Music / Dreamcatcher (Band)

aka: Dream Catcher

Back: Dami, Gahyeon, Yoohyeon, Handong. Front: Siyeon, JiU, SuA.

"Dream of me~ Hello, we are Dreamcatcher!"

Dreamcatcher (Hangul: 드림캐쳐, also known as Dream Catcher or DreamCatcher) is a seven member Korean Pop Music group that debuted in 2017. JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Yoohyeon and Dami had originally debuted in 2014 as MINX (Hangul: 밍스), but after the group failed to get any significant success, their company (Happy Face Entertainment) unofficially disbanded them and reformed the group into Dreamcatcher, adding Gahyeon and Handong. The group released their first single "Chase Me" on January 13, 2017, and immediately garnered lots of interest due to their Darker and Edgier concept, powerful and intricate dances, and rock/metal inspired sound.

Members:

• JiU (Kim Minji, born May 17, 1994): Leader, lead dancer, sub-vocalist, visual
• SuA (Kim Bora, born August 10, 1994): Main dancer, sub-rapper, sub-vocalist
• Siyeon (Lee Siyeon, born October 1, 1995): Main vocalist, dancer
• Handong (Han Dong, born March 26, 1996): Sub-vocalist, dancer
• Yoohyeon (Kim Yoohyeon, born January 7, 1997): Lead vocalist
• Dami (Lee Yubin, born March 7, 1997): Main rapper, lead dancer, sub-vocalist
• Gahyeon (Lee Gahyeon, born February 3, 1999): Lead rapper, sub-vocalist, dancer, maknae

Discography

- Korean releases

• Extended Plays:
  • Love Shake (2015)^note as MINX
  • Prequel (2017)
  • Escape The ERA (2018)
  • Alone in the City (2018)
  • The End of Nightmare (2019)
  • Raid of Dream (2019)
  • Dystopia: Lose Myself (2020)
  • Dystopia: Road to Utopia (2021)
  • Summer Holiday (2021)
  • Apocalypse : Follow Us (2022)
  • Apocalypse : From Us (2023)
  • VillainS (2023)
• Full albums:
  • Dystopia: The Tree of Language (2020)
  • Apocalypse : Save Us (2022)
• Single Albums:
  • Why Did You Come To My Home? (2014)^note as MINX
  • Nightmare (2017)
  • Fall Asleep In The Mirror (2017)
  • Bon Voyage (Farewell Ver.) (2023)^note An English version digital single.
• Singles:
  • Why Did You Come To My Home? (2014)^note as MINX
  • Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (2014)^note as MINX, with Dal Shabet
  • Love Shake (2015)^note as MINX
  • Chase Me (2017)
  • Good Night (2017)
  • Fly High (2017)
  • Full Moon (2018)
  • You And I (2018)
  • What (2018)
  • Over the Sky (2019)
  • PIRI (2019)
  • Scream (2020)
  • BOCA (2020)
  • Odd Eye (2021)
  • BEcause (2021)
  • Maison (2022)
  • Vision (2022)
  • Reason (2023)
  • Bonvoyage (2023)
  • OOTD (2023)
• Solo Songs, Collaborations and Soundtracks
  • Two of Us (2014)^note Siyeon & Onejunn of Boys Republic, "Love & Secret" OST
  • Deja Vu (2019)^note "King's Raid" OST
  • Not A Dream (2020)^note Dami, D1CE's Woo Jin Young and Classmate's Byeong Min, "King's Raid" OST
  • Paradise (2020)^note Siyeon Solo
  • No Mind (2020)^note Siyeon Solo, "Get Revenge" OST
  • R.o.S.E Blue (2020)^note "Girl Cafe Gun" OST
  • Good Sera (2020)^note Siyeon Solo, "Into The Ring" OST
  • Be The Future (2020)^note Collaboration with AleXa and In2It
  • Shadow (2021) ^note Siyeon & Dami, "Dark Hole" OST

