Music / Idols

Blood, Bullets, and Tears: MBLAQ’s “It’s War” MV

Written by Patricia On January 9, 2012

MBLAQ is one of the first big groups to be making a comeback this year, having released their fourth mini album, 100% Ver., just today. Within the last few weeks, MBLAQ has also released a bunch of stuff in anticipation for the album drop: from the release of “Scribble“ to a bunch of teaser photos to this newest MV for what will presumably be the group’s promotional single, “It’s War.”

K-pop has always had a flair for the overdramatic, but it always irks me a little whenever K-pop companies expect audiences to take this (occasionally comical) overdramaticness seriously. DBSK‘s 15-minute long “Before U Go” music video is a good example of this. “Before U Go” was a great song and it deserved a great music video, but did we really need to see Yunho roundhouse kicking sixteen bad guys per minute? Did we really need to see Changmin tearfully firing a bullet into the sky? Did we really need to see the murder plots, the assumed drug cartels, the obvious Athena ripoffs, the oh-so-dramatic conclusion where the Almighty Gods use their godly power to pardon the lowly wrongdoers?

The answer is a sixfold no — and while the full-length video was far superior to the “dance version” video in terms of sheer production value, it was still difficult to take this presumably “serious” video seriously. The same could easily be said of MBLAQ’s “It’s War” video. The video had enough blood, bullets, and tears to make it obvious that this video was a “serious” video. And of course, any video with a storyline where someone dies automatically becomes something to be taken seriously, right? Not to mention the completely irrelevant Malcolm X quote that was featured at the beginning of the video. Quoting a prominent historical figurehead in the context of a pop music video? An Oscar for you, sir.

It’s not to say that pop music videos aren’t allowed to be dramatic or intense or carry a deeper social or cultural message for further pontification; rather, if done correctly, music videos could be the perfect vehicle for getting an important message across. But keeping this in mind, there’s something unsettling about a video like the one for “It’s War” — or rather, any video that is just dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. What, exactly, was J.Tune’s goal in making this intense music video? Was it because they really wanted to convey a deeper sociological message? Probably not; the song’s lyrics primarily express romantic love, regret, anger, and angst — just like any other K-pop song. Was it because they wanted to give the production team a chance to show off their creative chops? Maybe, but while the video was well-produced, it wasn’t anything stunning. Was it because they wanted to create something that would make people take MBLAQ seriously? Probably. And if the sight of a member committing physics-defying suicide doesn’t make you take them seriously, then I don’t know what else will.

Yeah, right.

It’s not to say that one overdramatic music video completely cheapens the power of music videos as a medium for more meaningful purposes. But it is tacky, and it gives a bad rep to other well-produced music videos with an actual message. Take a look at K-dramas. How easy would it be for a casual watcher to overlook the greatness that was 49 Days because of previous bad experiences with other overly weepy and overdramatic K-dramas? Granted, it’s a gross exaggeration to say that “dramatically dramatic” works like the “It’s War” video are blasphemous to the genre as a whole. But it does lend to some unfairness when compared to other, more legitimate works.

Nevertheless, I smell that 2012 is going to be a big year for MBLAQ. They’ve steadily improved since their debut, and while they’ve still got a ways to go, they’re starting to put out consistently good (or, at least, un-bad) work — an admittedly tall order in a music industry like K-pop. And for all my distaste for the video, I really enjoy “It’s War” as a song and it’ll probably make for some great live performances. I haven’t listened to MBLAQ’s new mini-album yet (it’s only been a few hours since it dropped; cut me some slack!), but I expect good things.

(jtunecamp)

TAGS: MBlaq

http://twitter.com/PhanTheHotness Jenny
there’s something about thunder’s acting that just turns me off
i hate to say it, but boy cannot act
joon’s pretty good but the death scene was a bit too dramatic for me (did he have to put in the dramatic ‘eyes roll to the top of my head’ thing??)
but anyways, the music is GREAT
kinda worried there, but chance did a great job producing it
and it the only lead single of mblaq that i really like. definitely will win awards!
G.
Damn, Mir looks good. :3
boxb333
really? you had to write four paragraphs on how overly dramatic it is and then squish ur opinion about the song in a few sentences… and there was no comment on the acting wich i think was one of the stronger points in the mv…
Anonymous
Yah. Their MV is a little dramatic but the song is just so amazing, I was able to make it through the darn MV ^^
I really hope that 2012 will be a good year for these boys because they truly deserve recognition; I am stoke for MBLAQ’s comeback and I know the boys won’t disappoint.

