The other day, my friend Adrianne showed me this beautiful MV called 'Pray' by Sunny Hill. It came out a year ago, but has not even reached 1 million views on Youtube despite it's amazing quality.

Before you click the hyperlink, let me just warn you: beware of emotional turmoil that may or may not lead to tears!

REVIEW:

Personally, I love this music video so much I just felt like everyone who will listen to me has to watch it! Unfortunately the MV was banned from KBS and MBC due to it's "Unappealing Graphics", so the only way to watch it is on the internet now.

The amount of symbolism and hidden messages in this video will take more than 24 hours to write about in detail, so I will summarize some important points in my review. (Note: you should watch the video first, before reading this so that you will have a better understanding.)

The Cross and the Lock: Usually people think of Christianity when they see the Cross - but in this music video, the emphasis on this symbol seems to be more than just religion. In the story, our main character is a new species/monster who has never seen the world before, and would presumably not know about God. Combined with the fact that the cross frequently appears alongside the lock, my personal take on this message is the contrasting symbols of the lock (representing Imprisonment and Safety) and the cross (representing Freedom yet eventual Sacrifice). Monster-ssi dies at the end of the video, further making me wonder whether the cross was a foreshadowing of his death in trying to obtain freedom.

Between Darkness and Light: Similar to the message of the lock and cross, Monster-ssi in the story is innocent and has no experience whatsoever with the world he is put in. At first he does not seem to realize that he is being mistreated, until he begins to see that there is a world which is much better than the one he is put in. This reflects every human's neverending demand, and the feelings of resentment when that demand is not met. Because Monster-ssi is like a newborn child with no understanding of the world, his understanding of the difference in the way he is treated as compared to the other humans only scares him - he did not realize he is different.

Mirror and Appearance: Monster-ssi looks genuinely shocked when he looks at himself (presumably for the first time) in the mirror. Prior to this, he thought of himself as no different from his beautiful lady 'friend' and the scientist; the only two people he has ever laid eyes upon. However, once he sees that he is actually hideous and distorted, he becomes scared of this realization of being different, and he sinks into a sort of depression in knowing that he is weird and abnormal. This message is possibly one of the most prominent ones in the video, and ironically with the banning of the MV on KBS and MBC, it acts as a slap in the face for Korean society and it's shallow concepts.

The title "Pray" is likely to have been reflecting Monster-ssi and his resentment towards himself, as he wishes that he was not a monster. But the sad truth is that praying does not necessarily work, and most of the time the truth cannot be ignored no matter how unwilling you are to admit to it. The lady in the MV also seems to portray a type of holy being for Monster-ssi, as demonstrated by her power to free him from his previous prison leading to a freedom of sorts, and then her control over his life and death as she kills him at the end.

There are seriously too many awesome things in this MV that I just can't talk about everything - so please go watch the MV and decide on your own story/message which you would like to take away from this!