Day 21 - Favorite Music Video
TLDR: Halazia, because it's not only a mv, it's a work of art, a painting in motion, an exquisite exercise in storytelling and has masterful use of metaphors and symbolism.
(Even if Guerrilla and Yeosang’s Legacy were fierce competitors for exactly the same reasons.)
Under the cut a huge rant with a bit of visual references where I try to explain why Halazia is IT.
I’m going to try and not talk too much about how great Halazia’s mv narrative is, how it’s like watching a whole movie in less than 5 mins, because it’s already been said tons of times. It is true tho, and the fact that it's a cinematic masterpiece really counts for something, and not only as a starting point for my rant.
I'm also not going to talk about how they opened a whole lot of new lore discourses with it, because others already said it way better than I ever could. Again, still relevant tho.
I’m going instead to start rambling a little bit about the religious imaginary, cause, yeah, I know, it’s already been said tons of times, but it’s so well done and it ties so well into the mv storytelling (and i’m not even touching atz’s lore here, I’m talking about the storytelling accessible to whoever simply watches the video, even without knowing shit about ATEEZ).
While you watch the mv it seems like they're creating a whole new cult? A whole new theology? Whatever, idek how to express it, but consider these:
- the bell and organ sounds and the ritual drums;
- the opening setting with the religious-like effigy procession;
- the hooded figures that reminds me of medieval monks;
- the prayer-like chanting of the chorus;
- the whole neon pink installation behind Hongjoong while he’s rapping resembling a votive candle stand;
- Seonghwa’s iconic shamanic possession (or whatever that is) that has his eyes rolling back inside his head;
- Yunho crossing himself (you can only see half of it in the video, but if you've watched the choreo’s practice you know);
- both Seonghwa and Hongjoong (and the scarecrow obviously) standing at some point with their arms spread like they're on a cross;
- the last dance break, that seems more like religious rapture than anything else, since it’s like they’ve been seized up by a higher power and convulsing because of it…
I mean, I could go on, but I suppose you already understand what I mean.
And I purposefully said that it seems like they’re creating a whole new cult or whatever, because in the end the message is about the exact opposite, is about abandoning the higher powers to take control back and focus on the self, so the mv is such an exercise in dichotomy, it lures you in with a false premise, the religious like procession, the bell ringing like calling you to Mass, but then it brings you towards its opposite, towards the burning of the effigy first and the taking down of the sphere in the end.
It’s just masterful. It’s peak narrative through metaphors use. It’s extremely poetic. (And tbh to me, born in a hyper-chatolic country and hating how religion and religious morality inform not only my country’s culture and society, but also its politics, is so damn satisfying.)
Leaving this aside, let's also talk about scenery, imaginary and cinematography, so the more visual components of the video.
First thing first, you can screenshot a whole bunch of frames and you’ll have some beautiful painting-like shots that perfectly set the scene and the themes of the narrative.
^
I know, my bias is showing, but listen to me: in most of the shooting for the mv there are actually lots of brilliant colors, yet all those colors are purposefully washed out in post production to represent a bleak world devoid of them, so devoid of emotions. It sets the mood from the beginning, hence this particular screenshot.
^
Moreover if you still didn't catch up with the narrative plan, the mv gives you the perfect dystopian vibes with the city landscape and the storms raging between the rundown skyscrapers. It obviously speaks of dystopia, but it also hints at turmoil (the storms), giving you a key point toward meaning and interpretation. Plus, see the green of the rail? Should be green, but as I said...
^
Then you got chains and with them the whole symbolic system of meanings associated with them: oppression, captivity, despair and - in this context - no passion, no emotion (see the no colors above). But, since the setting is atop of a building caught in the storm, also turmoil, so a desire to escape, a yearning for freedom. (Damn, I love how much symbolism is present in this mv, it's delightful.)
^
(maybe not the best screenshot possible for this, but anyway)
Add to this the gorgeous low-angle shots from inside the mall we get through the whole mv to give it scale, showing how all of the themes the narrative is building on are so much bigger than the single individuals. Yeah, sure, the struggle starts from them, but it’s a struggle that actually invests the whole humanity.
^
Then there's the fact that often you can see them near light sources, but almost always facing the darkness (see the direction in which their shadows touch the ground?), so confronting it face to face. Again, if you were in doubt about where the story is going, just the visual symbolism is guiding you towards the understanding, you don't even need the subtitles for the lyrics tbh. They're going to fight the darkness, they're going to free themselves, but since they're going to free themselves from the illusory freedom coming from entrusting oneself to a higher power (of whatever kind) while forgetting about the self in doing so, of course they're not only facing the darkness, but also almost always giving their back to the light… it's so damn poetic and it manages to hold a killer double meaning with such visual simplicity.
