"This is a chase!". If you thought it would be a warm, moving variety show, think again. The new variety show Manitto Club, which reunites producer Kim Tae-ho and Blackpink's Jennie, opened with a chase disguised as a heartfelt program.
On the evening of the 1st, the first broadcast of MBC's variety show Manitto Club depicted the first meeting where Lee Suji, Jennie, Dex, Choo Sung Hoon and Ro Hong-chul became each other's manittos. Manitto Club is a slapstick undercover gift-delivery variety featuring 'secret friends,' people who know how to split one thing into two.
That day, the Manitto Club members hid their identities by using undercover animal chats and drew lots to pick their manittos. As a result, number 1 was raccoon Lee Suji, number 2 panda Jennie, number 3 bull Dex, number 4 rabbit Choo Sung Hoon, and number 5 fox Ro Hong-chul, and in that order they became each other's manittos.
During the drawing, the headquarters staff's surprise identity was exposed. It was producer Kim Tae-ho. While everyone watched the draw via remote video chat from their seats, unlike the remote chat the drawing machine was operated by inserting a coin and turning it manually, which provoked laughter. At that moment the host dropped the draw ball, and that host turned out to be Manitto Club director Kim Tae-ho.
In fact, Manitto Club had drawn attention as the program in which producer Kim Tae-ho reunited with Blackpink's Jennie after My Name Is Gabriel. The host's identity, whose voice had even been altered, surprised the Manitto Club members and set off laughter. Lee Suji laughed, saying, "I wondered who would host so awkwardly, and it was producer Kim Tae-ho?", and Jennie also covered her mouth and, saying, "Producer Tae-ho?", looked embarrassed and laughed more.
The manitto game, which had promised a warm moment of laughter, quickly unfolded into an intense chase. The cast were given the mission that they could only start activities after guessing the identity of their manitto, whom they only knew as anonymous animals, and as the first hint a photo of a part of the manitto's body taken by the manitto was presented. Among them, Lee Suji was the first to figure out Jennie's identity after seeing a photo of Jennie's eyebrow mole. While briefly delighted to show her fandom for Jennie, Lee Suji disguised herself in a Santa outfit and ran off to give Jennie a comfort doll as a gift.
After that, Jennie, Dex and Ro Hong-chul discovered their manittos' identities. Jennie studied Dex's YouTube channel and even his blog to understand his tastes, and Dex already knew the tastes of Choo Sung Hoon, whom he was acquainted with. Ro Hong-chul also checked up on Lee Suji, who is currently popular, and prepared a healing, customized gift.
But 'the man from nowhere' Choo Sung Hoon was different. He had caused a major blunder by accidentally unmuting and turning on his microphone during the remote video chat, and he could not identify his manitto from any hint. After more than two hours of solving photo puzzles and receiving help from hotel staff, he finally realized his manitto was Ro Hong-chul. He even dreamed of an epic-scale gift for his manitto, such as renting a circuit to ride bikes together. But he became flustered by the rule that he had to hide his identity and returned to square one.
While Choo Sung Hoon wandered, Jennie, Lee Suji and Dex figured out the rules of the manitto game and quickly launched a chase. Jennie prepared gifts for Dex in stages—vitamins, snacks with his name on them—taking pride in preparing large quantities. Meanwhile Dex was sitting down having a meal with the production team. Jennie drove quickly and ran to deliver the gift, burning with determination as she said, "This is a chase!"
But Dex was no pushover. True to his survival experience, he quickly decided on a gift purchase, bought a protein shake for Choo Sung Hoon and tried to move straight from the restaurant to the hotel where Choo Sung Hoon was. Jennie, to avoid revealing her identity, drove around the restaurant more than five times and was tense, and by a margin of only five seconds she was able to deliver the gift to his gym without having her face seen by Dex, making for a nerve-racking moment.
While Jennie returned to the office to prepare a second gift, Lee Suji also made a move. He disguised himself in a Santa costume and went directly to Jennie's office and opened the door. At that moment, Jennie, who had been constantly wary of her manitto, saw the Santa hat and quickly ran to the door. Flustered, Lee Suji left the comfort doll and letter he had prepared as a gift as if throwing them and ran away down the hill. Only after he had run so far the building was out of sight did he show signs of fatigue, saying, "My mouth tastes like blood," which added to the laughter.
Leaving the thrilling chase between Jennie and Lee Suji behind, the winner of the first round was Dex. Knowing that Choo Sung Hoon was at a hotel, Dex attempted a doorbell dash, leaving the protein drink gift in front of the room and running away. While Dex was busy with the chase and could not immediately receive Jennie's gift that had been delivered to the gym, Choo Sung Hoon took Dex's gift two minutes earlier. Meanwhile Ro Hong-chul's gift had not yet been delivered, and Choo Sung Hoon had only just gone out to buy a gift. The Manitto Club race, reminiscent of chases from the Infinite Challenge era, piqued curiosity about how the race would shift next.<
[Photo] Provided by MBC.
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