Illit‘s debut with “Magnetic” was the perfect smash hit for a debut group. It had both a captivating chorus and more importantly, a catchy dance routine. If you logged into any social media platform, you would find artists and fans alike copying the hand movements of the choreography. With such a big hit, it can sometimes be both a blessing and a curse having to follow it up. “Cherish (My Love)” is a great comeback that is memorizing with its own perspective. On top of being a melodic song, the plot for the MV centers around the concept of a wisdom tooth. With the use of choreography, distinctive settings, and special effects, the MV brings together a cute storyline that matches the youthful and dauntless essence of the song.
The theme of the MV may seem odd, but it plays on the Korean word for wisdom tooth (sarangnee) which comes from the word for “love.” Much like a “wisdom” tooth coming out around the age children reach adulthood, in Korean it was named “love tooth” as it tends to come out around the time as people experience their first love, thus maturing. The MV does not just touch on the tooth’s unique name, but completely embeds it into every single detail. With each watch, you will find new symbols in the settings, clothes, props, and choreography. This is a metaphor that was expanded to a storyline that is both unique and fascinating.
In the first part of the MV, Wonhee starts with a toothache and is then invited into a club for wisdom tooth lovers. From there, we see they have a set of rules, the most important being that they must care for their wisdom tooth. Funnily enough, this means lots of tooth-brushing but no dentists. This may be because they fear the dentist will extracting the tooth they cherish so deeply. In fact, in one scene, one of the members is running away and hiding from dental mouth mirrors. Clearly, the tooth is a symbol of love that they are fearlessly and passionately protecting.
In the second part of the video, the tooth is used for fighting and has expanded its meaning to include “fighting for love.” While previously, the members were running and hiding to keep their teeth safe, now they are valiant in their quest to protect their symbolic love. In the middle of the MV, the teeth are buried and are now uncovered to have grown to become weapons. As such, the removal of the tooth from the ground is a metaphor for a tooth extraction. This is evidenced by pairing the action-packed scenes with one of Iroha sitting in a dentist’s chair suggesting her tooth with her tooth pulled out.
Along with the dynamic storyline, the dance routine compliments the theme of the MV as well. In a press conference, Minju mentioned that there are a number of hearts interwoven into the choreography. Additionally, just like with “Magnetic,” the dance includes hand movements during the stuttering of the line, “cherish” which forms a heart with their fingers in the end.
On top of the heart-themed dance, one of the dance settings further adds to the metaphor. In one creative set, the girls dance on a pink background with circular lights on top. When the camera zooms out we see that they are inside of the mouth, and the lights and chairs represent the positions of the teeth. The members are dressed in white as if they are the teeth themselves.
The beginning of the song starts strong with a daring statement from Wonhee, “Not even god can stop me” that almost leads you to believe this would be a less romantic video. However, the song encapsulates a sweet tone with bold statements indicating the voice’s objective to win someone’s love. As such, the MV plays perfectly into the concept of love in the first part of the MV. Then in the second part of the MV, their personas’ strength is played up to show that they are in a fight for their love.
Overall, Illit continues to put out quality music with a well-developed concept in their MVs. One of the downfalls grops can fall into with MVs is sometimes using themes that are too vague or focusing too much on the anesthetic versus the meaning. However, with this MV, Belift does everything right by taking one simple metaphor and expanding it into a fantasyland with a plot. Hopefully, Illit and their agency continue to focus on the high quality of their comebacks in releases to come.
(Youtube. Lyrics via Genuis. StarToday. Images via Belift Lab.)
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