An official from Jellyfish Entertainment said on March 16th,"VIXX has confirmed to make their comeback on April 19th. They are currently working hard to show a new and better look of themselves".
This will make their comeback after 5 months since their second album 'Chained Up' in November 2015. Since VIXX always come up with unique concepts, many fans are looking forward to what kind of image the boys will bring out this time.
N will make his acting return in upcoming web drama 'Tomorrow Boy'.
Jellyfish Entertainment announced on February 17th that N has been casted for the lead role in web drama 'Tomorrow Boy'.
N will play as Ahn Tae Pyung, a flowerboy who has lost both his parents and has to take the responsibility to take care of his grandmother and the four younger siblings. Despite his difficult circumstances, he's still energetic earning money for his family while doing well at school.
'Tomorrow Boy' will air in March through Naver TVCast.
Hafsa Tameez is a Pakistani-born, nowhere-based interior designer/ professional procrastinator/ self-entertainer. Stumbling onto Kpop as a socially-awkward shy recluse, she was immediately hooked. After making the irrevocable mistake of taking a philosophy course in college, she now loves analyzing the world of Kpop with Gayathri. While she adores far too many Kpop groups, her favorites have always been SHINee, Vixx, Exo, Mamamoo and Spica (though BTS is swiftly reeling her in).
Gayathri Ravindran is an Indian-born, Dubai-based Multimedia Design student currently 4 months away from graduation. She discovered Kpop through the irresistible charms of the one who calls himself Nichkhun, after seeing him on Running Man one too many times. Last year something possessed her to take a philosophy class, then two more and now she spends her free time analyzing Kpop culture with Hafsa. Currently following way more groups than she has time for including 2PM, SHINee, Vixx, BTS and Exo. Not a big fan of girl groups, although she is very excited about Mamamoo and The Ark.
Lyn and LEO - "Blossom Tears"
Hafsa: oh it’s been a while. I think I have forgotten half the lyrics
Gayathri: lol same. “Heart limping to the end of the road”. Wait. That was error right?
H: hahaha yeah
G: that’s literally the only lyric I remember. Hold on, I’ll look for a subbed video. Aha! Found it!
Ok, been a while since I last saw this so Imma watch the entire video before we start talking kay?
-.- TFW wifi is so bad you need to switch to 480p and wait for it to load
H: LOL. Mate, I need to switch it to 144p n wait for it to load
G: ugh. Tough yo.
U f f. Oppa looked so damn fine in this XD
H: hahaha IKR! The struggle is real
G: Haha, look at you and your hip lingo! :P
Ahem might've had to watch it twice cuz I forgot to read the subs first time around. Le-shin-set you know :P
H: Oh my God I get you! But seriously, as a music video I quite like how it plays out a storyline.
G: ok so I just realised this is the same girl as the Boy in Luv MV...you know the one they kept manhandling and then tried to woo with flowers
H: …there was a chick in Boy in Luv?... :/
G: LOL. Yea I wouldn't blame you for being overwhelmed by the abundance of pretty and the general swaginess, but yes...just the one. I remember cuz there was this scene where Jin literally slammed her against the lockers and then just grabbed her and dragged her along. I was pretty pissed at that point.
H: Huh. Interesting.
H: in terms of the music video, it’s pretty straightforward in terms of storyline. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy had his heart broken before. Boy is now scarred and has commitment issues.
G: So boy pushes girl away, both emotionally and physically, but for some reason girl stays. You know, when I first saw this MV it took me a while to catch on that the black and white bits are Leo’s flashbacks.
H: I didn’t have trouble with that bit, but it did take me a couple of views to realise that the chick in the flashbacks is different.
G: Wait, what? It’s not the same girl? :0
H: LOL, no. Her face is different. That’s how I came to the conclusion that this must be the girl who broke Leo’s heart in the past.
G: Ah, and essentially led to him becoming a psychopathic serial killer. Like at many points we see pills, meaning he was a bit unstable. Whether he was unstable from the start or whether he became unstable after the first girl left him is not really clear tho.
