*Different format this time, I’m gonna try a few to see what I like. Comment if you see one that you like over the others.*

Can you save, can you save me?

Seriously. Can you? I’m kind of drowning here. The feels undertow is very strong today.

Infinite has done it again. The song is good, if another of the slightly off season releases that have been so frequent this summer. It’s a darker concept with a tougher image for Infinite than we have typically seen. (Though they did get kind of beat up…Let’s be honest here, they kind of lost the first round. Hard.) The boys pull it off with their usual aplomb and all in all it was a very infinite comeback. So let’s dive right on in. MV…cue!

 

Done watching? Good.

1. The MV:

 

Let us begin with the MV itself. Feels like a solid place to start, don’t you think? First, a plot overview…So, there is a young girl (who looks way too young for any of them. Yes, I know Sunggyu is supposed to be her brother but L? not so much) who has been taken by some thugs. No clues as to why. I’m guessing it has something to do with the Infigang. Rivals? Maybe. Don’t know. Now, here enters Infigang with their black and white matchy outfits and what appears to be their gang symbol emblazoned all over them. They look a little pristine for the gang theory to work but hey, it’s an MV.

 

Infigang busts in and begins kicking and taking names. This ends quickly when they realize that the only one smart enough to grab a weapon (see thugs and their variety of wood and at least one bat) is the Maknae with his umbrella (which he does use to take out a thug. Oh, hey Dongwoo brought a skateboard. So props to you two for coming, sort of, prepared.). Suddenly, things are going less well.  Bad guys break out the thug tactics and down goes woohyun or sungyeol (I really couldn’t catch it) with blunt force trauma to the leg. He tries to fight, doesn’t go so well.

 

We have our oddly unperturbed kidnap-ee still tied to a pipe watching as this all goes down. Sungjong is tossed bodily into a pile of tires and other assorted thug warehouse accoutrements. Meanwhile we have either woohyun or sungyeol, which ever it wasn’t the first time, (Okay, so I still get them mixed up in MVs. I’m all right when they are not bloody and being slammed into things) getting slammed around in an alley/weird room thing by two thugs. Everybody is bruised now. Sunggyu “The Hamster” Kim (yes, I did give him a gang leader name. It felt right.) punches out a little red riding hoodie with some swagger and a slight, y, hair flip and moves to go to the girl and her captors. She has been released and is being dragged away (oh, now she looks freaked). And…little red is back in game, taking out our leader with a stick to the spine. Ouch. Leader falls, slowmo, to the floor as the girl is being dragged away. He appears sad. Also, in pain.

 

Now, a flash back. The girl in question has apparently been going through an older sister’s closet and jewelry box. Sunggyu laughs at her and ruffles her hair. She pouts and goes to cuddle with L on a couch. Strangely this appears to occur in the same or a similar warehouse to where our real-time is going down. Only with warmer lighting, a sofa, and some bricks. There is some more hair ruffling (I think this is where we are supposed to realize that Leader is her oppa and she really want L to be her oppa)and then we are back.

 

L runs after her and takes on too-young-for-you’s four bodyguards and gets the living daylights smacked right out him in a variety of ways. (Question. Did they hire real thugs by any chance? These guys are mean, terrifying, and just a touch too good at their job.) Dongwoo and Hoya both go down in the intermittent time during the Myungsoo beat down. More side rooms. More sticks. We regroup in the outside place and maknae  and Dongwoo serve as convenient crutches for L and Hoya. Dramatic stare down. Charge! And Myungsoo is on the ground again because Sungjong forgot about crutch duty and well, dumped him there to take a flying leap at the (still weaponized) remaining four thugs. Where the others have gone is a mystery because there were more and infigang definitely lost to them. Freeze shot with everyone in the air (excepting Myungsoo) and fade out. We know nothing of how this ends. I’m gonna put my money on the four weapon carrying, not beat to bits, thugs rather than the six, can barely stand pretty boys. Myungsoo counts for nothing here. And this has been your plot line break down.

 

Now, time for a look at MV disregarding that plot exists at all. The muted palate with touches of red really works for the video. The set/location is really very dynamic for the concept and the acting was good, really, sort of excessively, good on the thugs’ part and decent on infinite’s side. Sadly, despite their honest try, they did not really sell the whole being people that these thugs would feel threatened enough by to steal their leader’s sister, but I’ve seen worse. I did find the random solo shots a bit odd in terms of video flow but I get that we really want to see their faces on occasion so I’ll let it slide.

