The Kulture Study: ILLIT 'It's Me' MV

0:00 Hi everyone, welcome back to Formo Therapy

0:02 and we are back with a brand new Illit,

0:06 not just comeback but an EP after their not cute anymore,

0:14 uh very soft handed single.

0:16 We're back with a brand new EP.

0:19 Can't wait to check it out.

0:21 We have It's Me by Illit.

0:24 Um I have been hearing some commotion over this.

0:28 People either love it or people are really they don't like it.

0:34 So it seems that the opinions on this are pretty divisive.

0:39 Uh I don't I don't know what it sounds like, but we'll see.

0:44 Uh we'll find out.

0:45 And I heard it's a different turn for Illit.

0:47 So looking forward to seeing that.

0:50 Uh well, that depends because sometimes a change can be good

0:54 and sometimes it can be abrupt and why change what wasn't broken?

1:00 We'll see.

1:01 We'll see.

1:01 Let's go.

1:10 Wow.

1:16 [music] [music] Damn, so dance music is just in this year, huh?

1:33 Holy[ __] [music] Who's your bias?

1:41 I'm your bias.

1:42 Sounds like a mantra.

1:45 Wow.

1:53 It's me.

1:57 [music]

1:56 It's me.

1:59 It's me.

2:03 It's me.

2:07 Hey, just say I'm your fave.

2:15 [music]

2:20 All right.

2:23 [music]

2:22 I got to say, I'm I'm falling in I'm [music] falling in line with I love it.

2:29 Ooh.

2:38 [music] That's like it's me but spelled in Korean.

2:44 Ah.

2:47 It sounds very Chinese.

2:51 Ah.

2:57 Weird.

3:08 [music] [music] Well.

3:28 What?

3:30 Hmm.

3:31 I'm going to have to Google this.

3:33 Mamilan Pinata Party.

3:36 Okay.

3:38 So, I'll admit, I do like It's Me.

3:43 To what degree, I'm not quite sure.

3:46 Uh I'll have to listen to it again.

3:48 But, I don't know.

3:50 For what I've seen online of people saying like

3:53 it's like they changed I'll let or like they got

3:58 I don't know like The consensus I've seen online is

4:02 like making it sound like I'll let ditch their concept.

4:06 But have they really?

4:09 I feel like it's me especially if you I mean yes,

4:13 there is a tonal shift and this song is

4:16 much more techno driven and what is with the techno

4:19 house and dance revolution of 2020 26 from hearts

4:26 to hearts to lesserafim and I'll let but Yes, there is a tonal shift,

4:33 but I don't know if you listen to songs like and if you loved songs like jealous

4:39 and tick tock they've got like the same

4:43 chaotic frenetic energy of those songs minus the cuteness.

4:48 I think that's I think like the title of their previous single goes.

4:53 It's just not cute anymore.

4:54 It's the same kind of wild honestly frankly weird energy.

4:59 They've had an odd energy.

5:01 If you watch the little monster video.

5:03 If you watch the jealous video,

5:05 they've had a bit of an odd energy to their music videos and aesthetic schemes.

5:10 So I don't think it's me is that huge

5:13 of a departure as people are making it out to be.

5:16 I just think I think people are not ready for I'll let to grow

5:20 up yet and I also think like it feels a little soon perhaps,

5:26 but also it's not like the most mature thing in the world.

5:30 It's just a little bit grown up and it's a little bit more

5:35 I don't want to make me sound old to say it's more teen energy,

5:38 but it's just it's not like the more childlike magical

5:45 girl fantasy realm of music as it previously once was.

5:50 If you look at their previous title tracks from "Do the Dance",

5:58 um "Cherish", "Magnetic", "Not Cute Anymore", they all had this sort of soft

6:07 and very ethereal uh fantasy aspect to their songs.

6:14 They all sounded sort of glamorous and almost otherworldly in that way.

6:19 I think that's where "It's Me" is definitely its biggest

6:22 departure is that it ditches that fantasy and cute aspect altogether.

6:29 The song itself also seems very rooted in I don't want to say

6:34 actual Chinese pop because this isn't like what actual Chinese pop sounds like.

6:38 It feels like it's utilizing elements and though the way

6:44 they sing "Who Who's your bias?" and "Who's your bias?" it

6:47 sounds like kind of traditional Chinese parades like like the the loudness

6:54 and the old Chinese theater type of performance of music.

7:03 I I I don't quite know.

7:04 I'm not Chinese, but of the Chinese media

7:08 that has been portrayed and that I've seen,

7:11 it feels a little bit more like that traditional and folksy type

7:16 mixed with a little bit more of a parody nature where you know,

7:21 if they still existed, I could see Orange Caramel doing a song like this along

7:26 the lines of like um um uh "Catallena" or "Bangkok City".

