MV of the Month: Lim Kim, ‘Awoo’

April was full of big name comebacks. Exo, EXID, and miss A among them. Surely one of these big name, big money groups, with all the resources at their disposal, would win the coveted MV of the Month? Not so. Though there were plenty of enjoyable music videos in the month of April, it was Lim Kim’s “Awoo” that stood out from the rest as a true masterpiece.

Love songs are a dime-a-dozen, but “Awoo” manages to feel fresh by focusing on the playful act of seduction. “I shake my hidden tail,” Lim Kim sings. “I flirt with you. You fall for me.” Lim Kim uses a cat as the metaphor for this seduction, reminding us how stingy the animals are with their displays of love, how graceful, how playful. But Lim Kim plays the other side, too. She is both the flirty feline and the person who teases the cat to win its affection.

It’s a more nuanced take on seduction in a genre that is desperately short on subtlety. Lim Kim doesn’t wave her butt at the camera or gyrate her hips. She doesn’t dance provocatively or signify male genetalia. In “Awoo,” she shows us that sexuality is about a lot more than obvious physicality. It’s a mind game, and Lim Kim plays that game throughout the music video. She waves a cat toy. She steals the last piece of the puzzle. She knocks over a vase because she knows she can get away with it. Lim Kim torments us, and it’s brilliant.

There’s no signature dance move in “Awoo,” unless you count the fluttering of her fingertips. There’s actually not much motion at all. And yet, the video feels perfectly paired with the rapid iterations of the EDM beat. Lim Kim nods her head, and it is all we need to do the same. She taps her fingers and the music takes us back and forth. The screen flickers when the beat becomes too intense. And the colors! Every little piece and prop is artfully chosen (and we’d expect no less from Mystic Entertainment).

Given the beauty and precision of “Awoo,” it’s easy to forget just how new to Kpop Lim Kim is. After placing third in Superstar K3 (as a member of Togeworl, along with Do Dae-yoon), Lim Kim made her solo debut in 2013. And what a debut it was. Releasing two EPs and one full-length album, Lim Kim hit the top 20 with six separate songs, including “Colorring,” “Rain,” “Voice,” “Goodbye 20,” “Happy Me,” and of course, “All Right.” She earned Best Newcomer awards from both Melon and Golden Disk. And now she’s back working with Do Dae-yoon and Togeworl for her new album, Simple Mind. Not only does “Awoo” herald the comeback of a great artist, but it teases us with what’s to come.


Zander Stachniak is a southern-born, Chicago-based writer who first discovered Kpop through ShoutCast Radio. His biases are f(x) and Block B.