Before You Read:
BTS is South Korean Kpop boy band with seven members: Jin, Suga, Rap Monster, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. Their debut was in 2013 with their first title track No More Dream. Ever since they continuously released albums and mixtapes. As the result, BTS is now one of the top Kpop boy bands in South Korea. In their career, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series made a remarkable impression to the audience, with the deep message inside of their albums and music videos. I Need You is the first album to come in the series.
Music Video: I Need You
Before I begin on the actual story of the music video, there are two figures you should know to understand not only I Need You, but the whole series of the Most Beautiful Moment in Life. First, you need to know that Jin stands for the pure innocence of human being in this series. This continues even to their latest album, Wings. Jin, a young boy, is the one who is experiencing the downfall and corruption of the youth. He is also the one who actually understands all of the things happening to other members. All other members represent parts of him, but it is not the personality wise. They are representing different hardships and struggles of one innocent boy goes through to grow one step further. It is just a struggle that they are symbolizing, not the whole human aspect of him. Another character you should be paying more attention to is V. V and Rap Monster are the only characters who don’t die in this music video. Their story continues further in the Prologue, Run, and short films.
The music video starts with Jin holding six flower petals. Six flower petals represent six other members of BTS who are going through different hardships.
After that, the flowers fall down on the red Chinese characters, the most beautiful moment in life. The flowers also represent their beautiful moments of the life and there are six stories that this music video is holding. All of them are all different hardships and confusion one youth goes through.
The music video first starts with Suga in his room, flickering fire on the lighter. The fire flickering represents his conflicted feelings and concerns. Then he falls down on the bed, showing he has given up on his life. Later in the music video, he dies by burning himself down.
Then J-Hope appears next. In the video, J-Hope takes out pills from the cabinet and gets overdosed. By looking at the fact that he took the pills out naturally, we can infer that this is not the first time he took an excessive amount of the pills. Then, he looks at the reflection of himself on the water as if it was his last day. Later in the music video, he passes out on the bridge, indicating his death.
Then, it goes to Jin leaving petals on the bright place. That represents them attempting to escape the reality and to go back to the moments when they were happy. On the other hand, it also foreshadows their bright future they will have after all these hardships they go through.
Jung Kook, with dead emotions inside of him, walks down the street, as if he gave up on his entire life. Then he gets triggered by gangs and gets beaten up. Jung Kook never tries to fight back. By looking at that, we can tell that he has no desire to live. Jung Kook, who did not have any motivation to live, meets his death from the car accident.
After that, as the flower petals start to burn up, Jin curls up on the bed as if he is in pain. Burning flower petals mean that the death of the youth has come closer. As I said in the beginning, death does not actually mean the death of the physical body, but it is the symbolism of the end of their youth.
When Rap Monster first appears on the music video, he is at the gas station, filling up the gas on the car. By that, we can tell that Rap Monster is on the trip to somewhere with people he can trust. However, his friends who were on the trip with him leave him behind. That is when Rap Monster becomes alone and gets isolated. This whole scene shows the destruction and breakdown of the human relationships. Later in the video, his candy transforms to the cigarette, which represents when an innocent one corrupts because of self-centered, capitalist society.
When it comes to Jimin, it starts with the waterdrops. It represents that his youth is falling apart and there is the down side of the youth. When Jimin first comes out, he is outside of the bathtub, shuddering from the cold. By looking at the fact there was no attempt to escape, it shows that he is locked inside of somewhere and has given up. Later, he burns up the papers, which represents that his youth is slowly dying up. Then he cries out with regrets and resentments. Then he chooses to commit suicide by drowning himself.
Then the flower fully blooms inside of Jin, meaning that the members are part of Jin. It also means that through these hardships, the youth was able to grow one step further.
V is the next up in the video. The reason why V is last one to be in the video is because his story does not end just by I Need You. It certainly continues until Prologue, Run, Stigma, and all these ties into V’s character in Blood, Sweat, Tears. In I Need You, he was born in the abusive family. Inferring from Prologue, it is best predicted that V’s mother was killed by his father who has alcoholism. When his father was beating up his sister, he was afraid to lose his sister the same way he did with his mother. Because of the fear, he ends up stabbing and killing his father with empty Soju (popular alcohol beverage in Korea) bottle. Afterward, V suffers from the agony that he, himself became the murderer, guilt that he couldn’t save his family, resentments towards his father, and the dreadful future that will soon come to him.
Throughout the entire video, it constantly shows the moments V had with other members, showing how much he misses that time. It also shows the contrast of the youth, when it is not with V’s scene.
In the video, it is clear that V and Rap Monster has the strong relationship that no other members have. Their story also does not end in I Need You but continues even to Wings. V, who was suffering, calls to Rap Monster and they both run away from the painful reality. This delivers the message of the whole album, that they were able to overcome the difficulties and smile because they were all together. However, at the very end, V gets arrested.
In the last scene of the music video, Jin opens up the window and looks at the sky. Him opening the window means that youth has come to the new phase and the sky symbolizes for the bright future they will eventually have.
Summary:
I Need You is just a part of the whole story and you will never understand the big picture if you just look at I Need You music video. However, there is a clear message I Need You delivers to the audience. Members of BTS continuously suffers from different hardships that never ends. When they do, Jin is in pain, but after a moment flower fully bloomed inside of him. This shows that those hardships were just a growing pain they had to experience for their developments. Although they had many changes and difficulties in life, they were able to overcome it because they had moments they missed, people they could trust, and members who were able to make them forget about all the hardships in life. Thanks to all of that, the hardships of youth could just remain as one puzzle piece of their most beautiful moment in life. And the hardships were all necessary for their growth.
Sources:
I Need You (Original Ver.):https://youtu.be/jjskoRh8GTE?list=PL_Cqw69_m_yzbMVGvQA8QWrL_HdVXJQX7