BTS (방탄소년단) 'Wings' Short Films: an analysis (part 1)
hello, everyone.
i'm not very good with beginnings so i'm just gonna go straight to the point: on this post and a few upcoming ones, i'll be talking about my analysis of the wings short films by south korean pop group, BTS. some would call this a theory, but i refrain from doing so. i don't think it's well based enough to be called a theory, and it is simply my point of view when it comes to these films. i admit that i've been a BTS fan for a relatively short amount of time, and i'm still not 100% familiar with everything that has been said about these films in particular, which is why i want to tell everyone (if anyone will read this at all) to please don't take what i'll say here as gospel. this is a simple analysis made by a fan who has been thinking about what all of this means ever since she first saw it a few weeks ago.
that being said, i also want to inform you that i will be isolating the short films from the other videos. my analysis will consist solely of the wings short films released by BigHit Entertainment about a year ago.
i'd also like to make it known that english is not my first language, and i really apologise for any and all mistakes that i might make throughout the analysis.
anyways, let's begin.
first off, i just wanna say that these films are very much, in my perception, impressionistic. meaning that they use more of distinct images and sounds to create a narrative wether than dialogue or even music itself. in impressionist pieces of art, personal points of view are very important given that different people often have different analysis towards the same given piece, since everyone has their own backstory and their own way of seeing the world. that being said, the films also follow a train of thought that, though not exactly clear or obvious, one can start to grasp if very close atention is being paid.
going further, i will conduct my analysis not by the order in which the videos were released, but by the order i think will make my point of view clearer and easier to understand, to me and everyone else reading this. therefore, i will be conducting this analysis in various parts, and these parts will go as it follows: #1 first love (& begin, on the second post) #3 stigma (& reflection, on the fourth) #5 lie (& mama, on the sixth) and, finally, #7 awake.
(obviously all the films are connected and tell a bigger story, but since the ones i paired seem to have a direct action/reaction thing going on, i want to highlight that. how the story connects itself as one will grow clearer and clear as the analysis go on, since it seems impossible for me not to mention the other videos, even if they are not part of the pairings.)
#1: FIRST LOVE (& BEGIN)
"there are numerous ways in which God can makes us lonely, and lead us back to ourselves. this is the way He dealt with me at that time."
the video begins with namjoon's narration, a quote from hermann hesses' "demian", a book that inspired the short films series in the first place. after the narration, we see yoongi walking alone on a street -- there are numerous ways in which God can makes us lonely --. the ground is still wet and there are sounds of water drops all around, which leads us to believe that it has just stopped raining. he encounters what it seems to be a music shop which has, amongst other things, a brown piano inside. we don't see anything else around it, as if the music shop with the brown piano inside is the only thing that exists in this universe, besides yoongi himself and the road.
i personally don't believe that what we are seeing is exactly what happened in these events. i mean... that's pretty obvious given the impressionist nature of the videos but what i'm trying to say is that they seem, to me, to be memories. humans don't usually remember every single detail about things. for example, if you try to remember what you had for lunch on wednesday 2 weeks ago, odds are that you will not by the life of you be able remember. but let's say, however, that you have a scar on your knee that you gained over 15 years ago. 15 years are obviously longer than 2 weeks, but odds are that you'll be able to remember how you gained your scar all those years ago. this happens because our minds only remembers things that are 'important'. it only remembers things that marked us somehow, in sad, happy, painful, angry, traumatic ways, etc. which leads me to believe that the music shop, yoongi, and the road were the only three things that mattered to the person whose this memory belongs to.
[side note: are these really memories? or are they visions? or maybe even something else? hhhhmmmm. we'll get back to that.]
when yoongi spots the brown piano inside, the reaction on him is instantaneous. he breaks the shop's glass door and, not caring about the security alarms going off, goes straight to the piano as if he's magnetically attracted to it. he then plays a tune that will, in the near future, be crucial to his story. and this is where i noticed that there is no singing nor rapping in his video. the only music we hear is from the tune yoongi plays in the piano. quickly stopping after playing the tune, yoongi drops his head and it seems as if he's deep in thought, or perhaps, waiting for something.
off in the distance, we hear someone whistling the tune yoongi had just finished playing, and this is where i will say something that i haven't seen anyone else say: i personally feel like yoongi had previously heard the whistle before. this is why i said that, when he drops his head, it seems as if he's waiting for something. i personally believe that he's waiting for the whistle to come. i believe that it has been tormenting him for some time, and he's been trying to look for it everywhere he goes. actually, even before we can fully hear the whistle, the split second before it starts, yoongi is already lifting his head up. he was waiting for it. he knew it would come eventually.