H: Not sure it matters really. Point is he isn’t the best boyfriend out there. Leo makes no physical contact with her and rejects her love and denies even loving her anymore because he can't deal with the idea of her leaving. To the point that the mere possibility of her leaving and breaking his heart becomes more like inevitability. But the status quo changes when he thinks she's actually left him.
G: Then he has that breakdown and destroys perfectly good upholstery. Without even bothering to check the bathroom smh. Chincha...it’s not that big of an apartment and it was literally 2 steps away. Who does that?
H: IKR! And she ends up popping out of some adjacent room. But instead of being a smart person here and running off screaming for the hills, this one decides to stay.
G: ‘this one’ obviously has no sense of self-preservation. Such a Bella. But still a better love story than twilight xD
Anyway, this is the moment Leo has to face the fact that he does indeed love her. But he also has to own up to his fear.
H: right. And I think his solution is to kill her.
G: Ah, and that’s why he was standing there making intense eye contact with the pills while she was hugging him.
H: In death she becomes perfect to him because she no longer has the power to leave him, and ergo hurt him. Like if he knows she is not going to leave then he has nothing to fear and nothing to lose. That’s why he was comfortable enough to look at his own reflection and initiate physical contact with a corpse. And here I thought Snow White was creepy *shudders*
But there was also this theme of the dress that kept coming up.
G: True. I think the dress represents perfection to Leo. Perfection to him means the ability to not hurt him. Like in the flashbacks we see him making a dress for his ex, and he refuses to let this new girl look at the old dress in the box. But at the same time, she only appears in the dress when she is dead. So building on your idea, she only fits Leo’s idea of perfection in death.
H: Oh, clever. So in the end her identity merged with the idea behind the dress so that to Leo it’s one and the same.
G: Yeah, so he killed her, and took the heart to add to his collection of creepy serial killer memorabilia. And embalmed her and put her in the dress. Wah. Oppa is the bae, but he be cray.
H: I don’t think he embalmed her body and put her in the dress. I think that’s a metaphorical representation of what she comes to mean to him. And the fact that she looks like a corpse symbolically represents that even though he got the peace of mind he wanted, in the end the relationship is dead anyway. Because, well…the girl is dead…don’t see that relationship going anywhere.
But I don’t think Leo killing her is all there is to the story. I think she let herself be killed.
G: huh, intriguing. I’m curious tho, what makes you think she allowed him to kill her? That she had the ability to make that choice? He's pushing her around so he's obviously able to overpower her physically, and we know it was his own pills that killed her.
H: well for one thing, her behaviour so far. She has stayed with him through all his violent outbursts and general weirdness where any sane person would have booked it ASAP. Essentially saying, I don’t think she’s quite right in the head either. But, I got that idea from the lyrics actually. Cuz the chick sings that she will stay bcuz she has so much to do for him. I think she knew this was coming and accepted it. Thereby allowing Leo to kill her.
G: ok, I feel you. That’s a pretty messed up MV.
H: Also I just noticed a detail that I think works with that. The creepy closet he puts the heart in that we thought had various body parts from his previous victims? They aren’t parts from his previous victims. They are mementos. Letters and feathers and a clock and knick knacks.
G: Oh my God do you know what this means?? Oppa’s not a serial killer! Killer sure, but at least not a serial killer. #NextLevelFangirl XD
H: wow…LOL
G: Wait, I see it now. 1080p ftw! They’re mementos of their time together. Her pictures are there and everything.
H: so the cupboard is his mind basically. It represents the things he holds dear.
G: wow, the rest of us can barely keep a scrapbook and here is this guy blowing competition out of the water. Wait, so is the heart a symbol too?
H: Yeah, not sure about that one. There’s like a good five minutes of him making out with the jar. XD
G: Wut?... But it can still be right? Like the heart can still represent the girl’s love and feelings for Leo.
