Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Official MV: Steven Ma & Fala Chen duet, 'Platonic Love'.
馬浚偉 x 陳法拉 - 非戀之情 Official MV
I'd refrained from giving my first impression of this mv so as not to be rash in voicing my pov. After sleeping on it, here is my honest opinion, tell me yours. Steven looks handsome and Fala looks ravishing in the mv BUT....
I think the mv missed the very heart/essence of the song as it not only fails to convey the lyrics' message of the Mala's platonic love relationship but also fails to evoke the images of Mala's private moments (re lyrics) of Steven comforting Fala sans the crowd. In short, the mv fails as a visual expression of Platonic Love song when Steven opted to visualize a love-for-all theme over a platonic love theme, in doing so, the mv loses the intimacy of the lyrics and the identity of the song. True that the literal translation of its song title is "non-romantic love relation" but from its lyrics, the song is a very personal, very private and very intimate running conversation of an older 'brother' sagely comforting/advising an aggrieved younger 'sister'. I know the intent of the mv is to convey different forms of love, and as an encompassing 'love-for-all' song theme it would be a nice enough mv with its positive vibe but the problem is that the mv is not relevant to the Platonic Love duet. This mv is more like a random home video of an ensemble cast (Mala inclusive) with no main leads anchoring a theme or used as a focal point, which in my opinion is a flaw in itself because in striving to be 'nice' and 'positive', the mv loses the integrity of entertainment and becomes bland.
To elaborate, as an eagerly long anticipated Mala's Platonic Love mv, I not only find the mv lacking a tight thematic focus but also missing that very important 'wow-oomph' factor that makes a mv stand out from the crowd! Furthermore, the mv fails to visually capture the very essence of the song, which is the message that a platonic love relationship (as opposed to romantic) does and can exist between a man and a woman. The mv also fails to evoke the images of the lyrics which is the duo's very personal/intimate and very private in-the-moment spontaneous dialog exchange, which to their credit, both Steven and Fala gave an excellent portrayal of their characters' personalities and feelings. Moreover, the presence of superfluous people+baby+dogs cluttered/crowded the whole mv, muddled the focus and message of the song, and more importantly, intruded in the duo's intimacy that is the essence of the song. No offense but honestly, I couldn't careless about the other people in the mv and would have rather them not being featured in the mv at all.
I know Steven wants to promote the different kinds of love via the mv but it is precisely the contrived deliberateness I dislike because the mv comes across like an evangelistic propaganda or a love-for-all commercial or a "love me, love my dogs love my friends package" than an artistic mv for Platonic Love. If want to promote love-for-all then write another song for that mv, let Platonic Love mv be a pure Mala entertaining musical (like Broadway or stage show, or did a dance number like 'So you think you can dance' ) video for all Mala fans to enjoy without the lofty intent. I'm sorry to say the Platonic Love mv is a miss for me in that it does not realized its song's potentiality - mv is not bad but not outstanding either when it could be so much more because Mala were really good in their portrayals. At least this mv is much better than TVB's Heaven Will mv - now that was truly a WTH was that mv.
vid credit: TrueStarHongKong
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When I watched the MV, I had a feeling that the MV was trying to depict that platonic siblingly love can exist in this world and it is not exclusive between Steven and Fala, but also the other crews, the dogs, babies etc. Having said that, it is a confusing message because then in the lyrics and as emphasised in one of the moment in the MV 'it was only you and me who understands'. Overall, I do enjoy the MV because like you said Steven looks handsome and Fala looks pretty in the video, but in my honest opinion, the MV does lack in moving people's heart about a touching sibling love. The thing that annoys me most though is the lipsyncing is not syncing.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I finally found the fanmade MV I had been researching about Steven and his three sisters. I don't know if you have seen it before: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/92Sx3-pY8k8/
As to Heaven's Will video, I treated the Northern Lights' creation as the official one. That itself does justice to the song.
Yes, I've watched that video and it is uploaded here too - I like it very much - the miv is poignant, relevant, nostalgic and without any lofty intent but to entertain the viewers, and entertain it did. My thinking is that Mala MV is a commercial mv for a commercial song in a commercial album released in a highly competitive music industry. It will most likely be available in karaoke - the mv's popularity and draw (to general public) will be all that much more had the mv just featured Mala without the clutter in the mv featuring irrelevant people, And baby? And dogs? expressing sibling love and a touching sibling love at that? - Gimme a break. The mv totally missed the touching aspect of the song. the mv could have been so great judging by just how brilliant Mala's interplay was and right on! Fala looks absolutely ravishing, and her petulant and pouty expressions are endearing, while Steven's big brother's indulgent expression is cute.
DeleteAfter watching a lot of official HK MVs, I don't have much high expectation for official MVs, and perhaps that's why I don't feel as disappointed. It has been the trend lately that I find fanmade MVs usually more meaningful and touching than the official MV.
DeleteI agree largely with what you said, especially that the MV totally falls short of delivering touching and moving feelings for the love that the song is trying to depict. But one thing that I would beg to differ from your point of view though is I changed my mind about what I thought was random stuff on the MV before watching it (ie. baby, dog, etc), I think they are symbolic of a different nature of platonic love vs that of romantic, platonic love being not exclusive where as romantic love is. Having said that, I do think that the 'random' stuffs could have been used in a better way to support the focus on Mala sibling love more than to distract the attention from it. But then again, I have lost faith in HK MV quality for a long time. Haven't seen good quality HK karaoke MV for a long long time.
Akazukin: Steven did an excellent job with his previous 3 mv for his Cherish1 album. His 'mother' mv (my favorite) depicts a very intimate and personal story, totally drawing me into his feelings for his late mom, And I also enjoy the other two - Ru Yuan and 'An Understanding' and what's more, their mvs are relevant to their respective songs. Although I don't know any of the people in "An Understanding" I like the mv and I feel their comradeship as Steven truly captured their relationship as written in the song. I can totally re-watch the 3 videos on loop without having this feeling of regret or disappointment that the mv could have been so much better like I feel with the Mala duet.
Delete"I do think that the 'random' stuffs could have been used in a better way to support the focus on Mala sibling love more than to distract the attention from it. "
Yes, the presence of the 'crowd' distracts rather than elevates the mv not to mention irrelevant to the song - more's the pity. Viewing the Mala's interaction in the mv and their Siu Chiu and Pu Chung Ling's, I can just imagine how good that mv could have turned out without all the distracting randomness.