once again, he has a instantaneous reaction. he looks around wildly trying to find the source of the whistling sound, and finally abandons the piano behind him to fully look for it. the screen goes black and the next time we see him, he's walking down a deserted road. the whistling starts yet again, this time accompanied by another song -- that we would later find out it is first love, yoongi's solo song in the 'wings' album --. yoongi is still looking around desperately trying to find where the sound is coming from. he's so distraught by the whistling -- which, from my perspective, started to grow louder and louder as the danger approached -- that he nearly gets run over by a speeding car that comes out of nowhere. he moves to the side of the road just in time for the car to drive by where he was standing in seconds before, and it is then that we see a very interesting shot in the video:
we see yoongi, of course, standing on the road where he was almost run over on. but, however, we see just another version of the same road above him, but that one doesn't bare yoongi's reflection on it. everything else is in there but yoongi himself. this is extremely important and a vital point of the wings' short films as a whole, and i will bring this back once i start talking about how the next video -- jungkook's 'begin' -- connects with this one.
the whistling sound somehow seemed to warn yoongi of the upcoming danger, and to me it seems like that was its intention from the beginning, but yoongi was so entranced by the sound of it at all that he almost lost the meaning of what it was trying to say to him.
after a few seconds of only yoongi's heavy breathing, we finally hear a car crash sound and the screen goes black once again. it is then that we are faced with this message:
now this part puzzled me a lot when i saw it, i'm not gonna lie. i couldn't exactly pinpoint what this quote meant for yoongi's story. perhaps it's questioning what would have happened if he hadn't moved out of the car's way? if he had stopped and looked back, how could he end up differently? it's still a little puzzling to me. that being said, this is also something that i will get back to in the future.when the film goes back to the road, we see a truly worrying image:
the road is now smeared in blood, and it seems to be exactly where yoongi moved to when he got out of the car's way, so natually one would think that yoongi has been hit. however, right after that, we see yoongi start to run across the road towards the direction of the car crash, and he seems physically intact, if emotionally shaken up. so whose this blood spatter belongs to? if yoongi moved out of the way, and there was no one else there with him, what could the blood possibly represent? and this was when i remembered that shot yoongi, just a few seconds previous to this, standing in the road with a reflection of the same road above him, and i just knew deep down that in there was the answer of all my questions.
but either way, we are not getting into the answers quite yet. it's time for questions still.
as yoongi runs, impressionism makes its appearance again with a shot of a bathtub overflowing with water as if someone's submerged in it, though we can only assume that that's what's making the tub overflow.
[side note: if you've seen all the videos, then you know that water, in general, always seems to reference jimin, -- see, i said it was impossible not to mention the other videos, even if they are not the ones paired together. oh well -- and in similar fashion, fire always references yoongi. the two opposites. water and fire. fire and water. the tub shot is one of the pivotal points in jimin's 'lie' and that, from what i've noticed at least, is the only moment 'first love' links up to a film other than jungkook's 'begin'.]
following up to that, we see yoongi finally arrive at where the crash happened, and we find out that the car went right into the music shop where he was at only a minute ago. hadn't been for the whisteling and yoongi's subsequently going out to search for it, he would've been hit yet again by the car. this marks the second time the whistling has somehow kept yoongi from imminent harm, and like i once said, it seems to me that this is the solo point the whistle -- or better still, the person whistling -- is trying to make. they are trying and so far succeeding to make sure yoongi doesn't get hurt, or even worse, ends up getting killed.
and this is where one of the recurring shots in both jungkook's 'begin' and jimin's 'lie' happen. the piano that made yoongi bust into the music shop in the first place catches on fire after suffering from the car crash:
and i'd say that the piano on fire is, in fact, one of the most important recurrences in the wings' short films overall. the piano represents yoongi's first love which, as we know, was music. while the fact that it is on fire could mean the loss of that first love, i personally see it as letting the past behind.
