Thoughts on Momentum PV

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by mlkrepublic

i guess i'll be the only one disagreeing with you guys here. i think this is one of her worst pvs ever. she's never looked this bad in her pvs before...

Seriously? O______O

[immel]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Seriously? O______O

I doubt he was joking.

There's two sides of everything, unless they're multifaceted... or circular.

[chikara]

I always wonder where some of the ideas come from in regards to ideas for different PV's from different artists. This one reminds both my wife and I of a slightly unknown Fairy Tale (sp) called "The Little Match Girl". credits go to Hans Christian Anderson for the story.

It starts out with a little girl who is forced to sell matches in a town, yet nobody would buy them from her and she knew that is she returned home without any money, she would be beaten by her father. The story, as well as the video brings tears to my eyes, but in the end, she lights a match and sees different images and the final one is her grandmother who says whenever a shooting star rockets across the sky, a soul is taken from earth, at that point a shooting star goes across the sky. She then lights all the matches because she does not wish her grandmother to leave her, as the grandmother is very kind and loving towards her. She is found the following morning frozen in a corner of the village.

Her lighting the candles and them blowing out and going dark in the video reminds us of this story, as well as the village. It is also possible these are only similarities between the PV and the fairy tale. Anyway, what do any of you think.....

[RoboNyanya]

^
I think...that that is extremely interesting. I vaguely remember that story but the similarity hadn't occurred to me until you brought it up.
While it's certainly not the most elaborate or deepest PV of hers, it offers an interesting story to analyze with the little twist at the end.

I had a different take on it, but HirunoKaze basically summed up what I meant with the restless spirit and the people being aware of it. She thinks they're looking at her, but really she is already dead and does not realize it.

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by chikara

I always wonder where some of the ideas come from in regards to ideas for different PV's from different artists. This one reminds both my wife and I of a slightly unknown Fairy Tale (sp) called "The Little Match Girl". credits go to Hans Christian Anderson for the story.

It starts out with a little girl who is forced to sell matches in a town, yet nobody would buy them from her and she knew that is she returned home without any money, she would be beaten by her father. The story, as well as the video brings tears to my eyes, but in the end, she lights a match and sees different images and the final one is her grandmother who says whenever a shooting star rockets across the sky, a soul is taken from earth, at that point a shooting star goes across the sky. She then lights all the matches because she does not wish her grandmother to leave her, as the grandmother is very kind and loving towards her. She is found the following morning frozen in a corner of the village.

Her lighting the candles and them blowing out and going dark in the video reminds us of this story, as well as the village. It is also possible these are only similarities between the PV and the fairy tale. Anyway, what do any of you think.....

Yeah, the first few pages covered it all pretty well :p

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by SheFliesHigher

She did a much better job in HANABI episode 2.

She did? it always look horrible when she cries on PVs!

Originally Posted by asongforXX

I saw the word "dead"! =O *shocked*

It's not the first time she dies LOL I just love her suffocating to death when oxygen runs out inside the ice cube in About you! Or her being crushed like garbage by the elevator on Ladies Night!!! Or her being burnt to ashes and later being buried on Free & Easy! I wonder what her next death might be?

[truehappiness]

I do wonder if people who cry "well" exist..

I mean what is it to 'cry well?' :\

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I do wonder if people who cry "well" exist..

I mean what is it to 'cry well?' :\

Huh? what are you talking about? nobody is talking about crying well. We're talking about "acting" well. There are bad acting on crying and good act on crying. None of her crying actings (very few exception like WHATEVER for example) have been good and look rather fake. That's why her cryings look horrible, not because they are "good" or "bad" cryings, they're just bad acting.

[RoboNyanya]

Kind of an old point, but I just looked up the thing on lilies, the fleur de lis and all, and I didn't get anything that clearly spelled out that it is symbolic of resurrection. Yes, the fleur-de-lis could represent Jesus which has connotations of being brought back to life, but it was also mentioned that the fleur de lis is more often associated with Mary. So it feels like a bit of a stretch. I'm not saying I'm dubious of the person who first mentioned the connection, but I'd like to know where they got their information.

However, having reviewed the rest of this thread this PV is like--ten times more interesting! Even if we are analyzing the hell out of it

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

Huh? what are you talking about? nobody is talking about crying well. We're talking about "acting" well. There are bad acting on crying and good act on crying. None of her crying actings (very few exception like WHATEVER for example) have been good and look rather fake. That's why her cryings look horrible, not because they are "good" or "bad" cryings, they're just bad acting.

