Ladies Night PV meaning?

[Diana]

Well.. I just watched Ladies Night and he asked me: What is the meaning of this PV, its confusing! And I said: I dunno... So Im asking you. Does anyone know? It is confusing when I look at it ^^

[Melody Faus]

There's a meaning to it? I always think it was just there to look good.

Um.... Well, I rememeber reading somewhere that it's to do with the women of power in the world and the different types of women.... maybe?

[AyuHamasaki01]

pfff... I have no idea, but then again we can ask ourselves:
What meaning does the PV "Ourselves" has??? right???
'cause I don't really think that Ourselves PV fits with the song...

And maybe Ayu has a special meaning with it, a personal meaning...

BTW; Did you already send the About You instrumental??? Cause it hasn't arrived yet

[JimmyKoria]

Seach AHS there is a thread with a bunch of critiques on the videos.

[JimmyKoria]

I skimmed this thread http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showth...t=ladies+night I might have missed some stuff so recheck it.

Originally Posted by Baernash

One of the greatest PVs released this year!

PV is showing cloning of ppls to cybernetic bodies to easy control them. It's also close connected with movie Equilibrium based on novel "1984" wrote by George Orwall.

I love AYU SF-style PVs sooooo much

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

I actually thought it was easy to understand. This is another "Girls Power" PV.
- Ayu walking in shiny pink and blue with the stuffed toys represents how girls loves to catch people's attention with their looks. She's curious and she has control over the situation (she's got a key in her hand she proudly exposes).
-The commander thing has nothing to do with Hitler, it's just showing how a woman can can be strong enough to command a "troop of guys" (not referring to army but their power in society, how they can actually have jobs such as being presidents and stuff).
-The maid is NOT whipping a GIRL but a GUY. Again it's nothing more than girls power. While the maid is in a lower social position than her boss, she's still able to get him under her skin.
-The black lady with cat face is turning that guys life into a hell because girls can do that.
-The girl in white with the butterflies shows women can live fine without a man by their side.
-Ayu's afraid of facing her true self (the 2 ayu's) specially because she doesn't want to lose her identity (faceless ayu) but she gets crushed by her own insecurities (the elevator). [This part shows that even though women can be determined as showed before, inside they still have a lot of insecurities to deal with]
-However, in the end, because of the insecurities, as much as women want to show how strong they have become, the men still have the ladies under their skin Women can't just live without men.

Originally Posted by JimmyKoria

Well the girl in the butterfly room, she’s dressed as someone from the Victorian age, where girls where “girls” and beauty was more I guess heighten? It’s when people learned to be shallow and vein. Also notice the lady has masks on her dress. Which can be the different faces one can hide behind. The room is full of butterflies which tells you the room is about constant change. I guess it’s something like, “you can change your mask often…”

The room with the Maid, clearly fetish. She is riding a horse in the end, a rocker horse. The guy isn’t being “attacked” by her. The room with the lady covered in black is probably reference to “fetish” as well, the mannequins are dressed in vinyl. I guess Hamasaki is trying to give women an more “sexual” outlook. Sort of what Madonna claimed to have been doing at one point in her career. I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure a made whipping someone is kinky.

Also when she’s walking down the hall, she has a key. This is almost to say “This is the key to your future it only opens one door.” But what happens when the key, or maybe “fate” you’re handed doesn’t open the door? She is in a panic and tries to open any door she can. I guess it goes with the insecurities as someone else pointed out.

The end is strangest, I don’t think she’s meant to be a real person in that scene. She’s just a toy for a man?

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

To me, the PV representer Ayu's career. At the start with her pulling the Toy along represents that Ayu has the mind of the child and is looking for something to follow (like the toy is following Ayu). The key she holds is her career and behind each door is different kinda direction & sound. I thought the room with the ladie & the butterflies was actually kinda some geshia and represented a Japanese steorotype meaning of how the west see Japan. The room with the women painting the models black, represented a more urban direction & career like Namie perhaps. The room with the maid whipping away represented a sexy route, using her sexuality to progress further. I'm not sure about what the whole leadership part was, to me it shows Ayu the leader of the Jpop scene and the hardcore Ayu fans in Japan mimicking Ayu's style & look. With them listening to every word she says.
The scene with the faceless Ayu to me represented a Ayu that a man created & controls and the real Ayu didn't recognise and gets squashed by the lift which represents man control over women. As does the end scene which suggests rape. I think the story behind it is that ladies/women have control but they only have so much control unfortunally.