7:32 Like it's got like this very mm it's got this very

7:38 retro pop aspect to it uh hiding behind a lot of techno.

7:45 Um yeah, so as I said, I like the song.

7:49 I don't know to what extent to even give it a score yet.

7:52 It was kind of frankly just very shocking.

7:55 Um so we're going to take a look at that and listen to it again.

7:58 Before we do, the final word that we saw uh at the end,

8:04 which is the title of their new EP, Mam it's Mamihlapinatapai.

8:12 So I did Google this.

8:13 It is a Yaghan word from Tierra del Fuego.

8:19 So Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago in South America,

8:24 uh and the Yaghan language is I believe it

8:27 said it's like a uh a sort of near-extinct language.

8:33 But the term itself is it's kind of one of those things

8:36 where it's apparently considered one of the hardest words to translate.

8:42 Um and it's one of those things where it's like

8:45 this in Japanese and Korean and in other cultures as well,

8:49 where it's like a whole description in a sentence and a feeling.

8:53 Uh but for us, it's just one word,

8:56 like the term han in Korean or kam jong in Korean.

9:01 But then you have to kind of like be super descriptive

9:04 and like give examples uh for anyone to understand it in English.

9:10 So Mamihlapinatapai uh roughly means a look shared between two people,

9:17 each wishing that the other would initiate something they both desire,

9:22 but which neither wants to begin.

9:24 Now that that's a feeling I think a lot of us can relate to.

9:28 It can be relatable to both romance,

9:31 it can be relatable to hell, uh even heartbreak,

9:35 like two people who want to break up, but neither of them want to initiate it.

9:40 Uh the last slice of pizza,

9:44 and like both people are just like waiting for the other person to be

9:48 the first person to make the move so that the option is off the table,

9:51 even though they both want it.

9:54 I think it's a pretty broad, yet very specific term and emotion.

9:58 So, that's really cool and interesting.

10:00 All right, let's go ahead and check out

10:03 the music video and song for It's Me once again.

10:23 [music] [music] [music] Oh, yeah, in terms of music video,

10:49 got to admit, the eyelet quirkiness is still there.

10:54 And I will say the the who who's your bias Samuel bias?

10:59 I think if you've listened to like a lot

11:02 of like traditional uh Asian I think music and stuff,

11:07 you might recognize that kind of tone.

11:11 Um I don't know what it's called,

11:13 but I think it's like something that exists in Chinese folk music,

11:17 Japanese folk music, and even Korean folk music.

11:20 Uh there's like a little bit of a shared crossover there.

11:21 And I wouldn't have noticed that it's drawing to try and be like that.

11:27 It just sounded like a chant or a mantra in the beginning,

11:29 until I realized just like they're dancing in a Chinese restaurant

11:32 and just this looks like a It's It's a set city, mind you.

11:37 It's not a real city,

11:39 but the city is like it looks like it's in China somewhere.

12:06 It's like they're fighting each other for attention.

12:15 I love that part.

12:18 I love that part, too.

12:19 There are two parts of this that are really memorable to me.

12:22 It's this.

12:27 And then [music] the immediate just the laughing and the immediate straight

12:36 face to just just straight-up the shoulder dancing is hilarious.

12:43 It's very gnome boys.

12:45 If anybody is onto the gnome boys trend online, it's I love it.

12:52 It's very, [music] very funny.

12:53 Like that's where the orange caramel comparison sort of come in for me.

13:05 [music] Wow, she's actually She looks gorgeous.

13:10 [music] That controlled turn has got to be really difficult to do.

13:31 I wonder if she does that live.

13:35 [music] She does a full 360 turn.

13:37 In one go?

13:38 Is that possible?

13:45 I'm very curious as to how they pull this off live.

13:48 A lot of this energy I feel like is really

13:51 sold by the humorous kooky nature of this music video.

14:02 You know, they're saying who's your bias, I'm your bias.

14:04 It feels like they're breaking the fourth wall

14:06 telling us or asking us who's your bias.

14:09 Amongst us, who's your bias?

14:10 And they're all being super performative and it

14:12 feels like they're also battling with one another.

14:15 And then right at the end, was it Minji that took it?

14:18 I think it was Minji that took it.

14:20 She's just kind of like taking the crown,

14:22 but it's like the tiara or No, what do you call the veil?

14:27 It's not a tiara.

14:29 What do you call the What do you call the wedding veil?

14:31 There's There's a very specific word for a wedding veil,

14:34 but she takes that, puts it on her head and then leaves.

14:37 Um Personally, I love it.