- Japanese releases

• Single albums
  • What (Japanese ver.) (2018)
  • PIRI ~Fue wo fuke~ (Japanese ver.) (2019)
  • Endless Night (2020)
  • Eclipse (2021)
• Studio album
  • The End of the Beginning (2019)
• Singles
  • What (Japanese ver.) (2018)
  • PIRI ~Fue wo fuke~ (Japanese ver.) (2019)
  • Breaking Out (2019)
  • Endless Night (2020)
  • No More (2020)
• Soundtracks
  • Eclipse (TV size) (2020)^note "King's Raid" anime 2nd opening theme
  • Eclipse (2021)^note Handong was absent from the TV size version since she had recently returned from China, but she participated in the full version of the single.

- Chinese Releases

• Single Albums
  • First Light Of Dawn (2020)^note Handong Solo

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Tropes related to Dreamcatcher:

• Affectionate Nickname: SuA refers to Handong as "Dongdonggie" (other nicknames for her are DongDong or "Dongie"), while Dami's nickname is "Da-Dami" (or alternately "Pandami" or "Prince Dami"). JiU is known as the "Pink Princess", SuA is "Swa", Siyeon is "Singnie", Yoohyeon is "Namu" or "Tree" (due to her allegedly looking stiff no matter what she does) and Gahyeon is "Gahyeonie".

  • Handong has also called Yoohyeon her "Little Apple".