^
So yeah, fire. Fire is charged with so much symbolism that I’m not going to go deep with this, it’ll take too much time. That said, here’s the summary of what’s in my mind rn: fire it's not just about sacrifice, not just about rebellion, not just about change, for it also represents persistence (since it's still burning at their back) and rebirth from destruction. This is such a complex shot in its simplicity and could be read in so many ways… and still is also just beautiful to look at.
^
Then you have the people finally taking things in their hands and bringing down the sphere. Again, a masterpiece of symbolism. I have not the words to express how much I love this mv and why but I’m gonna try anyway. I already said it in my Day 7 entry: imho the whole The World series narrative arc message is about how our biggest enemy is not really the system and/or the higher powers (the sphere), but our own self every time it pushes us to repress or alienate our selves one way or another, so we don’t really need someone to save us (i.e. the Black Pirates, represented here by the scarecrow effigy), because, in the end, we have to be the ones saving ourselves (so the burning of the scarecrow first and the taking down of the sphere then). And it’s done by the people. Sure, the focus is on San because in the end it’s still a kpop mv, but he’s not doing it alone. I already said before that it’s a struggle that actually invests the whole humanity, but here they are taking it up a notch: not only is about everyone, but we can overcome it only by working together, it’s about the power of the collective (damn if it doesn’t sound like something akin to marxism and/or anarchism, gods I love them).
^
The power of this image, istg. San standing there at the end, simply watching up to the sky, the water getting still. Where did the sphere go? Did San sacrifice himself for the cause, hence the toll of the death bell as the end of the song? Is the bell’s toll for the death of "god" instead and has San become the light, so "god" itself? I personally prefer this second interpretation, especially because of what I just wrote here and also (I already said it somewhere else) because I see a lot of Nietzsche's philosophy alluded to in their works. In this particular case I'm thinking about Nietzsche's Übermensch, which is strongly tied to the themes of god’s death and of returning to the self and living freely not only one's life, but also one's emotions. Anyway, this ending scene leaves you with a sense of openness, of possibility and, tbh, also of persistent dread, cause the sphere hovering above them is no more, but you still don’t know for sure where it went.
(And I'm going to talk a bit more about this pervasive sense of impending doom next, because to me it’s one of the foundational themes of the whole mv and maybe even of their lore, but who knows…)
^
So, another thing I love is the massive use of oblique camera angles (idk what the technical term is so please make do with this), to convey to the viewers a sense of unbalance and precarity and I mean, understandable if some of the themes are turmoil, rebellion and change. (I screenshotted only a bunch of them but they’re really everywhere.)
To me, tho, they also set an undercurrent sense of danger, like they're maybe doing something they're not supposed to, like they're maybe toying with something they'd best not to (and this opens a whole rabbit hole about the interpretation of their lore, about foreshadowing - if I think about IYF diaries - and about the meaning and consequences of the creation of Sopro, like trading a "god" and external power of coercion for another one, but I'm not going to delve into that, cause it's really too much to tackle rn). Anyway, this kind of cinematography instills a really unsettling set of feelings in who’s watching and it’s beautifully done.
^
Then, speaking of oblique angles, wanna talk about Yunho and the hourglass? I love this transition so much I HAD to clip it specifically for this prompt. The matching cut on the rolling tilt of Wooyoung’s hand and Yunho’s scene inside the broken hourglass is top tier and the use of motion to convey meaning is awesome, because it enhances the message of the narrative, combining the persistent sense of unbalance present in the whole video with the concept of change (the turning of the hourglass), setting also a pivotal point in the storytelling, both visually and metaphorically. Again, masterful. I’d really like to talk with the director and the screenwriter of this mv, cause they really did a phenomenal job and I’d love to know their insight about it.
^
To conclude, cause this rant really has become huge as fuck, just another little notation. I really love (gods I’m abusing this word today…) how they chose to use an abandoned mall as that which becomes a sacred space, cause - if you put atz’s lore aside for a sec (and not even that much aside tbh) - it lets you have also another level of interpretation of the mv. I mean, you know what most people worship in these times, be it corporations and/or malls and shopping? Yeah… let’s take them down.
A masterpiece. I rest my case.