Originally Posted by qwerty

Additional thoughts:

When she looks at her faceless self, she runs into the elevator, only to be caved in. I think what's running through her head when she looks at faceless self is, "This is what I'm going to be if I choose a future." The whole caving in thing probably symbolizes society's look down upon view on Ayu if she doesn't choose a future. She didn't choose one, as shown by running into the elevator. Perhaps she's thinking, "If I choose a future, then this is what's going to happen to me. I'm going to have no personality; society is going to look down upon me; I'm going to be murdered/raped."

:/ This is possibly the most ambiguous and perplexing music video that Ayumi has made. It absolutely tops "Alterna" in creativity. I'm not surprised some U.S. artists haven't been this creative.

Originally Posted by PrismaticTears

1984 and Equilibrium only have the "dominating, all-controlling government" thing going for them but that's it, if you wanted to stretch it you could link the Telescreens and the video broadcasts/drugs used to keep people in order but it's a far stretch.

Already many good interpretations have been tossed out with her future/career - doors thing etc etc, I noticed one person also noticed the stirrups. It was a young boy on the table (don't ask me why, I just imagine the older maid giving a young master a licking and there was nothing to suggest feminimity except for the hair which I'll touch in a moment) and it was a (I forget the term) table with stirrups for preganant women's exams/actual birth. This one may be stretching it but the maid is using her power/feminimity (maid = stereotypical female role) to push the young master into a submissive (female) position, long hair and such, getting satisfaction at using her feminimity in that manner. Actually that all sounded like a lot of rubbish, I should've slept more last night but feel free to pick it apart.

People have already gotten the white lady with her diferent faces and butterflies, however with the black lady she's using liquid latex to cover the mannequins with a sort of "new skin" to change them from their pure white to darkness, completely changing their appearance in a sort of 180 from what they previously were. Liquid latex has a large fetishist's market so it could be saying something about how some has felt her career has gone from the pure little girl to some kinky sexual temptress.

For the end part with the guy everyone seems to be screaming REYP but as I interpret it she's sitting in the dark room alone by herself with nothing but her "past" to haunt her, "the man" sneaking up on her, looking somewhat like a zombie, continually resurrecting himself to follow her and creep up when she's vulnerable and alone.

I was just trying to touch on a few points however it all came out really jumbled, I might take another stab at being coherent later.

^Also the rocking horse is the same rocking horse present in the ourselves pv? There was another thread were we discussed various other pvs as well.

[Norrel]

Wow.. that pretty much sums it all up.

[extepan]

wow i just watch it for entretainment...i never read into it so deep! it's like reading shakespeare for my A Level english!

[AyuHamasaki01]

Uhm... I don't wanna say anything but the maid is hitting Ayu!!! Not her boss!!!
I think that's why Ayu is well, "dead" at the end...

[Diana]

Wow O_o Thanx for a large post...

Originally Posted by AyuHamasaki01

pfff... I have no idea, but then again we can ask ourselves:
What meaning does the PV "Ourselves" has??? right???
'cause I don't really think that Ourselves PV fits with the song...

And maybe Ayu has a special meaning with it, a personal meaning...

BTW; Did you already send the About You instrumental??? Cause it hasn't arrived yet

I think i sent it :/ ... I`ll try it again tomorrow when i get from school

[Rebirthia]

I think Ladies night is one of the pv's with more meaning in her whole videography. But I'm too tired to think and write about it. (It's not a joke, it's the truth) Maybe one day.

the title looks so uninteresting, and precisely, that's what allows it to develop a wide spectre of topics...

[ayumi.hamasaki.gulity.08]

the meaning of ladies night is , these ar her dreams and all the locked doors are her nightmares and unlocked doors are her good dreams
( she is changed into something in video)

[Lanz16]

Ladies Night PV would be the most mysterious of all Ayu PVs.

The observation I've read by other users is so detailed and I understand now what the PV means.