Anonymous
Agreed, there were many things in the video that confused the heck out of me. Like the quote at the beginning was probably just put there cuz it sounded “cool” to them and doesn’t contribute to the theme at all. And the bullet curving haha, I just like to pretend that it’s symbolizing Joon’s decision making process…
Anyway onto the good things, choreography looked great, song was amazing, Joon was real good at acting as well and this is superficial but all the boys looked HOT haha. Looking forward to their live performances :)

Annon
Wow this article has so much fail.
Anonymous
WANTED.
that is all.
The Unicorner
This video is completely ridiculous but I expect nothing less from K-pop. While this article makes valid points, I think after being in K-pop fandom long enough I’ve dropped all pretense of taking anything they produce remotely seriously. This is the MV version of one of those totally dramatic, weepy K-dramas and I’m fine with that. Granted, it would’ve been nice to see something like BEG’s “Sixth Sense,” an MV that was really well made and had a deeper message (and the band members looked really, really hot) but that MV was atypical for K-Pop. K-Pop seems to specialize in convoluted storylines and ridiculous melodrama, which this MV delivered.
I guess it’s kind of like me doing serious academic analyses of like, Sweet Valley High or something. You could, and it could reveal interesting insights, but at the end of the day, it’s SVH, yo.
Fresh Lemons
The song is good and the MV could have been great except for those black “SilverHawk” outfits and the confusing plot in the beginning. So far no one has figured out why he was trying to kill the women and then saved her out of no where. I guess record labels dont really care about a plot and expect people to be happy if the MV has high production value. It’s like IU’s “You and I” MV and no one could figure it out until an official statement was release
Anonymous
Why do I feel that there are some undercover haters going around Seoul beats?

jess1
I feel that, too. LOL
I’ve been looking at these writers’ posts and I’m starting to see how it is here in SB.
A few more weeks/articles and then I could probably see the biased and the secret-hater ones. lol
Anonymous
I’m glad you feel the same way. I started to think I was being overly sensitive reading those articles.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Anngelica-Aguilar/100000185514336 Anngelica Aguilar
I had high hopes for this music
video and the song (MBLAQ fanatic here lol) so when this mv was released I was beyond excited to watch it. Hoewever, regardless of my love for these boys, I promised myself to
critique this mv and song without being biased.. so here goes nothing lol.
Ok, the song
is splendid! I personaly love it. It’s powerful unlike your typical bubblegum
pop that is prevalent in most kpop songs. Mir’s rapping is more intense, G.O.’s vocals are spot on as always (did anyone else hear that high note of his near the
end?), Thunder’s sounding better (I guess), and Seungho … well, he’s always
sounded good although I don’t think he was given enough solo parts. They should
switch the amount of lines he received with the amount Thunder received. But whatever, The song was
good. They’re voices sound really good. And Mir’s rapping sounds really good
too. (Woot woot!)
However I
found the mv somewhat overbearing and cheesey at some parts especially with Joon’s over acting
and Thunder’s just plain bad acting. I mean come on, Joon dies super
dramatically while making the weirdest facial expression I’d seen (the whole “mouth agape and eyes rolling back” thing). I
couldn’t help but think to myself “What kind of face was that,
homeboy?!”. I just could not prevent myself from laughing…. And the whole “bad boy/angry” attitude and facial expressions were completely overdone … I’m pretty sure Joon could be quite the actor if he were to tone it down just a tad. That was sort of the main reason why I just couldn’t take the mv seriously. I found myself laughing or feeling kind of embarrassed for him (and the physics defying bullets didn’t help).
The story
line however is predictable yet unpredictable at the same time; I think it
could’ve been written a little better. I think leaving out his suicide or at least making it more believable would have helped. Also, there was no need to make it so
overly dramatic to the point where it just couldn’t be taken it seriously.(I found myself laughing at the most “serious” moments -__-) The cinematography was nice though, really nice and so was the little twist ending,
bravo.
Another
issue for me was that the mv kinda reminded me of the movie Wanted(starring
Angelina Jolie & James McAvoy) with the whole bullet moving around other
targets defying physics and whatnot which took away from the
whole uniqueness and originality for me. But that’s just me. Maybe people in Korea never saw the movie so to them it might be a unique story line(?)
They should
give BEG’s director a call and have him/her help them out with their mvs. I mean
Cleansing Cream was just to beautiful for words. Dramatic but not overbearing.
All in all,
beautiful song and somewhat decent mv (I like that they dont censor the blood
and stuff although I can see it know “MBLAQ music video gets banned for promoting violence”). I give them a thumbs up for doing things a little different from the
typical kpop status quo (like always :D) and a high five to chance, job well done my friend. My ratings: 5/5 for the soong; 3.5/5 for the mv

