MCO 450 – Visual Comm: Module 5
Visual Analysis 2
For this assignment, I have chosen music videos, in particular, Korean music videos. Historically, Korean music videos are micro concerts or filled with “aegyo”, referring to the cutesy behavior accompanied by baby voices, facial expressions, and gestures. These videos are often brightly colored, playful music, and of course the performers acting out their childhood. Videos like these include GOT7’s “Just Right”, which touches on the effects of the Korean culture of beautification with makeups and creams. In addition, most female Kpop videos feature them in sexy clothing, acting Lolita-ish, meaning portraying themselves as very young, but behaving and dancing sexy. However, the video I have chosen is VIXX’s Leo & Ravi “Beautiful Liar”.
“Beautiful Liar”, like many of VIXX’s videos, is a darker stance, with this one taking on the agony of a relationship ending. Leo portrays a man who is cool about letting go of a woman he loves; whereas, Ravi portrays his mental anguish and desire to hold on to her. The song is basically about him pretending he is fine to see her go, but he’s too cowardly to really tell her how he feels.
From my personal perspective, the video is intense in emotion. You have this calm visage of Leo, dressed blandly, doing mundane actions with the least effort. You get the feeling that she is leaving because he is monotone and that is not a relationship. Then you have Ravi, who is wearing patterns and vibrant colors, and he is lashing out. All honesty, this video reminds me of the zodiac sign of Scorpio, a swirl of mood swings. One second, everything is okay; the next second, it is a whirlwind of abuse. It reminds me of my father at the onset of dementia, and he was a Scorpio.
Technically, this video is beautiful. The swinging spotlight of the table scene is simply beautiful. The tension is built in the pendulum of the light between the man and the woman. The passing spotlight of the two male performers resembles the phases of the moon with this technique. The contrasting of Leo is his drab monotone clothes to Ravi in his patterns and the vibrant red suit lets you know that these are opposites. The camera movement seems limited to pans, tilts, and zooms. There is a little focusing in some scenes, but everything seems in focused for majority of the videos. There are some wide shots to capture scenes, but mostly the scenes are medium shots to close-ups.
VIXX is considered the “Concept Kings” of Korean music videos, along with groups such as BigBang and 2NE1. They have constantly changed their image, but they always remain what most Americans would call “emo”. While they have some light, aegyo videos, VIXX goes against most of the cultural norms of a Korean music and video. The Korean cultural tends to be a façade of happiness. Yet, true Korean culture is inundated with classism, racism, sexism, and hypocrisy. Their music has been influenced with American hip-hop, rap, and alternative music. This is then packaged into “Flower Boys”, meaning that the men look effeminate and delicate, while maintaining a look of fitness and cool headedness. Female idols are made to look even more demure, sexualized through dance moves and clothing that reveals just enough to spark the imagination. Production labels turn this ‘sex sells” into a culture of a relationship between the idols and their fans. Fans are made to feel they have a thing with this idol or group, thus controlling the idols’ lives because they feel that their love and support means they can be pseudo-guardians for them, and be bossy over who they date or what they can do.
“Beautiful Liar” ethics could be expressed by the awareness of mental health. After the table scene, a struggle ensues between Leo and Ravi over the woman leaving. The woman lays keys, representing the heart of Leo. Leo is poised to take back his heart when Ravi at the last minute violently pushes them away. Ethics would deem that the woman should be free to go and the man should take back his heart, in a perfect world. Ravi does what Leo will not, by pursuing the woman, attempting to make her stay. Leo struggles with his feelings, depicted by Ravi, ending in a truce of letting go. This is seen by the final piano scene as Ravi is wandering away. Some Koreans would disagree about showing the “bad” side of life. It is how some Koreans were highly upset at the depiction of basement dwellers in the movie “Parasite”. Although, culturally basement dwellings exist more than they would like, Koreans tend to hide their extreme poverty. It is unethical to air out their dirty laundry.
As for myself being critical of this video, it is not my favorite video from VIXX because of the darkness of it in the visuals. However, the content created by the visuals and audio mesh well together into a believable story of indecisive and toxic behavior in relationships. Parts of the video are very dark, not in tone, but visually and it makes it difficult to see as in the scene where Ravi is on top of the table and the woman underneath is dodging him. “Beautiful Liar” is a very beautiful video to me with the contrasts of the colors and the dark hues. The motion of the two males dancing opposite of each other and, after the struggle, coming together before separating. Overall, this video captures the inner-artist in a confrontation of emotions and that is why I have chosen it for this assignment.
