Boyfriend has made their first Korean comeback in two years with their new album “Never End” and the title track “Star” has a delicate music video along with it.
The music video starts off most notably with the sound of screeching brakes and a crash, alluding to a car accident, and Minwoo (who is the main actor throughout the entire music video) being thrown into the air along with a bundle of blossom petals after is seems like he’s searching for his lost love. This scene plays in slow motion throughout the rest of the music video.
While the lyrics make it seem that this song is about the pain and struggle of not being able to let go of a passionate love after splitting ways, a lot of the scenery suggests that they’re delivering the feeling of loss through soft death imagery. Each scene that isn’t shot in the car repair shop parking lot is very scenically ethereal.
The members look angelic in light colored clothing, singing among the stars or standing in front of a swirling galaxy of bright white and light blues with a hollow door frame (possibly symbolic of “Heaven’s Door”), as well as sitting or standing atop different levels of white pillars, looking gentle and sorrowful. All of the scenery is reminiscent of the members being in some type of after life.
There are also a couple points when we see water droplets falling which I felt obviously represented tear drops, and there’s an interesting shot of a light-bulb bursting that also felt symbolic of something not only breaking, but being extinguished, like life.
One part that is very different from the rest of the video is during the rap break, when Kwangmin is sitting in a chair (still with the black space-like background) surrounded by TVs as he drops the lyrics about no matter what kind of actresses come on TV or beautiful women surround him, his lost love is the only one in his heart. But even this slightly out of place scene still keeps the feeling of being apart from the living world.
The girl in the music video only appears near the end, and she’s first seen for just a second, reflecting the lyrics about searching for your lost love even when they’re not there. She then appears in front of a vibrant cherry blossom tree, facing the camera, and what seems like only in Minwoo’s memories as he’s falling through the air. Everything is then reversed and Minwoo is face to face with her in front of the gas station and watches her disappear with tears streaking down his face.
When it’s broken down, the music video sounds a lot more cohesive than the first few times I watched it. I had never watched or listened to anything by Boyfriend before, and what stood out most to me, was while the cinematography was slightly bland, their dancing was phenomenal.
Their movements look as if they’ve all been at least somewhat classically trained in dance. They’re ridiculously light on their feet and their precision is on point. When the story of the music video wasn’t apparent to me right away, the way their choreography reflected the lyrics and the emotions was definitely clear cut. They reach towards the sky when they say they’re still longing and looking for their love. They have a delicate fluttering hand motion and the timed taps on their chests along with their nearly floating footwork got across every feeling of loss, of grasping, of desperation, and of searching.
So while the video didn’t immediately strike me as poignant, Boyfriend’s choreography was well directed, well executed, and emotionally driven. I’m glad I took a moment to check them out, and I hope you will be as well!
You can watch their music video for Star here:
What did you think of Star and Never End? Let us know in the comments below or on our UKP Facebook or Twitter!
