IU made her much awaited comeback with ‘Love Wins All’ which has already achieved its All-Kill status. An All-Killer in K-Pop is a song that tops various musical platforms simultaneously. This achievement is secured when the song is on the number 1 spot on Melon’s daily and Top 100 charts, Genie and Bugs’ daily and real-time charts, YouTube Music’s Top Songs chart, VIBE’s daily chart, and the real-time charts of FLO and iChart. While the song’s promotional content all features IU with BTS’ Kim Taehyung, you won’t find his name on the charts! That’s because V has once again reignited the actor in him to play Taejoon, the name christened to his character in the music video by netizens.
What’s happening in the MV?
The music video which almost runs like a dystopian sci-fi short film reveals Taejoon and Jihye who are covered in minor injuries and are panickedly running away from a cube that’s chasing them. Jihye (played by IU) signals Taejoon to go in a different direction. This non-vocal gesture has been deducted in multiple ways. One being the cube detects their presence by their voices – this theory gets ruled out by the later happenings of the video – and the other is that Jihye is deaf/mute, and communicates through sign language. Taejoon is also disabled, partially blind in his right eye.
They stumble across a decapitated mall and are confronted by a heap of clothes. Whilst trying to hide from the cube, they stop by an unmanned digital store where Taejoon finds a camcorder. When he points it at a stressed Jihye, it shows her calm and uninjured. She also seems to be missing a lip piercing she’d been sporting in the video’s ‘real life’. This is considered a symbolism in which the piercing suggests that it was a ‘shackle’ that held her back from speaking(which explains the theory of her being mute), and the camcorder shows her capable of speaking. Similarly, when the camcorder is pointed at Taejoon, his milky eye appears to be identical to his ‘good eye’.
At this point, the couple is using the camcorder to visualize a happier life where they sit in what seems to be a fancy restaurant in the decapitated mall. The visuals shift from the real-time vantage point to the camcorder’s fantastical view. In one glimpse of the camcorder’s view, the couple is seen having a happy dinner while a crowd of people around them masked in black are pointing fingers at them suggesting that the camcorder might actually be showing them their past where their love was judged and rejected by society, but they didn’t care because they had each other.
They’re seen trying on wedding clothes and taking goofy pictures at a photo booth. A clip featuring their past also discloses that Jihye used to be a singer when she could previously speak. While the couple is having a sweet moment on stage, it’s interrupted by the mysterious cube. The cube chases them until their back at the spot with a huge pile of clothes. The couple tries defending themselves, but the cube seems indestructible. They crumble onto the floor while Jihye covers Taejoon’s good eye as the cube advances towards them. The final shots show them levitating off the ground, suggesting they are experiencing the sweet release of death before they disintegrate into nothing. The clothes they were wearing earlier add onto the pile, just like the others’.
What is the Controversy with the MV?
The controversy with the song/music video sparked even before the song’s release when it was originally titled ‘Love Wins’ which is the slogan for the Korean queer rights movement. Seeing the insensitivity, the title was then changed to the current ‘Love Wins All’.
Nara Kim, a prominent queer model, and stylist who reportedly works for HYBE released an Instagram post with a now-edited caption offering subtle criticism to the music video. It read,
“I don’t want to be distorted as a straight and non-disabled person with normalcy in the camera.
Nara Kim, on an now-edited Instagram post’s caption
[sic]”
She later took to her stories to elaborate on her criticism. She began by revealing the song’s first violation concerning the title and later explained how the plot of the music video had undertones of ableism wherein the camcorder which according to the director was “a love filter” had wiped the disabilities off of the characters.
Kim’s argument is that the last thing the disabled community needs is a form of art showing a ‘love filter’ to completely get rid of their disabilities. Because in cases more than often; disabilities cannot be ‘rid of’. Instead, the world could use love and compassion amongst people despite their disabilities.
She also mentioned the insensitivity of the original title of the song(‘Love Wins’) was worsened when the storyline shows the couple being judged for being together, a notion experienced by queer people all over the world.
“I mean, a music video featuring two rich, non-disabled world stars (known as cisgender hetero) uses disabilities, minorities[the queer community] as props to say about overcoming, ending up with a very normal ending of wearing a wedding dress and a tuxedo. What needs to be overcome is the world, not disability or minorities. Stop the shallow compassion and using minorities as inspirational material.
Nara Kim, via her stories.
[sic]”
***
The intentions behind the plot of this music video may or may not have been intentional. But, when the essence of a marginalized community is taken and “propped” into art as “inspirational material” and a person from the same community comes forward to express that this act could be violating to the community – they must be heard. So, while this may have been a first-time offense from the artist that comes from a stunted viewpoint due to privilege, an apology is definitely due.