Prior to their debut in 2010, 9 Muses teamed up with famous Korean film director Lee Hark-joon for a year to film a behind-the-scenes documentary on the K-pop industry, while chronicling the group’s every move.

The documentary, titled “9 Muses of Star Empire,” is finally slated to make its Korean premiere on Thursday, after being shown at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2012, as well as being invited to 12 other international film festivals.

Overall, the documentary seemed to have received somewhat favorable reviews from critics. It went on to make its North American premiere in the U.S. last year, with Billboard K-pop writer Jeff Benjamin stating that “K-pop haters will completely shift their paradigm” after watching the film.

“9 Muses of Star Empire” tells the tear-filled tale of the nine members during their stressful and grueling training period at Star Empire Entertainment, which spent more than $1 million to groom and debut what it hoped would be the country’s next big K-pop act.

About half of the documentary’s 82-minute long footage was also aired as part of a BBC documentary, of the same title, early last year.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heralcorp.com)