jess1
I thought Joon’s dying scenes were not over-dramatic. I thought he was being an actor where he opted to shed his beautiful image for that scene. Starting from when his tear dropped before he got hit by the bullet, I thought he did a good job.
The bullet thing is so obviously gotten from Wanted.

ME
Oh, dear… Here we go again.
While you SB writers always emphasis that you should judge the music by the very first basic component (which is music, I believe), you write lengthy review on the packaging.
While it’s a writer freedom to write what she/he thinks about this MV (otherwise, I, can always skip this article and go to other site/article as well), I chose to believe that she/he will also read people’s thought by reading their comments. It’s what make a good discussion.
The MV is more than good, including the story, the angles, the details (did you see the bullet pass the first bottle – to explain the ending?), the editing (cut between the story and dance). I already saw Joon in other MV. Compare to that one, he shows progress. Thunder a bit stiff (it’s his first try?), but he didn’t make me cringe like many others before him that tried and only made me change opinion and dislike them for pursuing wrong track. Actually, I like how they portray him in this MV, kind of softer guy in contrast of Joon’s cold strong character.
MBLAQ is known for and I beg them to always differ from other groups. Their ‘Y’ MV has to be altered a bit due to its ending. In ‘Cry’ (the best MBLAQ song for me so far) they tried underwater shoot, with a little ‘ballet’ and much eyeliners, not so much dance moves but fitted well with the song. Afterwards, they made a shocking change to ‘Monalisa’ MV with horrendous outfits. So, when they opened this year with a dramatic MV as ‘It’s War’, I couldn’t be happier and hope the others will follow the lead – in terms of providing a different kind of MVs, yet showing good progress in their music + all the packaging.
And why do we have to compare it with Kdrama? ‘Athena’? ’49 Days’? Are we talking about KDrama with real actors/actress to portray story within at least 16 episodes or MV with the member(s) to portray a story with only maximum 6 minutes (average MV, kekeke… if you know what I mean…).
Too dramatic? It’s need to be dramatic to get the story going within 5:37 minutes restriction.
An MV doesn’t have to be always meaningful, just like a song. I kind of thinking about Lady Gaga and Beyonce when they sang their heart out in ‘Telephone’. Oh, yeah… dancing in a prison with bikinis and poison your ex… so much for meaningful and dramatic MV.
In order to stand out in the midst of saturated Kpop, you have to have a good song + dramatic video + stand out performance just to get noticed and get new people to be interested in your group.
Welcome back, MBLAQ.
Yours truly, ME
Renie
I see your point but I actually think the over dramatics worked for this song.The song is really good. I loved that it so full of angst bordering on overtly so that it actually made the MV work.But the music video is a rip off of the movie Wanted. I didn’t like the chants at the beginning though. I’m still not completely sold on MBLAQ (always loved G.O. though) but I feel like I’m starting to become an A+(not quite there yet). I’ve been listening to a lot more of their songs these past few days and they seem legit.
Also there mini-album is great. I said ” What the heck is this” when I heard the 1st part of Run but as I listened all the way through it I saw that it worked. It’s a fun song.And I’m glad they didn’t use Scribble as the lead song because even though it’s good it’s not worthy of a lead single. The album shows their range like what Wonder World did for the WG which is impressive considering its a mini album. Chance did a good job.
Also I love Mir’s new look! He looks like a character straight out of a video game. Love it.

