Back at the start of February, the boy group CROSS GENE had made their return and certainly didn’t pull any punches with their gorefest MV for ‘Black or White’. It’s rated 19+, and for those who aren’t comfortable with watching explicit deaths or anything remotely horror related, this is just a pre-warning before we get started with the in-depth review for this music video!
A brief overview of the music video is that the immediate premise is the constant battle between the ‘Black’ and ‘White’ sides, or also it could be perceived as the conflict between the ‘Evil’ and ‘Good’ identities within one person which was vaguely discussed during their appearance on After School Club. It’s definitely an interesting topic, our human tendencies and freedom of choice allows us to make the decision of how we wish to act in society.
From the first 30 seconds of the MV, most of the members look disorientated in some form or another. As if they had no memories of what had happened to them before they returned back to reality. Yongseok can be seen above trying to run away and hide from something, or rather in this case someone. There’s several examples of symbolism of death that seem to follow them, which was simply foreshadowing of what was to come later on.
With the blood on Shin’s hands as shown in the pictures above, it could be a possible hint that he’s killed in the past, and no matter how many times he tries to wipe the slate clean, his sins will forever be etched into his skin. This concept does contain similarities to the ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ , which explored the idea of a person having dual personalities and the struggle of power between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sides.
With Seyoung, there’s a recurring sign of paranoia with his frantic movements, as if afraid someone will suddenly attack him. Which could possibly link towards mental health, maybe schizophrenia in this case. It suggests that everything that’s happening is all in their heads, there’s the tangible fear over allowing the darkness to consume them. It’s clear that they’re aware of the evil that’s inside them and the inner turmoil that they face. In various scenes, the ‘White’ part of the members is seen to be helpless to the onslaught of violent attacks, they doesn’t fight back as if it’s not in their nature to kill. Which, of course, gives leeway for the ‘Black’ clone to finish off the killings without interference.
It’s not clear-cut what really happened at the end, it seems to be open for different interpretations. But one possible explanation is that once the darkness slips back, they all return back to full consciousness, finding themselves coated in blood with no logical reason like at the start of the MV. This may suggest that once the ‘evil’ side has fulfilled their urges to kill, they are left in the aftermath of having to cope with what ‘they’ have done. Or, alternatively, they’ve were ‘miraculously’ brought back to life, after given a second chance to redeem themselves, only for it to turn into a vicious cycle over whether ‘good’ or ‘evil’ will prevail.
What were your thoughts on the MV? Was there anything you thought of that wasn’t discussed? Let us know in the comments!