• After the End: The music video for "Maison" shows us images of a city in ruins and people wearing animal masks being all that remain in a dying world.
• Alternate Reality Game: Leading up to their "VillainS" comeback, fans found a Twitter account named 'ymenehcra' that shared cryptic posts, hidden links, and story hints focusing on their gradual obsession over "the crown," which the MV for "OOTD" also highlighted. Even after the comeback, fans continued to uncover hints through material shared in pop-up stores and cafes, including audio recordings of the members themselves talking about sacrificing people for the crown!
• Artifact of Attraction: The crown is heavily implied to be this in the "VillainS" ARG, as people who learn about it become obsessed with finding and obtaining it.
• Bifauxnen: Handong used to be this in middle school, and her nickname in the group is "Gege", or "Big Brother" due to her tomboyish personality.
  • Siyeon can also come across this way, especially during "Odd Eye" promotions.
  • Dami◊ is also considered this, even calling herself a "dancing prince" once. She also often rocks Boyish Short Hair, and has learned Kendo.
• Big Eater: JiU will make sure there are no leftovers after a meal.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: On-stage, they're highly skilled performers that can thrill any audience with amazing choreography and vocals. Off-stage, they're utter dorks who have a lot of weird moments, often getting their staff in on the action.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Oh so very much. From random screaming to downright naughty antics, expect them to get weird at every turn when not performing.
• Cover Version: A staple for them - some of the more well known are Maroon Five's "Lucky Strike", Seo Taiji & The Boys' "Regret of the Times", Winner's "Really Really", Bruno Mars' "Beautiful" and "Treasure", Alan Walker's "Faded", Camila Cabello's "Havana", "Remember Me" from Coco, Troublemaker's "Troublemaker", Little Mix's "Secret Love Song" and Girls' Generation's "Into The New World".
  • "Love Shake" was a cover of a previously-released B-side from senior label mates Dal Shabet.
• Darker and Edgier: Look at their music video for "Love Shake". Now look at their video for "Chase Me".
  • Even better, check out this performance of "Fly High", complete with what looks like a mock-Satanic summoning ritual as an intro!
• Deadpan Snarker: JiU and Handong in particular are very good with the quips.
• Determinator: Handong injured her leg partway through the filming of "Good Night" but refused the offer of a body double, instead powering on through the rest of the shoot.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: If the work they released as MINX is included, then it is very weird to see and hear one of the darkest groups in the industry, known for their Goth image, having started out doing straightforward bubblegum pop before rebranding as Dreamcatcher.
• Engrish: Usually averted, but it's still there:
  • "Save my home in the polar" from "Maison" (not to mention that the title of the song itself is in Gratuitous French).
  • "I know what you want to me" from "PIRI".
  • "Hold up! I'm a geek, the big paradox" in "BOCA".
  • "So I fallen now" in "Deja Vu".
  • "I’m nuts and switch/I’m mad and switch" and "Flying with a bat like crazy huh?/Knock knock I’m crystal honey/Tok tok let’s trick and funny" in "No Dot".
  • "Turning over page" and "[The only things left are]^note translated from Korean victim, big pain, deep gray/[Look around]^note translated from Korean like Jackie Chan, quickly, swiftly" from "Vision".
  • "Cruising my rollie, cash in the backseat" from "OOTD".
  • "Kiss me darling now, I think I turn into the stone" from "Shatter".
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: At one point in "Good Night" the girls cause the walls of the room the ghost hunter is in to become full of open, accusatory eyes.
• Face–Heel Turn: The ghost hunter in "Chase Me" at first appears to be benevolent, but then is seemingly claimed by the curse of the spider after breaking into a locked room at the end of the music video. In "Good Night", he's now in possession of a spellbook and uses it (possibly unintentionally) to capture Gahyeon and SuA. Then, in a Call-Back to "Chase Me", JiU, Dami and Handong steal the spellbook from the ghost hunter and perform a ritual^note in "Chase Me", it was the other girls gathering in a circle around Dami for a ritual, burning the pages where SuA is pictured as being trapped and freeing her. They then proceed to destroy all his documents and manage to trap him in the mirror in their place.
  • Yoohyeon in the music video for "What", which follows the events of "Good Night" (including her failed rescue from the shadow world). She begins the video wearing a flowing red and white dress, but is sucked into darkness and emerges wearing a black, sexy, lacy outfit. The final shot of her is her standing on a rooftop and staring imperiously down at JiU, who looks back at her with an expression of sadness and regret.
• Fangirl: Both Handong and Dami cite Taeyeon of Girls' Generation as one of their inspirations - Dami even auditioned for Happy Face (and got in) with SNSD's song "Run Devil Run".
