Hong Kong megastar Jackie Chan recently celebrated his 60th birthday and we’re going to take a look at his new Kpop group JJCC. Here is a quick review on their debut track.
Pronounced “Double JC”, this new male group consist of four Koreans (SimBa, E.Co, Eddy and San Cheong) and one Australian Chinese member Prince Mak (real name Henry Mak). They released their debut single “At First” on 1st March 2014.
“At First” talks about the first, deeply cutting effects of a relationship ending. The lyrics emphasise how the world crashes down on you and how you become heartless, without any light that you don’t want to live any more but you’ll learn to forget the pain over time.
The song’s style is very smooth but does not overkill on angst-ridden ballad territory. The heartache is explained through suave rapping and strong vocals. I will confess that I did not expect the rapping parts to sound so deep, namely from Simba. It took me by surprise, as did the the song’s slow rhythm. Looks can be deceiving. I did not know what to expect as soon as the song’s opening lyrics “Cheomen da geurae” kicked in. So much for my original assumption on a happy-go-lucky fast dance song. This was the opposite.
The MV’s setting seems to be situated in an unused warehouse with dim-lights and sometimes smoky scenery. When each member sings their part of the song they also demonstrate their special supernatural powers as well. There’s graffiti, fire and cracking walls for example. There is no major storyline included but instead more focus on the members’ choreography and singing.
One particular part that was intriguing was when there was a close up on someone’s eyes and you see what appears to be the back of a female’s head turning away and interestingly, halfway through the song the flames around E.Co expand in size and change colour from blue to yellow.
The MV can be seen below. You may notice that only four members are featured and this is because Prince Mak had injured himself, thus was not able to take part in the MV filming at that time. However he managed to join in the promotions with the rest of the group after recovering.
Overall thoughts
If JJCC were to visit the UK to promote their music, they may have some luck because of Jackie Chan's reputation. But can these guys manage to make a name of themselves independently without being known as "Jackie's Kpop boy band"? There is a possibility. "At First" is a smooth r'n'b track that doesn't have the eccentric Kpop cuteness or in your face hip-hop so new listeners might be able to soak the debut song in quite readily. Also, Eddy and Prince Mak speak English so the language barrier will hopefully not be the biggest obstacle for these guys.
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UK potential
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Choreography
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Vocal performance
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MV storyline
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MV style
