Definitely one of my favorite Block B videos right here.
Song
This was the Block B song I was waiting for. I loved how crazy and energetic the entire thing was. Each member of Block B has such a distinct style of singing (and rapping), and each of those styles was shown perfectly put together to make one epic song. I loved the beginning with Zico’s small rap and B-Bomb’s part. It built excitement right away and never let up until the very end. The fast-paced instrumental throughout the song added to that excitement and was especially good compared to other songs with this style. My absolute favorite part was U-kwon’s parts after each chorus. It switched up the sound of the song slightly while still keeping that crazy party sound. The way he sang it was so unique. It’s almost like he is taunting the audience.
I would say this is a perfect song, but I have to point out that Zico’s rap leading up to the 2nd chorus did disrupt the rhythm slightly and I was not so crazy about Taeil’s high notes in that chorus.
Score: 4.5/5
Story
At first glance, this just seems like a bank robbery, but after multiple times watching the video, I’ve realized that the members of Block B aren’t interesting in stealing money in this video; they are just having fun and wreaking as much havoc as possible, and then leaving the mess behind them. Once inside the bank, each member goes through with his own agenda. Zico roams around the bank like it’s his own kingdom, U-kwon attempts to get into a room in the bank but is chased away by a dog, Jaehyo tries to seduce one of the women in the bank only to later be crushed by her in a boxing match, P.O. just goes crazy and lets out his inner punk rock ego, and Taeil tries to blow the whole place up. The only scene that made absolutely no sense to me was when Kyung was being served for dinner. Why are they eating in a bank? Even though this video was random and crazy, all of the subplots still related to the taking over of the bank. Kyung’s scene was random even amidst the already established randomness of this video. It was still enjoyable as was the rest of it. It was entertaining and funny, but it would have been nice if there was more of a plot.
Score: 3.5/5
Cinematography
I call this video “organized chaos.” Even though it was all craziness, it mostly fit the theme and at least appeared to have taken place in the same building. I like that they were dancing in the lobby of the bank and what appears to be the inside of the vault. It was really cool to see shots of the organized dance in between shots of chaos in the bank. The way each scene was set up was just so much fun.
Immediately upon watching this video I was reminded of Big Bang. I’ve heard some of the arguments going around about whether or not Block B is “copying” Big Bang, and the more I watch this, the more I see the similarities between Block B and Big Bang as intentional. Now that doesn’t mean they are “copying” Big Bang or making fun of them. Watching this video with the English lyrics, it seems like Block B is trying to send a message to all of their haters who compare them to Big Bang.
We have Zico wearing a similar black coat as G-Dragon in “Crooked” and Taeyang in “Fantastic Baby”, as well as another scene of him sitting on a throne, similar to G-Dragon in “Fantastic Baby”. We have Taeil holding eating utensils and Kyung’s dinner scene mirroring the setup of a scene from G-Dragon’s “One of a Kind”. While showing all of these different scenes, the lyrics to the song are almost taunting their haters. “Go ahead, keep criticizing me. I still own the stage and work the concepts. I’m VERY GOOD.”
I think that the similarities were on purpose. In addition to making a crazy video to excite their fans for their big comeback, the subtle references to Big Bang send a message to everyone else that groups can have similar concepts and to just shut up and enjoy the entertainment. This was just my take on the whole issue, and the similarities could very well just be coincidences. If it is what they were going for, I think it was done so well and commend them for it.
Score: 4.5/5
Dance
There seem to be only a few key dances in this video, but I have to say I loved all of them. The main “very very good” dance move is so perfect for such a crazy sounding song. I also really liked the dance during U-kwon’s last lines. They were fun and crazy-looking, but still clearly took a lot of skill and coordination to do. In this dance version, and in the live performances, there is a lot of dancing going on in the background, but the focus of attention seems to be on the generic moves the person in the front is doing. If the backup dancers, and the members of Block B not currently singing, had more emphasis put on them in the dance, this would have been a really cool dance. All together it was a great dance; there just wasn’t a whole lot of focus on it. There were a lot of quiet moments in the dance where the person in the front is singing or rapping and the people in the back are either doing nothing or really slow movements.
I was so torn between giving this dance 4 and 3.5, so I settled for 3.9. It was so close to being a really good dance, but there were too many slow parts. Also, while I love the choreography for the “getcha getcha yeah yeah” and the second half of the chorus, the members should have put in way more energy into those movements.
Score: 3.9/5
Overall, I just loved this video. It was crazy, fun, and meaningful all at the same time. Whether or not the images in the video are supposed to have some deeper meaning or not, it was all just really fun to watch. If you don’t understand my Big Bang theory about this video, watch it with the English subtitles. If you pay close attention, you’ll see where I’m coming from.
Overall Final Score: 4.1/5
Question of the Day:
What do you think of my Big Bang theory? No pun intended. 😛
Did you catch the Miley Cyrus reference in Zico’s throne scene? Hehehehe
I found a post online discussing this Big Bang thing, and this person pretty much explained exactly what I thought about it, but more eloquently and with pictures. Check it out!
K-POP On My Mind 