  • Yoohyeon was inspired by Wonder Girls, although she also fangirls over Harry Styles.
  • Handong is known for fangirling over Pristin, and can dance to "Wee Woo" almost perfectly.
  • Judging from this video they may be huge fangirls of BTS (especially Yoohyeon).
  • They're all pretty big fans of DAY6, especially Yoohyeon.
  • SuA is a fan of Dong Bang Shin Ki.
  • Siyeon's role model is Hyorin, and she also adores One OK Rock.
  • JiU loves BABYMETAL.
• Foreshadowing: So much in "Fly High" - from Yoohyeon killing the spider ("You and I") to the girls becoming cursed and trapped in the hotel ("Chase Me"), to their ending pose in the music video◊ being the exact same as the dolls they create in "Good Night" (by winding string around sticks).
• Full-Name Basis: Handong is an interesting case of this, as her stage name is actually her first (Dong) and last name (Han) together. This is why she has nicknames like "Dongdonggie", DongDong or "Dongie", and why she is referred to as "Dong" in the "Poison Love" video.
• Genre Mashup: Their title tracks tend to be a mashup of idol music with prominent rock and electronic leanings. The B-sides are more in Genre Roulette territory.
• Giant Spider: The true form of the woman Yoohyeon is photographing in "You And I"◊ - and it's implied she's in some way connected to the spider Yoohyeon killed in "Fly High", as she lashes out and knocks Yoohyeon to the ground.
  • Seoulbeats had an interesting take on this:
  "The beginning of the end starts with one of the most interesting and illuminating imagery throughout the video — the spider. This little storyline could have been the key to Pandora’s box. According to Native-American Ojibwe tales, the dreamcatcher is symbolism for the mythical spider women’s care for her babies. Her woven object protects girls and boys from nightmares. In the video, a spider is found and possessed by the girls until it is mercilessly fried through a magnifying glass; perhaps angering the spider women, ripping apart their dream catcher, and sealing their fate in their nightmares."
• Goth: Their artwork and music videos usually have a Goth/spooky image, though this has been toned down since around 2022.
• Green Aesop: "Maison" is a song about climate change and the MV depicts a world in ruin.
• Heroic Sacrifice: JiU performs this in the MV for "R.o.S.E Blue", where she frees the other members from the crystal's hypnosis but doesn't have enough bullets in her gun to save herself. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Hotter and Sexier: Done purposefully in the song and MV for "OOTD", highlighting how the girls are playing villainous versions of themselves.
• Ice Queen: Handong's nickname, due to her more cool and reserved demeanor.
• Innocent Innuendo: With a group as chaotic and unfiltered as Dreamcatcher it’s only natural that there would be so many…
  • Due to the fact that Yoohyeon sleeps a lot, when she asked Jiu and Siyeon what they want to do when they see her sleep, Jiu answered “I want to sleep.” While most of the English-speaking world saw no problem with this, the problem lay with the fact that in Korean, this is slang for “I want to sleep with you.” Cue Siyeon doing a double-take, Yoohyeon looking shocked and stumbling over her words and Sua telling Jiu off for not watching her words when the camera is on. Made even funnier by Jiu trying to correct the situation and Sua saying Jiu is in her 20s and “These things can happen” and proceeding to tell Yoohyeon and Siyeon off for not controlling their expressions when the camera is on.
  • During a v-live where they role-played as university students, when they were trying to come up with ideas for a booth during a fair, Yoohyeon notes that she watched the movie The Kissing Booth recently. Dami did not look amused.
• Insult of Endearment: The members (especially Handong or Sua) tend to call Yoohyeon "Pabo" (fool or stupid in English) in an endearing way. She tends to call them the same thing.
• Incredibly Long Note: A specialty of Siyeon, perhaps most infamously in the climaxes of "Deja Vu" and "BOCA".
• Korean Honorifics: Obviously since they are a majority Korean group who live in South Korea. The younger members call their elders “unnie” while the older ones use the younger member’s first name and the term of endearment “-ah” or “-ya”. (-ah is used when the name ends in a consonant and -ya with a vowel.)
  • For example, the elders are called Jiu-unnie, Sua-unnie, Siyeon-unnie, etc. While the younger members are called Yoohyeon-ah, Dami-ya and Gahyeon-ah. Handong is an interesting case as she is the member in the middle of the Unnie and Maknae line but she doesn’t seem to mind if the members call her by her nicknames. Dami and Gahyeon tend to call her Unnie when addressing her directly but still sometimes call her by her nickname.
  • The same-age friends (chingu in Korean) don’t tend to use unnie with each other, instead opting to use their nickname, or -ah and -ya. Dami tends to call Yoohyeon “Yoohyeonie” and Sua tends to call Jiu “Jiu-ya”.
  • Dami is the only member of the Maknae line who insists on calling her elders Unnie. Yoohyeon and Gahyeon are often said to challenge the age hierarchy but not in an offensive way. Yoohyeon has even said that she’d love to be Handong for a day so she can get away with forgetting to call her elders Unnie.
