F I L M G H O U L

2NE1 - I Love You (2012)

I’ve become completely fascinated by these abstract geometrical non-spaces that abound in k-pop videos (as well as in Busby Berkeley musicals and iconic Seijun Suzuki…!), and with the M/V for “I Love You”, 2NE1 (and - I would love to know -whoever directs and designs their stuff) deliver once againhugely cinematic (romance on a train! fog! shadows!) visuals to their single, culminating, like “I Am the Best” and many others, in this sort of amazing visual display and choreography. This incredibly vibrant and stimulating style of set design, alongside the genre’s playful shattering of gender binaries, was my entry point into k-pop and will most likely remain my main source of attraction to it — and helpful gateway to the music itself, which is often too saccharine for my own tastes, but sometimes, and increasingly, too irresistible to contain.