For this review a friend of mine suggested that I would do a song by either B.E.G. or Sunnyhill and this song immediately came to mind. I had never heard of Sunnyhill before but I had seen SHINee's Key dance to this song and I loved it (though a great part of the reason was that it was paired with some amazing Diva attitude). Beside's Key's awesome though I still loved the song a great deal and listened it whenever I felt like it. The chorus is very catchy with the 'dot dot dot dot dot', the verses were beautifully sung and the instrumental spoke to me. Overall I really liked it a lot. That's why I was definitely pumped to review this song. And to be honest, the dance with the hand fans also looked awesome.
What I hadn't realized though was that I had never actually seen the MV. Sure, I'd played it on YouTube several times, but it was always a backing music to whatever I was doing. So when I started the MV I expected to see some awesome dance shots with fans incorporated into a video with a regal feel... Well, those who didn't know already have probably guessed it by now, I was completely wrong. Instead I was greeted with a drama like video that didn't make sense to me at all.
After watching it over and over again for a few times I've tried to make something out of it that makes at least a little sense, though I'm still confused at some points.
So, we begin with alternating images of a young man, portrayed by Ryu Deok-Hwan, who seems to be hurt and an older creepy guy I do not know the name of (if someone does, please let me know). These two seem to be the main characters of the video's story.
It appears that the young man is injured and is trying to protect himself. The older man however appears to be frozen in place blankly staring ahead of him. There is a big contrast between the movement surrounding the one and the silence surrounding the other.
Then we zoom out and find out more about the situations these two are in.
The young man appears to be in the middle of a group of fighting people. They are all beating him up while he desperately tries to protect himself and attempts to get out though with very little success. The older man on the other hand appears to be seated in some kind of chair. His expressions seem imply that he is watching the things that are happening to the younger man after which he tentatively raises a hand.
After this we finally see the first appearances of B.E.G.
They seem to just stand there, looking on with what seems to be pity, as the young man is struggling to get up. Their presence confuses me since they seem like they are in the same place as the young man, yet the lighting is different and the men that are beating him up seem to have disappeared when they are on screen.
The fighting still continues and then we once again see the man from the older man from the same angle as before as he suddenly makes a gesture with his hand. This results in the attackers to be blown away from the young guy buying him time to get of the platform where they were fighting.
Then suddenly one of the girls appears in front of our main guy clearly giving him a scare.
During this time the attackers have once again gained their composure and once again start throwing the younger guy around, showing him no mercy. Our beloved Brown Eyed Girls show up in front of him one by one while singing to him making him wonder the same thing I am.
What the hell do they want from him? At this point I believed that maybe they were just in another location or moment in time or something that isn't related to 'what is going on'. But that theory is scattered the moment he uses Miryo's leg to get up in both 'situations'.
After this it continues on a while the same way, the fighters fight and the girls watch while singing, though I have to say that at some times I feel quite bad as it keeps getting worse and worse. But maybe that's just me being sensitive.
Then, when it looks like there is no more hope he manages to find a weapon and tries to fight them off though it still doesn't seem to be going well. Eventually though he seems to be able to escape them, only to be waited on by three other men.
While he's still fighting with the first group of men we see some flashes of a document and a tattoo in his neck. At first I didn't even notice it but now I think it might be some sort of prophecy... I would love to know what the document says.
Anyways, he arrives at the next three attackers, he gets beaten up some more, the girls sing some more, I feel even worse... And then the older guy returns. Clearly not liking what he sees he flicks his hand and the last attacker is thrown away.
After this he is very dispirited but still carries on until he finds some doors and goes inside. There he finds the older man, surrounded by cages in which the girls are trapped, drowned in water.
Then, the older man utters some words which don't seem to be a non-existent language. Unlike me though some people did some more effort to find out what he said and reversed the audio. This resulted in something which seemed to be Korean for "Only you can rescue me and bring me peace."
Quit frankly this kinda creeps me out, but it also gives me more of an idea of what was going on. Clearly the older guy was somehow trying to get the younger guy to reach him, maybe to fulfill the prophecy that we saw earlier? But that doesn't clarify what is going on with the girls?
Then, he uses his magic powers to provide the young man with a weapon and levitate him towards himself, successfully having him pierce his heart by doing so. Leaving the young man shocked over what just happened.
Then, after recovering from his initial shock, he does what any person should do when surrounded by 4 pretty girls who are drowning in glass cages. He tried to smash in one of those cages and save the girl inside.
Sadly enough the girl passes out while he tries to save her leaving him crying over her dead body.
And that concludes the video.
So yeah, even though I still find it very confusing I feel like it makes more sense after looking at it for the nth time. I believe that the idea of the story is that the young guy somehow get's to know that his 4 female friends have been kidnapped and he desperately tries to get to them. This results in him trying to get through enormous group of men that won't let him pass. The older man I believe is some kind of evil entity that is sick of his life and wants to end it. But, according to some prophecy he is not capable of doing so himself, he can only be killed by this one person: young man. Thus he helps him when it looks like he won't be able to make it. His being evil though makes him still make it as hard as possible... and kidnap the lovely ladies. So when the young man finally reaches him he doesn't wait any longer and finally releases himself of life.
For me this still doesn't clarify everything for me though. I still don't understand what's up with the girls earlier on in the story. I understand that they somehow wanted to incorporate their faces in the MV but the way they did it doesn't seem sense to me. What was their part in it? Where these their spirits? But then why can he touch them? Or were they guardian angels? In that case they aren't really doing a good job. And how come the other man disappeared whenever they appeared?
Something else I don't understand is why he gave up on trying to rescue her so quickly. I know that she passed out in that water tank but why didn't he try to give her CPR? I'd think that if you've gone through so much to save her, you will at least give it a try right? And also, what about the other girls?
Anyways, to end this on a brighter note, I still absolutely adore the dance. Even though it isn't in the video, they do dance it live. My favorite part of the dance is probably when they tap their neck with their fans.
All in all Sign was an amazing song with an amazing dance and a confusing though secretly still quite good MV. So, what do you guys think? What was the part of B.E.G. in this video? Did you interpret the MV in the same way I did? If not, what do you think it's about? I'd love to know~
