Well. Looks like Cube achieved their desire for a 19+ MV, at least by Korean standards. Anyways, I feel like writing a spontaneous review.
Compared to their first plot-based MV, this time I feel that the artistic direction was better and more cleverly shot even if the song and plot is just as shallow. That's probably one of the advantages of a music video over a TV show or movie and they were able to utilize it (adds another layer)! Awesome. SM can take a page or two out of their director's book (snickers at the Wolf/Growl drama MVs). So warning: spoilers below!
In summary, the story of this MV is that Hyunseung and Hyuna are a couple living in a hippie trailer with relationship problems. It starts out with Hyunseung wasted after a threesome one night stand and HyunA wasted at a club. Both are portrayed to be severely hungover but manage to get away from their situation that morning. When HyunA comes back the trailer, shit hits the fan for Hyunseung and then they have the sexy times and a fight. Somehow they meet up again in a car and continue the sexy times and then seem to reconcile amidst fireworks before being trapped dancing in between race cars. All the while they're singing about being afraid of their risky relationship ending.
Things that worked and were amazing and made my artsy-fartsy-MVs fangirl joyous: all the gloriously well-placed angles and shots!, their opening scenes starting right in conflict, the trailer's design setting, good use of unused props (i.e. beer thats not drunk because they're hungover! it's not useless like their gun in Troublemaker, even if Hyunseung has another useless rifle), their solo singing shots in the trailer, better efforts at making HyunA-Hyunseung contrasts, all the mirror shots, the jazzy music, good music-plot timing (though that means less dancing), contrasts between hyuna's and Hyunseung's hallway shots (hyuna=artsy and vandalism, hyunseung=cramped in a trailer), all the raunchy scenes (tho see below), Hyunseung's joker face scene (glorious camerawork & content), hyuna/Hyunseung's cracked mirror switching, back to back at the end visual, dancing at the end visuals, ying and yang cars, transition to the last scene via fire, better mixing of their voices in the chorus than in troublemaker.
Things that did not work: Hyunseung's "barf", hyuna's rapping, too much oversized dollar bills throwing, cube's attempt at making them seem hungover and wasted, the entire refrigerator full of Budweiser?! were they sponsored?, hyuna's fried hair & blue wig, Hyunseung's hair dye, some obscure camera angles reminded me of when i was trying to hide awkward things via different angles, wtf fireworks?, entire dancing in between cars concept- why?, the nasally "now-now" singing, that /one/ dance scene that makes the brick street almost unnecessary.
I am not a vocally-focused person, so most of my comments in regards to their singing is purely opinion-based. I also prefer dancing, especially if a kpop plot MV highlights the dance well (SM fails at this hilariously), but this is clearly a plot-based MV, so gotta make sacrifices. More critical comments: Speaking about the raunchiness, this screams Kpop watered-down sexy times. It highly reminds me of BEG's "Abracadabra" and Gain's "Bloom" MV's of artistically "censored" and clean sex/masturbation via full-clothing shots in mid-coitus action and waking up half nude. However, yet again, HyunA & Hyunseung... are still awkward actors and with each other, though this MV covers it up better than in the Troublemaker MV. Stoic faces and angst singing galore! Which makes the joker face scene that much better and the raunchy scenes that much better. One interesting theory that'd make their bright hair colors less useless, though, is if Hyunseung has two-faced issues (he has so many mirror scenes!) and they're fighting over either a supernatural element or being escapees from a cult (see the posters and living in a trailer). Either that, or its just good visuals.
Anyways, typical watered-down Kpop sexy MV, but at hits more of my artsy preferences, and an improvement on Cube's part from the first Troublemaker. Now, I'm looking forward to see what the dance looks like.
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