BTS “Boy in Luv” Music Video Review

Seriously, who are Jung Kook and V trying to kid? They look too cute and innocent to be intimidating.

Song

It is hard to believe that this song is a confession of love, but when you look at the lyrics, it makes sense. This tough, gangster guy is having feelings for a girl and doesn’t know how to express them. All of the raps are pretty cool, especially Suga’s and J-Hope’s combined rap in the middle. I am very impressed how easily the raps flowed into the singing portions. The song even hits a sensitive, emotional part after the second chorus, and then flawlessly goes back to the hardcore chorus. The singing does not seem out of place at all, which is really amazing work by the composer of the song. I love how each rapper in the group has his own unique style within the same song. Overall, it’s a really entertaining song.

Score: 5/5

Video – Story

I found this story funny, sweet, and offensive all at the same time. Jung Kook has feelings for a girl at BTS’s school, and Rap Monster decides that it’s time for Jung Kook to confess his feelings to her. Through the school announcements, Rap Monster calls his gang of BTS to meet in a classroom, where together they come up with a plan to allow Jung Kook to confess his feelings. While the boys get the classroom ready for the confession, Suga distracts the girl by “complementing” her. When everything is ready, Jin waits in a locker until the girl passes by and then drags her to the room where Jung Kook hands her a flower, confessing his love for her. When she accepts, they all have a party in the classroom.

Based on my description, it sounds like a sweet story, right? Well, if you have seen the video, you know that it wasn’t all smiles and flowers. While the BTS gang is attempting to create a romantic atmosphere, they do so in the only way they know how: aggressive. Suga basically pushes the girl in a corner as he raps in her face about how sexy she is. When Jin brings the girl to the room, he violently stops her from putting things into her locker and literally drags her to the classroom. It’s a funny story about these tough gangsters trying to be “sensitive” and essentially failing, but it also portrayed images that I definitely would not like to see in a future lover. I just don’t like guys physically pushing girls around and then winning her love being portrayed in a positive light.

Score: 4/5

Video – Cinematography

The cinematography of this video is pretty good. They do a really good job at switching the scenes and camera angles. During a lot of the dance sequences, it feels like they are constantly dancing in different rooms, but it isn’t so chaotic that the audience gets confused. The rooms themselves are done really well. There were several scenes inside different parts of the school, each unique and interesting. I like how the story is set up, with each member having a different role putting the big confession together in the end. The one moment that I personally think they just messed up is in the confession itself. The story is clearly about Jung Kook and the girl, but when the song becomes all soft, Jimin and Jin take Jung Kook’s place in confessing to the girl. This isn’t that kind of video where they are all dating the same girl. The whole video was leading up to Jung Kook confessing to his crush, and Jimin and Jin are suddenly there, taking his place. It would have been much better for the story’s sake to have Jin and Jimin singing around the couple instead of switching roles with Jung Kook.

Score: 4/5

Wardrobe

The wardrobe is really well done in this video. The members of BTS are playing the parts of rebellious students, and that is exactly what their outfits reflect. They are all in school uniforms, each of them with some kind of rebellious statement in their clothes such as open shirts and jewelry. Additionally, there is the scene on the basketball court where they are wearing street clothes, supposedly the clothes that they wear outside of school. They do a good job at making them look like young students trying to be as tough as possible.

Score: 5/5

Dance

A lot of this dance is really good. I love the chorus. The combined shoulder and leg movements look so cool. I also like the alternating up and down moves that the members do in the lines leading up to each chorus. The energy of this dance matches the song very well. Aside from the moments that I mentioned, there isn’t anything else that particularly stands out, but overall it is active enough to be entertaining. To really make it a perfect dance though, the different moves should have come together. It was interesting, but they failed to create one solid choreography piece with their dance.

Score: 4.5/5

Overall, I like this comeback. It isn’t BTS’s best video in my opinion, but it definitely has some really good aspects. I’m just really uncomfortable with how they treat the girl. I don’t care how cute you are; you don’t win a girl’s love by pointing up her skirt and pushing her around. I know that wasn’t the point of the video, but it’s really just not a good message to promote. It’s a small point, but it’s still worth pointing out.

Overall Final Score: 4.5/5

Question of the Day:

If you were the girl, would you have accepted a confession like this?