Review: Zia (feat. K. Will)–“I Hope It’s You”

Zia somehow invented a magical transporter via music video credits. Color me impressed.


Did you like the song?
Zia collaborated with well-rounded singer/composer/actor K. Will as a duet for this song, and their voices go nicely together.

Wow, he really does look like BIGBANG’s Daesung.
On my first listen, I thought that this song was pretty boring, but after hearing it a few times, it started to grow on me. It’s still a mostly forgettable ballad, in my opinion, but worth listening to.

What was your favorite part of the song?
I like Zia’s melodic voice in the beginning of the chorus here.

Does the English make you want to rip your eardrums out?
Like many ballads, it seems, there was no English.

Did you like the video?
I was pretty bored until the credits thing. That took me by surprise and was a unique and creative touch.

Was there a storyline? If so, did it make sense?
Choi Sung Joon is not having a good day. It looks like it’s going to rain, and he’s calling people on the phone and scraping bird poop off his windowshield, all while trying to get his papers together for his job as…a traveling watch salesman? Who never leaves his car? Or something appropriately dreary. But he dreams of sunny, sandy beaches.

Soh Yoo Jin is a wandering vagrant naturalist who enjoys taking pictures of fairly nasty swamps.

They share a common interest in coffee hangouts overlooking the water and closing their eyes while sunbathing.

Like the Piggy Dolls in their music video for “Hakuna Matata,” Soh Yoo Jin does the classic serial killer victim thing by getting into a car with a guy she barely knows. She then sheds a single tear and inexplicably falls asleep in the car.

And here’s where I became massively confused and would like to know what is going on. Where are they, that she could walk there but the drive back would be so long she’d fall asleep in the car? Why is she crying? Is she overcome by the kindness of the guy who would give her a lift? How on earth could you be able to fall asleep in a stranger’s car?

Anyway, she leaves her little address book or something, which he reads like a douche and then magically transports back to her via the credits. Yeah, bet you didn’t see that one coming! Then they use the credits to send things back and forth. They spend literally over half the music video running credits. And is this first set of credits even real? Because we have a massive sub-cast list going when there are only two actors in the MV, and it’s full of Westernized names. “Oh, oh, yes, the character of Lealis Schrosder is played by Avery Acevedo.” What? Who are these people?

But at least they only use this mysterious power for really important, time-sensitive things—

—or, you know, banana peels. Those...could be important.
Was the dance cool and distinctive?
No dance. I was pretty disappointed that neither of the actors attempted to ride the credits to meet each other again, honestly. That would be one of the first things I’d try, were I in the same situation…with a magical credits transporter…

Do the members look good?
Soh Yoo Jin and Choi Sung Joon look nice, but Zia herself wasn’t in the music video. In fact, I challenge any intrepid researchers to find me some substantial background info on Zia. Despite the fact that she seems to have been successful on the charts, there are only a handful of pictures of her available at the moment. She was apparently called the “singer without a face,” and with good reason! Anyway, that status appears to be changing, because here are some teaser photos from her upcoming album. But I don’t really understand why young, attractive singers like Zia and K.Will get other people to act in their music videos. Are they just horrible actors? Do they not have the time to shoot footage for their own music videos? Do they want to give better actors a chance to be in music videos? Why can’t people make it easy for me and just be in their own music videos?

She’s got a kind of Lady Gaga thing going in the second one.
Which member stood out the most?
I’ll have to give this to Soh Yoo Jin. Even though I don’t understand why she was crying, I definitely understand her love for her mp3 player. I’m announcing my marriage to mine later this year.

How she could send it to her friend via the credits machine I'll never know.
Do you like it enough to buy the song?
While I like this song more now than I originally did, I don’t think I’d ever get to the point where I’d want to hear it all the time.

Any ending thoughts?
I’ve been meaning to review this music video for a while, but other bands have gotten in the way. Well, now I’ve reviewed it. :)

Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“I want my own credits transporter! It’d be so much more efficient.”

Thanks for reading! Please share your comments below. Also, for anyone who’s interested in Japanese culture as well as Korean, I’ve added a list of my anime reviews and recommendations to the site.