Well, how should she act while crying then?

Just curious, since this is brought up in any crying-PV.. i.e HEAVEN / this one..

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Well, how should she act while crying then?

Like a real person does. Her crying looks fake and unnatural. Her facial expressions don't look like those of someone who's crying for real, or if so, they look quite erratic. Unintentional emotional crying is a rather complex action that uses facial muscles in a certain pattern. One needs to act well in order for the emotional crying to not look fake. You might end up using some "laughing expressions" or do some weird moves that aren't natural to crying if you don't act well, and ayu does that a lot like the weird "nose itching" move she does at some of her cryings. It's just like smile. Fake smiling exists and if you're well aware of what a real smile looks like you can easily tell whether people are really smiling or just faking it. A good acting has to look closer to real than to fake. So judging is as simple as that.

[truehappiness]

I'm sure there's a reason why she cries the way she does though..

I mean, perhaps she's being directed to? rainy day's window-Ayu crying scenes seemed believable and were different from her usual 'crying'..

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I'm sure there's a reason why she cries the way she does though..

There's not a reason or explanation for bad acting. When I first watched HANABI~episode II~ I felt quite ashamed for ayu Her crying was so fake....in HEAVEN there's a moment we aren't sure she's going to laugh or cry, it looks bizarre, and then she starts have some weird random moves, they sort look like she's gathering energy in order to release the "crying action". In "momentum" she look up and makes a weird smile before forcing the crying. None of these look like natural crying. They seem fake and unprofessional. It's a flaw and well, ayu's not a real actress anyway, we can't expect her do nail it perfectly, however we can critize it (sometimes I hope she won't go crying in PVs cause I'm afraid they'll look fake)

[truehappiness]

Can't there be some sort of blame on the director? He/she after all is the one saying: "Ayu go here. Ayu move your head that way. Ayu pose like this."

At least that's what I gather from making-ofs. Ayu just puts her own input in if needed..

I mean, rainy day had some pretty 'natural' crying in real-non-music-world terms..

But are there any example of PVs where a singer is singing as well as crying? And doing it well?

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Can't there be some sort of blame on the director? He/she after all is the one saying: "Ayu go here. Ayu move your head that way. Ayu pose like this."

Yeah, definitely. The director spotting the "bad acting" should do another take on the scene again, until ayu was able to cry in a less fake way. The acting however is part of ayu skills, not the director's. The director can't "act" for somebody else. If they told ayu to cry in the scene and she did it in a fake way, she was the one who made the mistake. If the director accepts the fake crying to be something decent and put it on the video, then that's his mistake.

But are there any example of PVs where a singer is singing as well as crying? And doing it well?

Maybe, I can't remember atm.

[RoboNyanya]

If Ayu were to cry realistically and without inhibition, she'd mess up her eyeliner and mascara now wouldn't she? Not that I would mind; there's a sort of artistic allure to it, but I'm weird, and most people would be like "WHAT!? She looks awful!" She still has to keep a pretty image up and if that means more well, 'decorative' crying, I don't really mind. Just depends on what the intention is. If she were in a realistic dramatic film, I'd be ruthless about it, but this is just a music video.

[nodoka]

Momentum was a really good PV i thought. the whole meaning behind it and stuff really made it interesting to watch. no just Ayu dancing around smiling. but overall i thought that it was a really shiny PV and I loved Ayu's look in it as well. I'm going to go out and buy that trenchcoat dress w/ pumps and style my hair like that just because of the PV. Well maybe...XD

[extepan]

it really does look like no way to say! but i prefer momentum much better, because no way to say looks more like a soap opera.

[immature_brian]

In the momentum PV, I guess the old man who laid flowers is the white-dressed Ayu's love when she is still alive...

[baka-ranger]

yeah i read somewhere..dunno where it was but that old man's her lover form who knows when and shes a ghost standing next to the lamp post where she apparently died T__T
Then it said that she wished to see him so much and a spirit iunno prob the candle Ayu allowed her to see him again. Hence why she's lighting the candle which represents crying Ayu's spirit. And when that gust of wind blows at the end it blows out all the candles and her spirit disappears before she can get a hold of him =D
There was probably more but thats all I can remember..and yeah its prob been mentioned wayyy earlier in this post..but I kinda cbf checking back=___=
sorry for the non-essayish english, I'm not good at explaining and really am too lazy right now XD