Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Takashi Kashiwabara Official Address


Translation:
Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I update my Weibo. I am very sorry! Today through Weibo, I would like to address two things. 

1) I had changed my email address and the address that was uploaded in my Weibo previously does not exist anymore as it was during the time when I was working on the project of Happy Plan. Our company does not represent them. As I have not been using the previous address, I could not reply to job opportunities acurately on time.

This is the address to contact me directly.
Website: 10-beans.com
Email addres info@10beans.com 
Kindly contact me for work opportunities 

Other than this, the second thing I would like to address is the project that I mentioned on 18 March. I had been involved in shooting for tourist promotional Board on Shizuoka prefecture. Although I did not appear onscreen, I actually directed, shoot and wrote the script for the video. In order to capture the beauty of the city, I used music, colours and people based on the city. After working for so long we are finally at the production stage to blend in the colours. The length of the video is approximately 40 minutes (which is like  half sitcom and half documentary) type of video. Most of the time the protagonist will appear onscreen. I am very touched by the dedication of the actors that played their roles in the video even if they are not professional actors, but they tried their best to memorise their dialogue. If the video can be upload on web, I will let you know immediately. Please continue your support for me and I wish for everyone happiness. I had uploaded some of the pictures from the video for your viewing. 









Sunday, August 07, 2016

BTS theory behind their music video

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Introduction: Bangtan Boys or widely known as BTS by the international fans. This is a Korean boy band which consist of seven members. The leader is Rap monster and the other members includes Jimin, J-hope, Suga, Jin, Jungkook and V. Their music is a mixture of  Hip hop and Kpop which blended in with their idol image. The reason why the management choice of using Bangtan as the group name is because they wanted to represent a new generation who are bulletproof, which means these boys are not confined by the society or how other people look at them. Therefore, their group logo is the picture of a bulletproof vest. Their music style portray themselves as a strong, unique and tough individual that connects with the youth of this generation. 

BTS dances well to different types of choreography in their music video. They are a bundle of joy to have around and all of them are talented in their own ways. Recently, there has been many discussion about BTS music video which actually narrated into a story. There are many version of the theory which linked one music video to another and Big Hit  entertainment has yet to publish their version of the story. This marketing strategy work extremely well. Their fans, otherwise known as army were searching their past music video to look for the connection, in the process it generated more interest in BTS. It looks like the latest trend is to leave behind some clues for the viewers to spot along the way while promoting their songs. This clever idea gives viewer the satisfaction of being a detective and increase the viewership of their music video. We got to give it to the creative director of those music video for coming out with such creative ideas and to generate such publicity for the boys.  To keep up with the topic that people are so interested in, i decided to watch their video and analyse based on my own understanding. It is definitely not a credible theory but it's definitely quite an insightful journey. 

Boys in love

1) The story begins with our rebellious Bangtan boys having a crush on a girl in school. They tried all means to attract her attention, giving flowers and swooning her over with their "romantic gesture" or "childish ways".

No more dreams

2) The boys make it a point to tell us not to get overwhelm with stress in school work and aggregate score as it does not determine our future. It send a message across that the society need to hear and its the voice of the new generation kids that were generally stressed with studies. The youngsters find it hard to cope with studies and expectations from adults and the society. That caused some serious social issue that leads to suicide rate getting higher. 


Just one day

3) This song is about the youngsters desire to date someone. Its a soft and gentle Kpop music that is different from Bangtan image. It still carries the message of wanting to experience love and fantasize about having a girlfriend.

Danger

4) The boys are back to their tough image again for this song. Interestingly, the music video actually shows some scene where the members are doing their own things (dancing, playing basket ball, boxing and playing piano) respectively. That links to we are bulletproof two, where the boys is trying to get the message across - No pain, no gain. In order to achieve their dreams, one needs to work doubly hard. There were disappointment along the way and they did not want to give up.

War of hormones 
5) The boys trying hard to win a girl over and there were conflicts between the members as V eventually get the girl. Apparently, Jin is secretly hurt and is the most affected among his good friends. 