Anonymous
Renie, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new album as a follow up to your previous MBLAQ article :)

Renie
I’ll see what I can do. If one of the other writers is covering it I’ll definitely be in the comments section.

http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
me too I wanna hear your thoughts, you’re articles are always good ^__^

Renie
Thanks! :-)

Aurora2687
I thought the song was meh when watching the music video. The story is too condensed it became annoying, it felt like they should have made a longer music video with inserts of the song so the story could be told better. Now that I ignore the music video and just listen to the song by itself I really like.
Guest
‘An Oscar for you, sir’ LOL. MBLAQ continues to make good music. The chorus is really nice but the verses seem to lack structure and are a bit hard to follow. The video makes no sense to me and reminds me of that Huh Gak video with the rapper from Beast but at least it’s nowhere near as long as Before you Go. Truthfully, my fave video of theirs is for Cry – really beautiful and not at all over-complicated. Hopefully they can pull this off live and I wish them luck. Seungho really needs to do something else with his hair though.
jess1
Whatever, it’s a Kpop music video. Whenever I see something like this, I just shrug it off.
But the thing is, we always see these dramatic MVs, be it in Kpop or elsewhere. The only thing with this MV though was the story felt short and so it looked like it didn’t make any sense at all. However, I liked that they kept it to the rather standard length for MVs rather than make long-ass ones.
You gotta admit, though, that the cinematography here was great. Not a fan of MV very much but the group shots make up for it. :)
Oh, I love the song. So, I kind of wished that they had more group dancing shots.
Anonymous
I’m pretty sure they intended it for it to be reminiscent of Wanted, which is weird because I watched Wanted for the first time today and then I watched this video.
I think the dramatic video fits the song. I really liked the cellos in the beginning. Granted, I don’t understand the lyrics and I’m too lazy to find a translation but from the feel of the song, the overdramatic things kind of works.
The thing I’m not really fond of in music videos is when the song completely stops and changes to include a montage/storyline scene. I watch music videos for the music.
I’ve never really been a fan of MBLAQ. I liked Y and One Better Day but their more recent releases didn’t really catch my attention. This mini-album looks promising though. I think I’ll give them a shot.
Food
Come on, at least it wasn’t a box. There was much more thought into this mv than all of SM’s mv in 2010 combined.
http://twitter.com/free2sing14 Ayan Hassan
I like how dramatic the video is, since it matches the feel of the song (which btw the GREAT) very well. Why Joon killed himself is up to interpretation I guess, because that confused me a bit. The video was also shot really well and their costumes were, thankfully, toned down from the concept pictures. I actually liked them. One thing I didn’t like was that there wasn’t enough choreography shown, since it looks awesome ^^ I can’t wait for their comeback stage.
Music videos don’t have to have a deep meaning in my opinion, they just have to be entertaining and It’s War’s MV achieved that for me.
Meanie
Since I’m American my expectations of MV’s died with Michael & Janet. MV’s today either do not match the song, have half naked women shaking their booty’s (Hip Hop) or having half nekkid women shaking their booty’s (Beyonce, Lady GagGa, Rihanna).
I actually enjoyed and had fun with this video DRAMEDY and all. It match the tone of the song and the choreography.
Yes they used the “Wanted” references with the bullets and I did roll my eyes at first until they got to the end and I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting Joon to use it to kill himself. So it even itself out. I don’t speak Korean so I don’t know what the lyrics say, but I think i enjoyed it trying to figure out if it was connected to “Y’ (Like a redemption type act) or just a stand alone piece (Assassin assigned to kill the girl, saves her, falls in love, has his friend take care of her while he’s gone, the best friend falls in love with the girl also, friend comes back and say,s”WTF is this!” and fight or killing pursues.) LOL Cliche yes, but fun.
The funny part’s:
1. Cheondung surprised look when Joon brought the girl. (I cracked up at his expression because it was bad acting.)
2. Seungho crying. (Dude did they have to use the whole bottle of eye drops and fake snot).
3. Joon rolling his eyes at Cheondung while snatching the girl away. (I was like, “did u just roll ur eyes!” LMAO)
Like I said I take music video’s with a grain a salt now a days, that’s why you tube was invented so you can go back and watch the ones u like, (I might have to look up some New Edition later). **Yeah I’m showing my age.** :)
munkie
this is pretty much your typical dramatic kpop video, so :shrugs:. at least it wasn’t as cheesy as that huh guk video. sometimes i roll my eyes at the dramatics, but i can’t really imagine kpop without it. i guess it’s a love/hate relationship. as long as it’s done well(and not over 6 minutes), i can take it. this video was shot beautifully but the story line progression seemed too rushed. i understand they’re trying to cram it to fit the length of the song but it was hard to understand the depth of the relationships. so joon saves this random girl that he was suppose to kill and then falls in love with her while nursing her(being unconscious for the greater part i’m sure) and then he leaves and she ends up falling for thunder. did she ever like joon? did joon really have to start beating up thunder and then proceed to kill himself just bc the girl didn’t want to leave yet? at last he pulls out a ticket(?) that he was planning on giving to her to escape… so why did he kill himself again? maybe i should go check out the lyrics first.
i thought thunder’s acting was a little awkward but not bad exactly. joon is pretty good but i did laugh when i saw his dead face at the end LOL. and seung ho! what did they do to you?! i hate his hair. the combination of the buzz cut and the blonde coloring just does not work for him. here’s to praying his hair grows quickly and he can return to his handsome self again soon. and i miss G.O.’s stache haha
anyway i’m enjoying their new album and hope they’ll be able to gain some new fans and win some awards.
martian
hmm almost seems as though T-ara’s marketing tactics are spreading :O