H: I don’t see why not. Makes sense too. Her body was pretty clean so it’s possible he didn’t actually cut out her heart. But then creepy guy just killed his girlfriend so not much hope there.
G: #whodoyouthinkyouare, #collectingyourjarofhearts XD. Ahem, I apologies for that somewhat irrelevant song reference.
What’s interesting really is that the lyrics themselves seem pretty straightforward. Well not straightforward but less layered than the MV anyway. I know it’s a duet but the Korean language doesn't actually use gender pronouns.
H: oh really? I didn’t even think of that. I always just approached the song as a duet. Hang on, I need to see the lyrics without the voices
G: #FactoftheDay
It could very well be possible that the whole song is the thought process of one person. Like what if Leo’s extra cray and ends up talking for her as well. As in makes up her side of the conversation.
H: Oh my God! What have you done!? :o Puts the whole song in another light.
G: Right?!
H: Like it works if it's an argument with yourself. Kinda. But they do use ‘you’ and ‘me’ pronouns. Which is why that interpretation is a bit sketchy. But it is still a cool approach to it
G: hmm true. I noticed in the English translation there are times where it goes ‘HE loves me HE loves me not’
H: And that too.
G: But I know that’s not accurate and in the song both Leo and Lyn sing that line
H: Plot twist: Leo is not real. Lyn is the crazy one and she used the idea of Leo to validate her suicide.
G: :0
D u d e
Wait…
How dare she blame my poor sweet oppa like this?? :''''' #NotCoolBruh
H: LOL. Oppa not real. This oppa is in her head. But I do think it’s really cool that the MV can be interpreted from the POV of either one, depending on if you are following the lyrics or the MV itself.
G: hmm...always did say he was too good to be true :""
But I like where you're going with this
H: Ok. So from Leo’s perspective the mv helps out a lot. We can get his backstory. Hence our conclusion that he kills her or rather she allows him to kill her.
G: yeah, so that’s the traditional interpretation. But let's try from Lyn’s perspective. Reading the lyrics it kinda feels like she might on the outside looking in on her own situation.
H: ok, go on. How so?
G: like going with the idea that despite it being a duet it’s all just her
“The goodbye trickles down your cheeks like blood Your lips asking why is so sad No, don’t come, don’t make that face Just pass me by
The countless words of love that we’re whispered Our promises that are breaking instantly No, this is a dream, your eyes are telling me Just hug me again
I loved you, I cared for you, that’s it I loved you but now I hate you, that’s the one reason
You think I don’t know you? You’re lying right now You still love me, you’re still the same”
Like she knows how this is going to end up but she can’t really stop it. She knows she's depressed and emotionally unbalanced that she might do something like that.
H: Exactly! That’s the idea I got too!
G: #twinning, #UltimateEdition
So the song is her processing her own emotions? Like she knows how she feels and what she'll do but she feels helpless to stop it
H: I think so. It's almost like she desperately wants affection but doesn't really believe she will get it anywhere. Like when life feels so utterly meaningless it's empowering to feel needed. And so we get the idea of Leo, who is essentially the personification of her own unbalanced emotions and nature
G: ah, so she's created someone who needs her so desperately. Like is that her idea of what she will be to him? Like “he loves me so much that he'll need me even after I'm gone”??
She even went through the trouble of creating this tragic (not really but kinda sorta) backstory for him.
H: curious, how would the dress thing fit in with this theory?
G: I think the dress is the same idea of perfection as it was for Leo. Like if for Leo the dress is the perfect version of the girl then it's the same for her. It’s a symbol of the girl she wants to be. Perfect and wanted and loved
H: So essentially. Whether it's from Leos view or the girl’s, the whole MV is about emotional insecurity and mental instability? And the idea that we feel unworthy of love and are drowning in the sorrows of our own sense of meaninglessness that we tend to latch onto anything that gives us the slightest bit of purpose?