[side note: taking the video itself out of focus for a second, yoongi's song 'first love', which we heard later on in its entirety once the album was released, talks a lot about his memories and his youth. how he found in that brown piano something that became precious to him. something that shaped him into the person that he is today. and it seemed to me that yoongi was somehow haunted by that piano from his past. that piano which, in my point of view, was less of an instrument and more of a symbol. yoongi found his first love through it. he found who he was while sat on the chair before it. going back to namjoon's quote in the very beginning of the film, through the piano "God lead him (back) to himself". he found himself through it. he found himself in music and his love for it.]
now going back to the video, i feel as if the piano on fire is not necessarily a message to yoongi especifically -- though i'd say it's especially to him -- and it is directed generally towards the three people in which the image of the piano appears to, those being: yoongi, of course, jimin & jungkook.
while the piano burns the whistling starts once more, and yet again yoongi seems perturbed by it. he's still looking around, trying to find its source. it seems to be coming from everywhere, and he still doesn't quite grasp the meaning of it and what it's trying to say to him. he's simply drawn to the sound, to the point of forgetting all reason every time he hears it. i have a feeling that he knows, intellectually, what the whistling represents and who is responsible for it, but on his eagerness to search for it, he seems to forget about everything else.
in the end, he turns around to face the piano on fire once more, and the screen finally goes black. then, we are finally faced with yoongi's circle from the wings' album cover:
his circle, naturally, represents piano tiles.
but just when you think it's over, one last surprise:
when yoongi spots the brown piano inside, the reaction on him is instantaneous. he breaks the shop's glass door and, not caring about the security alarms going off, goes straight to the piano as if he's magnetically attracted to it. he then plays a tune that will, in the near future, be crucial to his story. and this is where i noticed that there is no singing nor rapping in his video. the only music we hear is from the tune yoongi plays in the piano. quickly stopping after playing the tune, yoongi drops his head and it seems as if he's deep in thought, or perhaps, waiting for something.
off in the distance, we hear someone whistling the tune yoongi had just finished playing, and this is where i will say something that i haven't seen anyone else say: i personally feel like yoongi had previously heard the whistle before. this is why i said that, when he drops his head, it seems as if he's waiting for something. i personally believe that he's waiting for the whistle to come. i believe that it has been tormenting him for some time, and he's been trying to look for it everywhere he goes. actually, even before we can fully hear the whistle, the split second before it starts, yoongi is already lifting his head up. he was waiting for it. he knew it would come eventually.
once again, he has a instantaneous reaction. he looks around wildly trying to find the source of the whistling sound, and finally abandons the piano behind him to fully look for it. the screen goes black and the next time we see him, he's walking down a deserted road. the whistling starts yet again, this time accompanied by another song -- that we would later find out it is first love, yoongi's solo song in the 'wings' album --. yoongi is still looking around desperately trying to find where the sound is coming from. he's so distraught by the whistling -- which, from my perspective, started to grow louder and louder as the danger approached -- that he nearly gets run over by a speeding car that comes out of nowhere. he moves to the side of the road just in time for the car to drive by where he was standing in seconds before, and it is then that we see a very interesting shot in the video:
we see yoongi, of course, standing on the road where he was almost run over on. but, however, we see just another version of the same road above him, but that one doesn't bare yoongi's reflection on it. everything else is in there but yoongi himself. this is extremely important and a vital point of the wings' short films as a whole, and i will bring this back once i start talking about how the next video -- jungkook's 'begin' -- connects with this one.
the whistling sound somehow seemed to warn yoongi of the upcoming danger, and to me it seems like that was its intention from the beginning, but yoongi was so entranced by the sound of it at all that he almost lost the meaning of what it was trying to say to him.
after a few seconds of only yoongi's heavy breathing, we finally hear a car crash sound and the screen goes black once again. it is then that we are faced with this message:
 |
| "would i be different if i had chosen a different path? if i had stopped and looked back?" |
now this part puzzled me a lot when i saw it, i'm not gonna lie. i couldn't exactly pinpoint what this quote meant for yoongi's story. perhaps it's questioning what would have happened if he hadn't moved out of the car's way? if he had stopped and looked back, how could he end up differently? it's still a little puzzling to me. that being said, this is also something that i will get back to in the future.when the film goes back to the road, we see a truly worrying image:
the road is now smeared in blood, and it seems to be exactly where yoongi moved to when he got out of the car's way, so natually one would think that yoongi has been hit. however, right after that, we see yoongi start to run across the road towards the direction of the car crash, and he seems physically intact, if emotionally shaken up. so whose this blood spatter belongs to? if yoongi moved out of the way, and there was no one else there with him, what could the blood possibly represent? and this was when i remembered that shot yoongi, just a few seconds previous to this, standing in the road with a reflection of the same road above him, and i just knew deep down that in there was the answer of all my questions.
but either way, we are not getting into the answers quite yet. it's time for questions still.
as yoongi runs, impressionism makes its appearance again with a shot of a bathtub overflowing with water as if someone's submerged in it, though we can only assume that that's what's making the tub overflow.
