Super Show 5 Manila a “Super Show” like no other was the mere fact that Kim Heechul, who only finished his military service this August, made his comeback in the Philippine leg of Super Show 5, making other tours without him, very envious.

With the collective chanting of his famous “Milky White Kim Heechul” chant, almost teary eyed Heechul listened proudly to ELFs welcoming him back during the concert talk segment.  He was even teased by Super Junior’s EunHyuk asking him in all might of English, “Are you cry?”  Explained by Super Junior themselves, Kim Heechul has been a little bit shy since he hasn’t seen his fans for a long time now.  This made ELFs’ hearts filled with warmth and chanted again the Kim Heechul chant.

Another notable comeback was that of Kangin, who was not able to join Super Junior during the SS2 Manila and SS3 Manila.  This was his first time, making everything an almost perfect Super Junior concert experience for Filipino fans.  He was truly very handsome in person.  I would definitely never forget him since my friend and I got the fan pillow he kissed and threw back.

Crazy Super Junior

If fans were crazy, Super Junior was crazier.  They were really having too much fun with the wild crowd.  During their “Rockstar” performance, it was very evident how crazy they were as they banged their head repeatedly to the song and ran around the side areas and the middle runway.  Even Kim Heechul had his own solo crazy moment, and Eunhyuk ran around with a naked torso flaunting his supposed abs.

They were also very fond of making their fans crazier by doing some nerve wrecking fanservice like teasing some fans, wearing the stuffs ELFs throw on stage, and taking the fans’ polaroids to take selfies with them.

The blue wedding

Kangin (left) and Eunhyuk (right) during Memories. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

It was the moment every ELFs, who were wearing blue floral crowns, have been waiting for—the fated marriage with their SuJu bias.  This was the most awaited fan project of SS5 Manila, “the blue wedding” for SuJu’s famous proposal song “Marry U.”  As soon as SuJu members sang the chorus, fans collectively held the “I Do” banners showing their immense love for SuJu.  VIP fans, on the other hand, gave the members blue roses as the members approached the area.  At the end of the song, fans from the upper center rolled out a long banner with words in Hangul saying “Fine! Let’s make babies!”

It was a very visible banner making SuJu’s acting leader EunHyuk laugh as he read it, and said that they just proposed a while ago but fans already wanted to make babies.  But this was not enough, Siwon made all fans almost faint when he said in English that he wanted to make babies with the fans too.

30 songs

All in all, Super Junior performed breath-taking, whooping almost 30 songs that blew the minds of the ELFs away.  One could say that the most expensive ticket, around P 9,100, was more than enough for a thrilling three-and-a-half-hour concert with one of the world’s most popular Kpop idols of this date.

Ryeowook dressed up as SES’ Bada. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

An unforgettable performance was the rib-tickling, cross-dressing segment of  SuJu as the handsome men turned themselves into Kpop’s most sought girl idols:  Siwon as Son Dambi, Kangin as Brown Eyed Girls’ Ga In, Sungmin as 4minute’s Hyuna and Ryeowook as SES’ Bada.

There was also the “Harlem Shake” dance performance by SuJu’s dancing machines’ Shindong, Donghae and EunHyuk.

SuJu’s powerful vocals Kyuhyun and Ryeowook also performed a heart wrenching “Grey Paper” by Yesung, who at the moment cannot attend the concert because of his military duties in Korea.

However, Yesung’s VCR eventually joined the two in singing which made the fans teary eyed while holding their SuJu KRY banners.

Choi Siwon during Sunny. PHOTO by Hotaru Niitsu

Other popular SuJu songs were also performed like “Sunny,” “Wonder Boy,” “Super Girl,” “Shake It Up,” and many more.

Donghae who also just celebrated his birthday last October 15 was greeted with fans—who were wearing their fan made “Donghae Birthday hats”–by singing happy birthday, during his ending talk.  I remember him laughing at that since he was saying his last messages to ELFs when he was continuously being cut by the happy birthday song.  He eventually just gave in and was poured with water by his co-members, tossing and turning the emotions of fans.

Hopefully, fans can take the words of the boys regarding having “Super Show 6” in Manila.  And as they have said, we can hope and pray that “Super Show 6” in Manila would not be a one-night only anymore.

So till then ELFs, let’s not cheat as Donghae has said.

RELATED STORY:

Supersized ‘SuJu’ show thrills diehards