I need you 

6) I need you is a metaphor that is link to Run and the Butterfly effect. The story develop to the boys always stick together and went through thick and thin since their school days. 

a) One day, Jin felt so down and drives his car near the river. He felt so lonely and the heartbreak of boy-girl relationship and stress drove him to entertain thoughts of ending his life. He had an illusion since he did not actually died but his thoughts drifted to the memories with his good friends. He imagines and picture a series of cause and effect in his mind. We see the boys falling hard through the eyes of Jin. 

b) He saw V being heart broken and guilty over his death. He then decided to head home to seek shelter and comfort. However, he witnessed his father abusing his mother and he accidentally killed his father with the broken glass bottle. He is on his way to a downward spiral as he emerged himself in the water feeling sinful. It is his state of mind having no escape in the darkness of self-reproach.

c) On the other hand, Rapmon experienced hardship in life and is trying to accept Jin "death". He tries his best to get back on his feet and work at the petrol station. However, the harsh reality (money thrown on the floor) has caused him to go back to the "I am done with this crap" type of attitude. 

d) Jungguk was also devastated because of the passing of a close friend (Jin) and walked aimlessly on the street. He felt so lost and gets into a street fight. He is looking for a direction in life too.

e) Suga was full of anger and rage over Jin "death" and chose self destruction using fire. It is actually his state of mind getting clouded with anger and sadness. He screamed and throw tantrum to vent his frustrations. 

f) Jimin was drown in his own sadness in a bathtub. He felt depressed, abandoned and cold from the reality of this world. He wanted to stay in his own world, mourning for the loss of a close friend (Jin). 

g) J-hope was also suffering from serious depression as he struggles to live each day with the pain of losing someone that is close to his heart (Jin). He popped these pills to numb his pain and sleep away his problems.

Run

6) The boys run down the road and rebel against the society. They wanted to be "free" and use that as a platform to express their desire to escape from the harsh world. They are in fact running away from their problems. We can see that the boys are mentally and physically drained. The ending when Jimin burned the picture which Jin miraculously disappear from the group symbolize that the whole "dream" is unreal as Jin is not in the picture because he is the one that imagine or watches this series of events happening in his mind. The storyline is a metaphor about cause and effect, decision and consequences. Jimin eventually burned the photograph as it symbolized that they wanted to change their life.

Butterfly 

7) It is all link to the song butterfly as seen clearly Jin is the one that record the moments of these boys. He has the role of a storyteller who view his friends life using the camera. They have their moment of happiness and they can't turn back the clock. When V jump and dived into the water, it symbolize his determination to change his life and he is willing to face those challenges in life. His friends encouraged him and held their breath as they looked at him. It takes a lot of courage to step out of the comfort zone and reach for the sky. 


Forever young 

8) The boys were once lost in the maze and they were finding their way out at their own pace.  In order to walk out of the darkness in their life, they need to have the courage. The world maybe a scary place to live in, but they believe that they will find a way out of the darkness. There will always be friends waiting at the other end and guiding each other out of that darkness.  Forever young symbolize hope for the generation. Never ending hope as we look at things from another angle (upside down). 

Life will always have challenges and some circumstances are not always justified but we still run forward and leave the past behind. Bangtan have grew up from their younger days and is looking forward to another stage of life. They are actually embracing growth but wanted to remain grounded to their roots. It means that they want to remain true to themselves and accept their pasts which makes them who they are today. 

Dope

9) They send the message that it is extremely tough for them to go through life that is different from others at this age. They work hard and play hard and they eventually found their direction in life. That results in achieving success at a young age and they do sacrifice a lot in the process to reach for the sky. 

Fire 

10) After achieving success, there will always be back slashing and people judging them. The story continues as they burn all the critics that tries to pull them down. Suga mentioned burn it up in the song and to me it means burning all the problems and letting go of the pain. Towards the end, Suga said - I forgive you. That to me mean that they choose to forgive the people that inflicted pain on them.  

Save me

Once in a while, they still goes back to the downward spiral and needed someone to save them before they fall again. They are desperate for help as they face life challenges each day and the feeling of being lonely.  This can be seen as encouraging people who are having depression to seek help and assistance. It is clear that they do not want to go back to depression again. With an unpredictable future, they carry on with their next venture of life.