martian
And after watching the whole video, dramatic as it is… I didn’t expect the whole “Wanted” round bullet, Angelina Jolie style suicide. Good song though :D

Meanie
Oh and one more thing, Mir is about 20 now? Yeah I am going to sound like a fan girl…he could get it. Actually MIR, Joon and Seungho.
G.O. could get it again if he grew back his mustache and change his hair.
Thunder… He doesn’t do anything for me…Maybe need a few drinks. LOL
I kid tonight. All in fun.
Bervalvic
MBLAQ is now becoming memorable to me and not for being Rains group.
I was a bit put off by somethings and I was wondering why the hell the video started to become a bit like the Wanted movie but I’m going to give them credit (Especially because it wasn’t a long ass video). Oh, on top of that I hated the acting, I can’t wait for a dance version.
The more I think of it the more their recent concepts have been the point of being a memorable group. This group wants to really standout. They’ve been overlooked for so long and they stressed not wanting to be forever in Rains shadow. This is a group where the company is actually trying and I do appreciate the effort and hopefully we won’t see a decline. I think 2012 marks the year of possibly creativity coming from comebacks especially since the likes of Big Bang are well on their way and aren’t BEG coming back? And honestly I can’t forget the rookie group Sunny Hill who impressed us with Pray and Midnight Circus.
mrsjung
It’s War >>>>>>>>> SM Music Videos lol
http://twitter.com/taylorisnothere Taylor W.
Honestly, I think this review was a bit harsh. It seemed like you only sort of watched it, then judged based off of your first impression. Though the video was dramatic and had quite a few flaws, I found some nice things about it as well.
For one thing, the song is great. The orchestra in the background pulls the listener in, and the boys’ vocals have improved a lot too. Did anyone else notice that? The dance looks promising (I can’t wait to see it live!), Mir’s rap was impressive and full of energy, and the entire song was well-executed, with the exception of its rather plain lyrics. But as someone who doesn’t speak Korean, I’m willing to look part that and appreciate the song for its tone, tune, and intensity,
As for the music video itself, I prefer to keep it separate from the meaning of the song. Though the song lyrics aren’t anything special, I like to think that the story line of the video wasn’t really connected to them. Once you watch the video a few times, you’ll notice some deeper meanings in the video, especially near the end (I’m pretty sure they didn’t make that bullet curve just because they thought it would look cool). I don’t want to analyze that, but I know that the producers of this video meant to make it more than a “typical miniature action flick” like so many other music videos out there.
Perhaps I’m being biased, but I saw lots to praise in the video. This review makes it seem like it was a complete wreck, when in fact it was well-shot, well-edited, and (in my opinion, at least) well thought out. So I don’t think it’s any less “legitimate” than the other well-produced videos floating around in the music industry at the moment. Although you didn’t like the acting or dramatic tone (I didn’t either, to be quite honest), I recommend you go back and take a look at the other elements of the video (color, scene setup, shots [for example, when the bullet was being shot; that was seriously cool], transitions, etc.) that can make or break the quality of an MV. There’s a lot more to see than you think.
Rodo
That’s a whole lotta use of question marks.. O_o But regarding the MV, I’d prefer it without the drama or storyline, mostly cause I was interested in the dance and not much was seen about it. Like how they made their Cry MV~ Nonetheless, the song is AMAZING. Hell, their whole mini album is amazing! Run is recommended :D
TypingFingers
I have a few questions: Why are some kpop mvs so violent?. Isnt kpop mostly marketed to TWEENS/TEENS? so Korea bitches about mvs/lyrics being indecent bc it promotes sex but when it promotes violence its ok?!!
I remember a Big Bang performance where one member points with a gun at another member. In one 2ne1 mv shows one member getting hit by a dude(violence against women). This is one of the reasons why kpop (and Korea as a society) has been turning me off in addition to the obvious ones.
I know all over the world is the same where they complain about too much sex in the media, but when it comes to violence they dont say anything. It seems in Korea is an extreme case. Am i wrong in my assessment?