Thanks to their immense popularity in Taiwan and China, VIXX release the Chinese version of their latest hit song Chained Up, check out the full MV with sub below:
November is turning out to be chock-full of great Kpop releases! Join Tim and Zander for a mid-November recap, featuring B.A.P, Jay Park, and iKon on the guys' side, and girl groups EXID, D.Holic, and Purfles. Elite groups, returns to form, and even a Kpop gambling website mooted on this week's episode! Check it out!
You can subscribe to the Critical Kpop Podcast on iTunes, or check this and future episodes out at www.mixcloud.com/CriticalKpop. You can expect a healthy serving of news, reviews, and critical analysis in every episode. The Critical Kpop Podcast is the only podcast that invites you to LISTEN HARDER.
Over the past three years, VIXX has been rising fast as one of Kpop’s most impressive and most polished boy groups, and has carved out quite a name for themselves with their intense concept-based brand of music videos. Their most recent MV for the single "Chained Up," off their second full-length album (also titled Chained Up) is still easily recognizable as a VIXX MV, but enough of a step away for all those who were beginning to tire of the goth concept.
As a track, "Chained Up" is musically fairly different from VIXX’s other recent offerings. It doesn’t have the almost chromatic melody of tracks like "Hyde" or "VOODOO," but it also doesn’t have the bubbly, cutesy tones of "G.R.8.U" or "Love Equation." "Chained Up" has a definite groove, though, with a nice amount of EDM going on, and to me seems closer to a track like "B.O.D.Y" off the group’s first full-length album VOODOO. On a personal level, I really enjoy "Chained Up" – because, honestly, I loved the gothic concepts to begin with, but I never managed to become a big fan of "Error" or "Eternity" I wanted something that was a bit smoother to come my way. "Chained Up" is my jam, unashamedly – on my way to university this morning, I listened to it five times in a row.
As for the actual music video, "Chained Up" is a step away from the usual VIXX fare in some respects. There’s still the incredibly well-fitted suits, the heavy eye make-up and general lack of lighting. However, there doesn’t seem to be a cohesive story that a video like "HYDE" had. In "HYDE," the VIXX members were clearly struggling with their inner demons and trying to hold onto some semblance of their usual outward demeanors. In "Chained Up," there is clearly a very loose overarching plot of the members being imprisoned in some way – either surrounded by literal chains like Leo, trapped in a box like Ken, or in an incredibly shallow pit of water like Hongbin. There are definite points for trying with the symbolism there, but in terms of being "Chained Up," none of the VIXX members would have any trouble freeing themselves from their prisons (save for Ken, who doesn’t seem to have any way out of his extremely pretty flower cage). Ravi, for example, is just hidden behind some hospital curtains…and I’m pretty sure he could just burst through those at any time like he does towards the end of the MV. But that doesn’t even cover youngest member Hyuk, who just kind of looks at a set of stairs for a while and then sits down on them briefly.
However, the fact that the VIXX members could easily move from their prisons and choose not to is reflected in the lyrics. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the lyrics, while not explicitly sexual, have a definite sexual tone. The members of VIXX sing about how an unnamed person is their "love" and "controller," and how they’re "like a beast completely trained by [you]." So there’s a definite dominance/submission tone throughout the song. VIXX being stuck in situations which they, to an extent, don’t want to leave then starts to make more sense.
Either way, the symbolism of VIXX standing around and staring broodily off into space is lacking – but honestly, lack of symbolism doesn’t bother me one bit. I don’t think this MV has any great philosophical meaning, but I do think it works in an evocative manner. The MV is pretty, VIXX look great, and I thoroughly enjoy the song. I love the choreography, and I’m absolutely LIVING for those suits. I think attempting to argue that VIXX’s "Chained Up" doesn’t have any kind of plot or meaning is false - but music videos don’t always need to be Spielberg-worthy productions. Sometimes a jam is just a jam, and a video is just accompanying imagery to make the experience more enjoyable. That’s what I personally get out of "Chained Up," and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Plus, just look at those shoulder wiggles.