• La Résistance: "Vision".
• Lighter and Softer: Their music video for "Lullaby", the b-side to their "Fall Asleep In The Mirror" EP.
  • The music video for "OOTD" can count as this as well, as it's much less of a heavier sound than their previous releases.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Dami and Yoohyeon have said that their friendship is like this. They have also stated that they are like soulmates.
  • To a lesser extent: Jiu and Sua. They are often (respectively) nicknamed the dad and mom of the group. It also helps that they are the two oldest members and Sua is often considered the second in command to Jiu.
• Loose Lips: There have been some occasions where the members have spoiled information about their releases. Sometimes it's to intentionally tease the fans, but most of the time, it's by accident.
  • Yoohyeon is by far the biggest offender of this, such as when she spoiled part of the choreography for "PIRI", accidentally told fans that "BOCA" would feature backup dancers, and revealing the name of "Odd Eye" during the group's 4th anniversary VLive.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Described by JiU on "Weekly Idol" as the theme of "BEcause".
  JiU: It tells a story of a strong love that turns into an obsession.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "BONVOYAGE".
• Lyrics/Video Mismatch: While the song lyrics contain some obsessive romance themes, their music videos are totally irrelevant and focus on paranormal events occurred on or initiated by the members.
• Malaproper: Handong is a good source of these, as her Korean can be a bit shaky at times (although it's improving):
  JiU: What are you going to do about [me being sleepy]?
  Handong: Ah, what is it... I will fill!
  JiU: Did you say fill?! What?!
  Handong: Fill? Isn't that right?
  JiU: What were you trying to say?
  Manager: Did you mean "let you sleep"?
  JiU/Handong: AH! That makes more sense.
• Mind over Matter: In "Maison" Dami levitates an entire room of defeated soldiers with a wave of her hand.
• Mood Whiplash: During their "Seven Spirits" online concert, the members did solo performances that range from cute (like JiU's cover of IU's "Bbibbi"), to cool (Dami covering "Rainism" by Rain), to sexy (Siyeon's dangerously sexy cover of "Paradise Lost" by Gain), all dressed in various Halloween costumes like Woody and Cruella De Vil... And then SuA comes out dressed as Hellboy to perform "Maria" by Mamamoo's Hwasa (with a deep growling voice) and fans were floored.
• Omniglot: Yoohyeon can speak English, Korean, Chinese and German.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Compared to some of the other members, Dami looks downright normal in comparison thanks to her restraint in some of the group's weirder antics.
  • Gahyeon can be this too when she's not snarking or yelling at the members, as she sometimes stays in the background whenever the chaos starts really ramping up.
• The Ophelia: SuA visually invokes this◊ to a T◊ in BOCA as she wears a white dress and splashes around in water, her long hair looking wet and unkempt.
• Shock and Awe: In "Vision", every member (excepting Handong) uses a different color of lightning powers to fight, with JiU's being pink, SuA's green, Gahyeon's purple, Yoohyeon's blue, Dami's white and Siyeon's red.
• Spiders Are Scary: One appears in "Fly High" and is killed by Yoohyeon in her (possible) Start of Darkness, and then a second, much larger one shows up in "You And I" and possibly returns the favour.
• Token Minority: While not exactly, Handong is the only non-Korean member. At one point in time, when Siyeon showed off the funny names she had her members saved under, Handong was saved as “(Token) Asian” which was a pun on her name in Korean.
  • Dami has stated that people sometimes think she has a mixed-lineage, but that is not the case.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Yoohyeon and Handong.
  • A classic example is Yoohyeon stroking Handong's face, smiling sweetly and then calling Handong stupid◊ before walking away as Handong mock sneers at her◊. It's become sort of a running gag◊.
  • At times you start to feel sorry for Yoohyeon due to the amount of teasing she endures… until you see her relationship with her family. Then it becomes a case of Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other and you realise that Dreamcatcher are just like another family to her.
  • Sua and Yoohyeon. To the point they call themselves Tom and Jerry.
• Wham Line
  • Dami's final line in "Fly High" is chilling when compared to her earlier lines in the song.
  *before the first and second chorus*
  Dami: It's like a big black hole in my heart, I'm trapped in the dream
  *before the end of the song*
  Dami: It's like a big black hole in my heart, I'm trapped in the nightmare
  • "BOCA" contains an incredibly powerful line that resonates with the song's message against online hate and how it can negatively affect people.
  SuA: Too many angels dying now, I'm gonna change your mind

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