 

They were very Infinite with the random dance cuts in the middle of an otherwise drama video but I love to watch them dance so I’ll let that go as well. Lord knows I’ve done it before with them and other groups. Now, onto further sections…

 

2. The Song:

 

Infinite loses an odd amount of girls considering how good looking they all are. Then again, this is true of most idol groups. Seriously, who the heck keeps leaving you people? Have they had a psych eval lately? Asking the real questions here people. Regardless of the commonality of a please come back song, the boys never disappoint. The inherently eighties sound that is magically present in every single song they sing is awesome, as usual. And the lyrics are quite lovely given that it is not a happy song. Their voices sound excellent and each sings parts that suit their vocals rather than the depressingly often found “give everyone even lines whether they sound right or not.” (I said it. Sometimes subvocalists are there to add detail and interest to the song. Their vocal colour tends to be different than that that of main and lead singers which gives them more impact in smaller doses.)

 

As I mentioned previously, this is not a summer song. This is a running trend this summer. Skipping summer and moving straight to fall. Not that it really makes a difference but until now, kpop has tended to run on a seasonal scale. We get more ballads and R&B in the fall and spring. Darker electronic sounds, edgier choices, and richer vocals come in Fall/winter. Poppy music, bright colours, and big grins come in the Summer and Spring. Breakups, fall/winter. Meeting cute people, spring/summer. It’s the beginnings/endings thing. It makes sense. I’m not complaining about it. Just making an observation. A strange amount of sad songs have come out since the beginning of spring. Good for me, who has depressing taste in music most of the time, but odd.

 

3. The Styling:

 

I’m always torn with Infinite. Always. Before I explain what I mean about that, a couple of side notes. Thug stylist, A+ (Hoodies aside). Special effects makeup, A. Moving on to the boys, They look best in the black clothes from the dancing scene. The blue dance clothes, no. I don’t really understand why they were even a thing. The whole video is black, white and red/orange colors. Suddenly, dusty blue? Did not fit.

 

Now, the reason why I say I am torn is that they look good in everything, but not right. Some of them look better than others in the concept for the video. Dongwoo, good. Sunggyu, surprisingly good. Sungjong, also weirdly suits this style. Hoya, meh. Same with the others. I think that might be in part due to the odd choices of clothes (shirts, specifically). No one goes to a gang fight with a sasuke-neck sweater or an asymmetrical collar thing that flaps in your face whenever you throw a punch. It’s just not done. Also, boys, that is a lot of jewelry for a fight. Unless that necklace doubles as brass knuckles, wear it another day. The t-birds-esque jackets were odd enough, thank you. As far as I can tell it is not, in fact, normal for gangs to wear the same thing. A symbol, patch, tattoo, bandana… sure, that works; but the hoodies vs. the I-birds? Really, was that necessary?

 

Other than finding the choices odd given the plot -in which case, so are the participants so I can’t really judge. They look good in everything aside from the oddly indigo mummy wrappings. Should they keep the concept? I like them best in suits and classy clothes. I did love their hair though, they can keep that. I actually like the carvings in Sunggyu and Sungjong’s hair styles and the Dongwoo ponytail was cute. The other stuck pretty close to their normal styles.

 

4. The Choreo:

 

Awesome, as usual. I haven’t seen the entire thing but the clips in the MV look great. It suits the song well and fits their style to a T. Infinite are amazing dancers and I personally prefer watching them dance over watching them in plotty MVs. (their plots tend to have holes. Large ones. More like crevices, or canyons actually. Also, none of them ever really end. Just sort of fade out leaving more questions than answers.)

 

5. The Verdict:

 

Do I like it? Yes! I love it. I have never disliked an Infinite video. The song is great, the video is really interesting, and it is fun to see them try something new.

 

Does it make any sense? No. then again, I have never understood an Infinite video. Never.

 

They did a good job with a concept that is foreign to them. They aren’t the fighty MV type. Even the song could have easily been a million other concepts. In fact, I don’t necessarily think it fit this MV. It sort of reminded of  MyName’s Baby, I’m sorry. But that was so heavily plot reliant that the song was just background noise anyways and you were really just watching a really sad film. This was obviously an MV with heavy focus on the song which didn’t really fit the video. I got the “can you save me?” aspect, but this could have gone a few other ways.

 

How do you feel about it? Comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.