Helen Edworthy is an English Sociology undergraduate who got lost in the world of K-Pop five years ago. She tweets at @captain_helen and her biases are UKISS and NS YoonG.
Hafsa Tameez is a Pakistani-born, nowhere-based interior designer/ professional procrastinator/ self-entertainer. Stumbling onto Kpop as a socially-awkward shy recluse, she was immediately hooked. After making the irrevocable mistake of taking a philosophy course in college, she now loves analyzing the world of Kpop with Gayathri. While she adores far too many Kpop groups, her favorites have always been SHINee, Vixx, Exo, Mamamoo and Spica (though BTS is swiftly reeling her in).
Gayathri Ravindran is an Indian-born, Dubai-based Multimedia Design student currently 4 months away from graduation. She discovered Kpop through the irresistible charms of the one who calls himself Nichkhun, after seeing him on Running Man one too many times. Last year something possessed her to take a philosophy class, then two more and now she spends her free time analyzing Kpop culture with Hafsa. Currently following way more groups than she has time for including 2PM, SHINee, Vixx, BTS and Exo. Not a big fan of girl groups, although she is very excited about Mamamoo and The Ark.
This is what happens when k-pop takes over your life and you decide to take a philosophy class...
Hafsa: OK I know we’re almost a year late to the party but can we talk about VIXX’s Error? Like great music video and all, but what just happened? I tried looking it up, but in an interview all Hongbin said was that it was a simple love song. :/
Gayathri: LOL! Yeah. It certainly isn’t just a plain old love song. Honestly, the producers and everyone behind the concepts don’t get enough credit sometimes.
H: Ok. So when you first saw the MV, what did you think it was about? What were your first thoughts?
G: “OMG oppaaaa !! :o Waaah it’s such a coolio song!” xD But then I started to pay attention to the video. I was mostly focused on the girl and her story to be honest. I get what you mean though. I know Hongbin’s character turned into a cyborg (I mean he took off his shirt and everything, which yass thank you Director-nim), but is she a cyborg or full robot? At first I was convinced that the song was about ethics in the context of AI and all that jazz.
H: I know Hongbin is a cyborg and she is a robot. I don’t get why she was “illegal,” but it made me think that the song and video are about identity.
G: I guess it is possible. Hang on, let me see if I can find a video with the English translation of the lyrics and then we can dissect it.
H: I’m just noticing Hongbin standing there staring at Ken…
G: Plot twist: he loves Ken and the girl was just a trial run for his diabolical master plan all along.
H: XD what even?! Anyway, the lyrics talk about the fact that he just wants to be alive, and to live; but he can’t because he erased his ability to feel emotion. What does emotion have to do with the state of being alive?
G: So is he bringing her back because he wants to be able to feel again or because he loves her? But if he can’t feel then how does he know he even loves her anymore?
H: If you listen to the whole song. I don’t think he was successful. So his love for her was never the question.
G: ahh right. Yeah I see that.
H: So basically, he is reducing his existence to mere breathing and eating with the sole purpose of enduring :/
I hate it when Ravi starts rapping. He starts making all these philosophical points and I’m just here like o.O And that’s when you get past that ‘hat’ and the epic “BURN” at the end XD
G: Hear hear. I find that they are making very conflicting points in the lyrics. First he (i.e Hongbin and Co.) tell us that he is erasing his ability to feel emotion, growing numb essentially, because emotion hurts him and he doesn’t want to feel that. But then it’s the memories that don’t stop, these very memories that he says he has “no confidence of winning over that”. I’m supposing this is the memory of her dying and leaving him.
H: So I’m picking up on 2 key points in the song lyrics: emotion and memory
G: Right so basically he made himself a cyborg to get over her but he can’t so he decides to embrace it and bring 'her' back as a way to let himself feel the memories again?
