Moonchild

(Okay, this might be long, but bear with me please. )

So, we all know that the MV for Boy With Luv is inspired by the musical “Singin’ In the Rain”, and I don’t think this was a random choice. Personally, I believe it is all connected to the concept of “persona” (both the Latin noun and the Jungian idea of persona and the self) and now I’m going to explain why.

Let’s start from “Singin’ in the Rain”.

The musical “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) revolves around the dilemmas of the transition from silent cinema to talking pictures (“talkies”). The main male protagonist (Gene Kelly) is a popular actor who tries to adapt to talkies and, at the same time, struggles with his popularity and tries to understand who he really is behind his public image and identity.

With the transition to talking pictures, cinema changed COMPLETELY. The introduction of voices in movies changed the way in which actors acted, and the way in which movies were written and directed. In silent movies actors were not really “acting”, not in the same way in which we understand acting now.

1) they didn’t actually portray a specific person, but a “social type”, a stereotyped version of the character (ex. a stereotyped version of a prince or a princess) with no characterisation whatsoever, no introspection, no personality. 2) their acting was a “pantomime”, their expressions and gestures were exaggerated, as this was the only way to convey emotions.

This is repeatedly said by the characters themselves in the movie. I’ll quote here a dialogue between the two protagonists, Don (Gene Kelly) and Kathy (Debbie Reynolds)

K: “Movies are entertaining enough but the screen personalities don’t impress me. They don’t talk or act. They just make a lot of dumb show.” D: “Wait, you mean l’m not an actor? Pantomime isn’t acting?” K: “Of course not. Acting means great parts, wonderful lines, words.”

How is it related to the concept of Persona?

“Pantomime” is a theatric technique which was used by the Romans in the earlier stages of theatre. It consisted in the same thing: actors not really acting but “miming”, conveying emotions only through gestures, representing not specific persons but just “social types” and wearing a mask.

You know how these masks were called? PERSONA. In fact, “persona” means “mask” in latin, they were the masks used by actors in theatre.

Jung identifies the “persona” as the external layer of the soul: it’s the conscious part of the soul, the way in which we consciously decide to present ourselves to others, exactly like a mask. We have certain “masks” that we put on in various situations (such as the side of yourself you present at work, or to family), and that is a persona. The persona is the part that allows us to interact socially in different situations.

Now, we know that with “Map of the Soul” BTS are, well, mapping our soul: starting from the persona, to the shadow (which is the unconscious part of the soul, the one we try to suppress, but that we should try to acknowledge in order to really know ourselves), and the ego, the most important part of the soul, the internal one.

It’s a passage from the external to the internal part of the soul. We start from the mask and we arrive to our true self.

This is exactly the same passage that the cinema went through.

In silent movies people were represented in a very superficial way, just as stereotypes of a certain social group, the acting was just a pantomime (similar to the Latin one), and it’s not a coincidence that the “persona” is the “mask” that we put on when interacting with other people, usually in the attempt to conform to the group we’re engagin with. With talking pictures the focus shifted towards the “inside”. The characters are not represented in a superficial way anymore, now there is a psychological introspection behind every character, the focus is on their emotions, their personality and background.

“Singin’ in the Rain” is about the transition from an impersonal way of portraying people, in which the characters were just masks and nothing more, to a cinema which is entirely focused on the psychology of its characters.

The Map of The Soul series is about the passage from the most superficial part of the self, the mask, to the internal one, our true self, passing through the shadow. And this is the most introspective journey of all.

In both cases there is a passage from the outside towards the inside.

Moreover, Jung believed that those who identify too strongly with their personas, like celebrities who become too involved with their “star” persona, could run into problems. This could stunt their personal growth a great deal, as other aspects of the self then cannot properly develop. This is why we need to move on from the persona towards the shadow and the ego. And this is also the main struggle of the protagonist, Don, in “Singin’ in the Rain”.

If you’ve read all of this, thank you. I hope it actually made sense and that I expressed myself clearly.