軽蔑していた愛情

分類：jpop
2008/01/09 15:40
So this is what I like about Japanese PV's. They can be very interesting often with deep meanings behind the storylines. I have to admit, I'm very impressed with this one..
I came to know AKB48 when I was visiting the Taiwanese Universal music blog. Usually I wouldn't pay much interest in such shojo groups, in fact, I would resent them because they remind me of a kind of "society" in Taiwan. Though I was too bored during winter break so I serched AKB48 on youtube and clicked a random video which happened to be 軽蔑していた愛情 (Keibitsu shiteita aijou).
The opening scared me becuase the 16 girls were dancing on the roof in such a creepy manner as if they were possessed. Then the melody comes in along with the forte strings (Have I ever mentioned? I love agitated strings!). In addition with the gloomy climate in the setting, the PV gave me an errie feeling already. Though I don't understand the Japanese lyrics involved, but it was obvious that the PV isn't about something good.
And I was right HA! The theme centres around Teenage suicide. As well, I am very shocked. I haven't seen any POP artists singing about such social topic, usually we leave that for the rock bands don't we. So often PV's shifts between two scenes. In this case, other than the roof dancers, the other scene is a helpless girl being bullied at school. In there, everyone seemed to be depressed, creepy eh? Emos they are! You can tell from the way they "bowed" to the instructer, from the way how they don't even smile! And from the way they danced. I have to mention that I'm impressed with how well they handled it with 16 dancers on the roof. It was organized in a series of impressive steps. They look messed up, but they're deliberately messed up to give a sense of disturbance which collaborates with the theme itself, and the emotions in a girl who's about to commit suicide.
So the main character of this video is Yuko eh? She's bullied in her highschool. People sent her awful messages to her cellphone saying things telling her to not even dare come to school. She is struggling inside and finally decided to end her life. At the end of the PV we see her taking her shoes off and running towards the edge of the roof. Now some people began to wonder why Japanese people (as we see it in movies and dramas) take off their shoes before committing suicide. I did a researched of it, and came to know that such practice can be referred to their custom of taking their shoes off before entering one's house. Shoes are considered to be dirty in Japan and therefore you would often put your shoes aside as you go into the "cleaner" houses. So taking one's shoes off before committing suicide is to signify one's desire to remove all one's sins and purifying one's soul before dying.
As we know, Japan has one of the highest rate of teenage suicide. Teens are often struggling due to peer pressure, bullying, competition within schools, looks, etc. etc. AKB48 used the song and the PV to encourage the helpless to seek help rather than death when facing the downsides of their lives. Both the opening and ending of the PV contained such encouragements in a couple lines. I believe this can really reach out to them.
And really, I love the instrumental of this song. I couldn't help downloading the instrumental version, it happens to be the only instrumental track I have currently. Everything about it is attractive, it's not too plain yet not disturbing though filled with various parts. But the disadvantage of having too many people is that it's hard for their voices to be harmonized well. You can tell here and there that someone seem to be offtune. Chocolove, in this way, is better since they only have three people.
And here, I present you the subbed PV of this wonderful song:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIenqQ2jzs