H: No. I think the memory of her dying, and the realization that he is alone and grieving is the reason he takes away his own ability to feel emotion. Basically, turns self to a cyborg. Have to say, not exactly a great plan for a guy who can build a robot that eerily resembles his ex-lover to a t. Ah wait I get it. It’s a cycle! He takes away his emotions to escape the pain from the memories, but the memories won’t let him forget, so he keeps making himself less human by killing his own emotions. Epiphany yo!
G: See what bugs me though is the whole recreating her thing. Like did he always plan to do that? Since before he made himself a cyborg? Or is he doing that because all he has are memories of her so he's doing it just to figure out what these memories mean?
H: I don’t think so. I think he recreates her once he comes to the realization of his own vicious cycle. The lyrics say that he decides to rip out the memories since his memories are the cause of his suffering.
G: Right. I mean he looked completely unemotional when he is making the robot that looks like her. Guess that makes sense since by that point that he has "ruined himself" by taking away his ability to truly be "alive".
H: Right. Since they established that being truly alive is tied to ability to feel emotional experiences. I think here is where I understand what he is doing; he decides to rip out the memories that torment him. Which means, he recreates her, but erases all memories of her ever being dead. So she is made with partial sense of self, considering half her memories are not there. It seems that she doesn’t know that she dead and the dude chooses not to remember that little detail.
G: And that’s why it’s an error or illegal or whatever. She’s not even real.
H: Wah. "Deeper than dreams inside dreams." Yes please go all inception on us. Because we need this to be more confusing than it is -_-
G: LOL! So what he really wants is to forget that she's dead. But he cannot. So the next best thing is to make a robot version of her that doesn’t know she's dead so he has an excuse to pretend?
H: hahahaha. That is some next level role-playing man XD But essentially, that’s it. Sadly for him, it doesn’t work.
G: :’’ so tragic
H: Because if him trying to forget and not feel pain makes him less alive and less human, then not giving her all her memories makes her not human at all. I was looking at the memories he gave her, and he only gave her the memories of their love and relationship together.
G: Right! That was my problem with her from the start. So it’s not the same girl at all. Finally, makes sense. Also think I understand why “love is a lie to one person in the end” now. What I’m getting is that the way they define love is being able to love and be loved in return.
H: I got that too. And Hongbin had that until she went and died. Now he is left alone. So he brings back the part of her he is incomplete without: the love she has for him. But that’s where he made the error: if she has no complete memory, then she cannot know why she even loves him to begin with. What made her love him? What is their relationship to her?
G: So, identity. In summary, in that context, the sense of being alive is not the fact that you eat or breathe, but rather that you can feel emotion. And your memories help in that department. You feel love and all, but you also experience pain. Your memories of who you are and where you have been are what make you, you. Basically, your memories of your life and experiences allow you to experience and share the emotions unique to you.
H: So was it real for Hongbin when he dies in the end? For him it was about being able to love and be loved in return. He recreated her with the ability to love him. But by that definition of humanity and life, I guess it wasn’t a real love in the end was it? He seemed pretty happy to die with that though.
G: Well, I mean it could have been to him because he didn’t actually consciously have that realization did he? Those Men in Black came and tried to take her away. She's not real anyway so they couldn’t have really hurt her. But the fact that he chose to run away with her and commit cyborg suicide instead of letting her go tells me it was real enough for him.
H: I don’t think it was about hurting her. I believe he knew that it would have hurt him to lose her again. He was still in love with the idea of her till the end. Maybe that’s what he meant when it says that he has ruined himself. That he can’t really tell the difference. Do you think he knows on some level that it’s not real? Was that why he was willing to die?
G: As in he wanted so badly to convince himself it was real that when something happened to threaten that belief he couldn’t deal and decided this was the best way to retain that idea? That makes a lot of sense. Basically, I think we’re saying memory constitutes a person’s identity. Is that what Error is about? Dude, mind-blown!
H: It’s a very Humean philosophical approach to self-awareness, this idea that a chronological sequence of connected memories allows us to formulate this construct of identity.
G: #HumeFTW! And here Hongbin thinks it’s a simple love song! XD