14:42 I think the song is a little too weird and a little too

14:48 kooky and kitschy for me to completely decide where I feel about it.

14:52 I think that's going to take some live stages to decide.

14:55 Like for example, I I'm making a lot of references to Orange Caramel,

15:00 which if you don't know, Orange Caramel was like a It was a K-pop subunit

15:05 of the girl group After School in the mid-aughts and not mid-aughts,

15:10 like the 20 late 2010s.

15:12 Mid-2010s.

15:14 Um And No, might be the mid-aughts.

15:19 I'm getting my timelines mixed up.

15:21 Anyways, they made a lot of music that was kind of comedic,

15:24 parody-ish, uh but at the same time was taken very seriously.

15:29 And there was a lot of humor in that.

15:31 But mind you, I didn't vibe with all the songs.

15:34 Now, I appreciated them, uh and I I appreciated the humor and the art.

15:39 I did not listen to those songs uh on the level all the time.

15:43 Like, for example, I I love uh Cat- I love the song Catallena as a concept.

15:50 I love it.

15:51 The music video, I love it as art.

15:53 I don't listen to that song.

15:55 Um but their other song, Bangkok City, love that song.

15:59 Just comes down to personal taste, preference, and tune.

16:03 Um there's another parody group called Crayon Pop back in the day.

16:07 Uh Also really like their songs like Bar Bar Bar,

16:11 but I didn't I don't listen to Bar Bar Bar.

16:14 It's it's just it's it's not That's not how I like to listen to music.

16:18 But their song FM also really humorous, a very uh parody-like music video,

16:25 but I love the song, and so I actually listen to FM.

16:28 And so, It's Me is kind of sitting on this cusp

16:32 of is it a little too kitchy for me to really

16:36 like uh or is it just or does it have

16:41 just enough techno and just enough dance for me to enjoy?

16:46 And I think right now the music video is again doing a lot for this song.

16:52 Um I think the music video is very entertaining.

16:54 I personally think it's a really[ __] fun music video,

16:57 and it's a really cute, uh but also really humorous.

17:00 I think the acting from Wonyoung uh is

17:04 something that I thought was kind of brilliant.

17:08 Um When it comes to Wonyoung,

17:09 I always kind of felt like her acting was not always there.

17:13 It was not like the most clean type of acting.

17:16 But I really felt in this one like, oh, Wonhee's acting is really good.

17:20 And I think Wonhee's acting is one of the things uh that sells this the most.

17:26 And I also felt like this was the music video, and I say say this as a fan,

17:31 uh where I really thought like, you know, I really popped.

17:34 I I I felt like this one was one where it

17:38 didn't just feel like she kind of popped in here and there,

17:40 but she kind of popped all throughout.

17:42 And I felt like she and maybe it's because

17:45 of like the hard dance that was here and there,

17:48 she really really kind of stood out to me a lot.

17:53 Um but, with that in mind, I'll pass the question off to you guys.

17:56 What do you think of ILLIT's It's Me?

17:59 All night consensus says it's pretty divisive.

18:01 So, I want to know, where do you fall on the spectrum?

18:04 Do you like it?

18:05 Do you not like it?

18:06 And of course, you could like it, I like it,

18:09 but you could also be on the side of it's a little too early.

18:12 I wanted them to stay in like the uh younger,

18:15 much more softer aesthetic for a little while longer.

18:19 Uh or did you want to see them kind of mature into that?

18:24 There is a realm in which they could have stayed within that magical

18:28 girl sort of fantasy realm and kind of aged up and matured over time,

18:34 but how do you feel about them blossoming out of that?

18:37 Let me know in the comments down below.

18:39 With that in mind, thank you for tuning in.

18:42 If you want to check out my listening party for Maimuna Maimuna Pinata Pie,

18:47 uh that will be out in June next month.

18:50 So, stay tuned.

18:51 Go on over to the Patreon and subscribe.

18:55 Uh I also, in the meantime, have a calendar up.

18:58 You know, I'm still releasing content in May.

19:00 If you want to check out what I'm releasing

19:02 and if any of that interests you, uh hop on by.

19:05 Uh I'll also be checking out some ILLIT live stages because this one

19:09 is one one really curious ones where uh I got to see more.

19:14 I got to see the live stages to really get in tune with how I feel about this.

19:18 So, if you want to see watch along with me, come on by.

19:24 Of course, you don't have to support the channel monetarily.

19:26 If you want to watch more reactions from me, stay tuned and subscribe over here.

19:33 Check out my other reactions in the top hand

19:35 corner and that's going to be it for me.

19:37 Thank you for tuning in.

19:38 I'll see you later.