*You guys should make an article about this. Im surprised this hasnt been discussed on here
http://twitter.com/OhItsHee Helia
i think the physics defying bullets were used to shorten the MV, wanted reference or no. instead of showing joon taking out the other assassins, they show a scene where joon’s bullet bypasses the champagne bottle to hit the rhum bottle instead. it’s a good way of effort/energy/time conservation XD and its re-use at the end also worked for their benefit.
what i couldn’t take was that Joon, upon seeing another assassin, let go of his sniper rifle and decided to become ninja assassin instead. It’s good he committed suicide in the end because with his obvious lack of sound judgment, he’d die soon anyway.
oh yes, that and the bad acting. I can’t watch the video without laughing whenever joon and thunder get close-up shots.. but hey, at least everyone was eye candy.
overall, i liked the video. I think it matched the song’s feel -drama and all.
Anonymous
I think the over-dramatic-ness (yes, I made that word up just for this post) of the whole things is due in part largely to… Joon. I mean, his acting is pretty horrendous. Every expression, move, sneer, smile, tear was just so painful to watch. If your lead is no good, then the whole thing goes down the drain. It could have been made better some great supporting actors/actresses but they fell short too. They didn’t overdo it as much as Joon did, but they weren’t great either.
And the storyline is so cliche. A tough spy boyfriend, a weak damsel in distress on the verge of death, and a docile best friend. :/
It also didn’t help that their outfits are a little ridiculous and the shaky camerawork was a little too much for some scenes.
From the opening shot of Joon until the ending, I wanted to burst out laughing. The song isn’t bad, but the video goes down in one of my books as one of the worst. I genuinely like MBLAQ, though, so one dud of an MV isn’t going to turn me off from them or K-Drama as a whole for that matter. But I do think it epitomizes the drama-obsessed nature of Korean pop culture, whether started by T-Ara or not. Honestly, I think it’s a shame they focus so much on the shabang instead of showcasing the music itself. But with some songs, you’d imagine that was the point.
taydate
i fully understand what you mean by this mv as being overdramatic and maybe trite, but at least it wasnt as long as “Before you go” and was a decent storyline to get across in just 4minutes, so i wouldnt go as far as calling the mv ‘tacky’, but hey, that just my opinion.
im probably really protective of these boys because i have been a huge fan of their music and their lovable personalities for a while now, and i know how much hard work they must have put into the making if this mv. i hope they finally get the attention they deserve because this album was awesome! MBLAQ FIGHTING!!!
Msxy
Taking into account the horrendous music released in 2010/2011 i personally think that “It’s war” its a blow of fresh air. It’s not new, it’s not perfect but hey I would put this song in my ipod rather than others anytime!
I’m the only one who has a litlle Deja vu with this song?the beat is kinda like Love ya’ by SS501, but maybe thats because of the strings instruments….IDK but at least it’s not another super autotuned bubblegum music and I have to give Mblaq props for that (or maybe to Jtune who knows)
Yes I agree, the video it’s filled with cliches and rippoffs from Wanted! Common, it’s a suicide a la Jolie(but with over-acting death scene in Joon’s case). But what really bugs in this Mv’s and Mv’s in general by that matter, is how they portray women. Now seriously, do they really think that women can fall in love with a person in like 2 seconds, love him to death(oh yeah I got a gun shot because of you but I stil llove you) and then 2 hours later, because you just left me alone, I fall in love with another man but ¡Hey! not just Anyone, but youre BFF who always help you in need. Ah of course you left her a post-it. It’s that supposed to make her feel better? Seriously, I now that I over react over this but it’s so cliche, that just made me cringe. At least it wasn’t over 15 minutes video with bad acting and WTF’s all over it(yeah yeah T-ara and TVXQ I’m looking at you)
I really hope Mblaq will win some awards with this song, because they are very very underrated(same as u-kiss). If they don’t win with this song, and more now that there arent that many big names out there promoting, I don’t know what will happen to them and I kind of like their music and their maknae (oh I’m such a pedonoona T.T)