[side note: if you've seen all the videos, then you know that water, in general, always seems to reference jimin, -- see, i said it was impossible not to mention the other videos, even if they are not the ones paired together. oh well -- and in similar fashion, fire always references yoongi. the two opposites. water and fire. fire and water. the tub shot is one of the pivotal points in jimin's 'lie' and that, from what i've noticed at least, is the only moment 'first love' links up to a film other than jungkook's 'begin'.]
following up to that, we see yoongi finally arrive at where the crash happened, and we find out that the car went right into the music shop where he was at only a minute ago. hadn't been for the whisteling and yoongi's subsequently going out to search for it, he would've been hit yet again by the car. this marks the second time the whistling has somehow kept yoongi from imminent harm, and like i once said, it seems to me that this is the solo point the whistle -- or better still, the person whistling -- is trying to make. they are trying and so far succeeding to make sure yoongi doesn't get hurt, or even worse, ends up getting killed.
and this is where one of the recurring shots in both jungkook's 'begin' and jimin's 'lie' happen. the piano that made yoongi bust into the music shop in the first place catches on fire after suffering from the car crash:
and i'd say that the piano on fire is, in fact, one of the most important recurrences in the wings' short films overall. the piano represents yoongi's first love which, as we know, was music. while the fact that it is on fire could mean the loss of that first love, i personally see it as letting the past behind.
[side note: taking the video itself out of focus for a second, yoongi's song 'first love', which we heard later on in its entirety once the album was released, talks a lot about his memories and his youth. how he found in that brown piano something that became precious to him. something that shaped him into the person that he is today. and it seemed to me that yoongi was somehow haunted by that piano from his past. that piano which, in my point of view, was less of an instrument and more of a symbol. yoongi found his first love through it. he found who he was while sat on the chair before it. going back to namjoon's quote in the very beginning of the film, through the piano "God lead him (back) to himself". he found himself through it. he found himself in music and his love for it.]
now going back to the video, i feel as if the piano on fire is not necessarily a message to yoongi especifically -- though i'd say it's especially to him -- and it is directed generally towards the three people in which the image of the piano appears to, those being: yoongi, of course, jimin & jungkook.
while the piano burns the whistling starts once more, and yet again yoongi seems perturbed by it. he's still looking around, trying to find its source. it seems to be coming from everywhere, and he still doesn't quite grasp the meaning of it and what it's trying to say to him. he's simply drawn to the sound, to the point of forgetting all reason every time he hears it. i have a feeling that he knows, intellectually, what the whistling represents and who is responsible for it, but on his eagerness to search for it, he seems to forget about everything else.
in the end, he turns around to face the piano on fire once more, and the screen finally goes black. then, we are finally faced with yoongi's circle from the wings' album cover:
his circle, naturally, represents piano tiles.
but just when you think it's over, one last surprise:
instead of combining itself with jungkook's feathery circle, as one would expect it to, it combines itself instead with jimin's bitten apple -- which we'll hear more about once i get to his video and how it's connected to hoseok's 'mama' --. but now, i must admit, this did confuse me a lot when i first finished watching the videos. how could 'first love's' connection with 'lie' be more significant to these stories more than its obvious connection with 'begin'? and i answered my own question. the secret is on the word 'obvious'. not a single thing in these videos is obvious, and there is a lot more to every detail than what meets the eye. but this is something that i'll go more in depth in when i get to analyse jimin's 'lie', one more post away from this one.
anyways, if you are still reading this, that means you -- hopefully -- read the whole thing and don't think i'm stupid or something. i mean... i really hope you don't. but if you do i guess i can't control that. either way, thank you so much for sticking around with me. hopefully you'll return for the second part of this analysis, which will be focusing on jungkook's 'begin' and its connections with yoongi's 'first love'.
see ya. bye.
anyways, if you are still reading this, that means you -- hopefully -- read the whole thing and don't think i'm stupid or something. i mean... i really hope you don't. but if you do i guess i can't control that. either way, thank you so much for sticking around with me. hopefully you'll return for the second part of this analysis, which will be focusing on jungkook's 'begin' and its connections with yoongi's 'first love'.
see ya. bye.
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