http://twitter.com/OhItsHee Helia
lol at the t-ara and tvxq shoutout but i agree though lol. But really now,i never had the impression that the girl fell in love with joon. During her scenes with him, she was either confused, whiny or sleeping.

Msxy
Sorry but if she’s not in love with him why the hell did she go with him in first place? I don’t know but if sombody tries to kill me, then has a change of heart and falls in love with me i will use it in my bennefit and try to escape and not falling in love with his best friend, thats Suicide!…hello stockholm syndrome here! xDDD

Loool…I think I have to much free time, trying to decipher an MV that I’ll probably forget in 2 weeks or less(shame on me, going back to work) xD

lucy4876
I think you don’t understand at all the MV…that’s why you cannot connect with it…as someone who’ve painfully experienced feeling of betrayal in love and friendship, the song and MV really moves me…the bullet is like the trip of emotions in our heart : hate, love, play of prey/hunter to finally deciding to let it go and move on…
you’ve taken it too literally…the story is basically expressing those feelings
of course it cannot be a film or a K-drama
the dying face of Joon reminds me of the absurdity of life (with his funny face, but even death face has a smile ?)
Joon is almost like a reaper, he belongs to the world of death and not to the world of love and life, that’s why he left
well there are so many interpretations you can do of this MV…it shows its depth
I’m sorry you weren’t able to feel all of that
http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
This article just seems like it was written to make silly complaints about the mv. There are a lot of good things to be said about this mv and song and it seems the writer just completely overlooked that.
Firstly, a music video is just a music video it is not a 16 episode drama, I for one am glad that the storyline was squished into the 5 and a half minutes of the video, it wasn’t over complicated and we could see what was happening straight away- think of it in the context of a drama, Joon was supposed to kill the girl, has a change of heart and saves her, while looking after her falls in love, then he has to leave for however long and in that time his friend and the girl fall for eachother, when he’s back he can’t take it because he gave up his goal to save the girl and then kills himself. It’s simple and straightforward, a music video doesn’t need to convey some deep message, it’s simply a storyline to make an enjoyable video. A music video needs to be dramatic, it’s only 5:30 mins long how else are you going to get the storyline across if it’s not a bit dramatic??
If a K-drama music video is what you’re after then go spend 20 minutes of your life watching Lovey Dovey or Cry Cry; most people like the 5 minute mv to enjoy the song/dance/storyline and then to be done with watching.
You also failed to mention how well this video was executed in terms of editing, angles, etc, the quality is perfect (which at least they have a good quality music video in the space of 5 minutes, unlike the 20 minute ones which turn out to be a complete shambles- and I like T-ara but I was not imressed). I will admit, I always find Joon’s acting to be a bit overdone but he’s improved, Thunder is not a natural actor at all, he seems to always just plaster on a blank look when he’s supposed to be acting, but he’s a singer/dancer so I’m not going to fault him on that.
I would have liked to see more of the choreography because it looks awesome, so I can’t wait to see it performed on music shows.
Overall, I think this writer is either a completer hater of mblaq or only has the ability to criticise, there was so much more that could have been written in this article, this was a very poor review in my opinion and I really hope another writer could go ahead and write a better article than this one.
http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
Ok there were 3 articles about MBLAQ in the last 2 days on seoulbeats and not one writer had written a positive article- there’s constructive critism and then there’s just articles to sit there and point out anything that wasn’t to your taste.
I’m hoping the next writer to write about them actually has something good to say.
Even the millions of SM articles on this site actually have some good comments in there come on seoulbeats X__X
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LL4QDJLVFDT2RDIZYBALSE75JE angel29
I actually liked the MV, but the ending killed me. Too dramatic that my heart cannot take it. But the story line is clean. For something that runs 5:37, I’d say it is very watchable. I would choose it over an MV that runs longer than 10 minutes because those MVs you’d only watch once to know what’s going to happen and then just wait for the short version to be released. For this MV however, my one complaint is that there weren’t enough group shots. The boys looked nice dancing to the song that I was thinking it was a waste not seeing more of them.

http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
I wish there was more of the choreography shown, it looked so good from what there was of it =(
And I definetly agree about it being watchable, the mvs over 6 minutes kill me, I haven’t been able to make myself watch Lovey Dovey fully yet =/

Pinkmonkey93
I thought that this, as a MV with some semblance of a drama storyline, was done WAY better than DBSK’s Before You Go. Both songs were good, but I think MBLAQ’s did it for me because of its intense cinematography, and it was less pretentious than BYG, and I liked that it wasn’t all gray tones throughout like BYG was. Another thing that I really appreciate was that It’s War remembered that it was a MV and not a TV series, and kept the video at an acceptable length. BYG (and Cry Cry) was overkill, I’m not going to sit around for ten minutes watching a MV for poorly acted drama when I can simply turn on my TV to AMC or TNT for drama. There’s only so much that I can take of poor acting by people who really weren’t meant to be actors in the first place before I go jump off a cliff.
The only thing I wish was different about this video (and it seems that I’m not the only one) is that I wanted more of the choreography to be shown. The dance just looks amazing; the parts that I could see just really impressed me when combined with the song (which I love). I never really paid attention to MBLAQ before, but they caught my heart with Cry, and they’re reeling it in with It’s War. :) Best of luck to them in 2012! I really hope that they (and UKiss) win the awards and recognition that they deserve!

whatthefrell
“The only thing I wish was different about this video (and it seems that I’m not the only one) is that I wanted more of the choreography to be shown. The dance just looks amazing..”
Yep, it would be so great if they put out a Dance Version too!
http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
I agree 100% the choreography needs to be showcased more, the snippets we saw look awesome ^__^

www.aura71_merjan
love this song great job Mblaq!
http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava
ok so I showed this mv to my friend who knows nothing about kpop other than what i tell her, and i watched her watch this and she was so impressed, she really loved this mv, she liked how straightforward and dramatic it was, and this is from a girl who is completely into all the ‘artsy’ cool kinda stuff
http://twitter.com/singaporetwins singaporetwins
I think the mv was really great… it wasn’t too overdramatic… in fact… there was not that much blood, bullets and tears… only in the beginning and the end… and a little in the middle… but that was only to develope the plot. And it had an amazing message… Joon chose to kill himself instead of having to choose between love and friendship… he realizes that both are important and he can’t choose between either. And yeah… the suicide was a bit overdramatic, but it’s like a lot of action mvs and even movies… hello… it reminded me of Wanted… even the way the bullet was carved… so that was like an American influence. And I don’t think that the purpose of the mv was to show how serious MBLAQ is… the mv just suits the song… the title and the music go perfectly with it… I mean.. with a title like It’s War, I think you’d expect an action mv… I don’t think you critically analyzed the mv and just placed it into a stereotype, like how you said people could overlook 49 Days based on previous experience with previous dramas. I think you should revisit the mv and look at it with new eyes… and not think/compare it with other mvs… just take it at face value… like it’s your first mv.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002274180844 Yuuki Nguyen Kurosu
I LOVE IT’S WAR!!! FEEL SO SAD FOR LEE JOON OPPA THAT I WATCHED THE MV 3 TIMES AND CRY LIKE CRAZY!!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1415567288 Fernanda McCain
I think the mv was a masterpiece, and better that anything it’s not 15-10 minutes long
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WHOBO6KPNRUP7NTW5YSSRGADNY Pauline
vote for MBLAQ on Mnet.com!!
Guest
I like The Wanted’s “Warzone” better.
http://www.facebook.com/noor.zulkifli Zukhriena Aelia
i likethis song…..do the best…