A review of some more Christmas or winter-themed Kpop music videos that have been released this year.
Yay, more holiday Kpop music videos! Some are more enjoyable than others, but I for one will look forward to Kpop getting out of the holiday season and back to making fewer cutesy songs like these.
Jump to:
<< Go to Part 1
Mini-Review: Secret–“Christmas Magic”
Hmm, well I’d love to review this but I can’t seem to find it uploaded anywhere. So have a fan-dubbing, which shows the original video in the bottom lefthand corner. The song is just the Japanese version of “Starlight Moonlight,” which I adore.
The video is split into “chapters” where the girls make all sorts of preparations to get ready for Christmas. They help each other make cards, decorate cakes, make cookies, decorate the tree, open presents, play in the snow, etc. I like the video because the girls seem really active (as opposed to KARA’s video where the girls just kind of sat there). Alsooo sparklers!
Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“The snow people are the cutest things ever, but those are some pretty sexy Santas.”
Mini Review: SMTown (Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), TVXQ, TRAX, BoA, Kangta, The Grace—Sunday and Dana, Zhang Liyin, and J-Min)—“Santa, U Are The One”
The massive SMTown put together an all-English Winter album called The Warmest Gift with each of their artists contributing a song, with a mix of covers of old songs and new songs written for the album. Here’s the tracklist:
01. “Santa, U Are The One” by Super JuniorSo clearly this is Super Junior’s contribution. Some people may shudder when they hear the words “SMTown” and “all-English” put together, but I have to say it’s not as bad as it could have been. At least the English is written by fluent speakers, so only the pronunciation has the opportunity to be cringe-worthy—but even that’s not terrible. I am sensing improvement, so good job, guys. I’ll avoid the fact that I always find songs directly addressing Santa really creepy because HENREH AND ZHOU MI ARE THERE and WHOA, Leeteuk got a high note. Yay!
02. “Sleigh Ride” by TVXQ
03. “Distance” by BoA
04. “Last Christmas” by SHINee
05. “Diamond” by SNSD (Girls’ Generation)
06. “For the First Time” by Kangta
07. “Like a Dream” by TRAX
08. “The First Noël” by Zhang Liyin
09. “1, 2, 3” by f(x)
10. “Amazing” by CSJH The Grace—Sunny and Dana
11. “Happy X-Mas (War is Over)” by J-Min. (This is a nice cover of a song I love.)
However, I have to say I much prefer Super Junior’s Japanese track “Snow White,” which is tied for my favorite Christmas song released this year along with Infinite’s “White Confession (Lately).”
The video is simple, just Super Junior messing around in the recording studio (fun! Especially Eunhyuk and Shindong!) and SMTown in a photoshoot where everyone seems to be trying hard not to look glum (much less fun!). But they should probably try harder because this does not look like a particularly happy time. Maybe everyone’s just tired.
Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“Did he [Sungmin] just make a heart and blow a kiss at Santa? Ewww.” (He was also upset that none of the “sexy girls” got to sing.)
There are so many people in SMTown that I’ll just make life easier on everybody and put their names on the picture. But for those who are curious, here is a list of those participating:
- Super Junior: Leeteuk, Yesung, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, and Super Junior-M members Henry and Zhou Mi.
- SNSD (Girls’ Generation): Taeyeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun.
- SHINee: Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and Taemin.
- f(x): Victoria, Amber, Luna, Sulli, and Krystal.
- TVXQ: Yunho and Changmin.
- TRAX: Jay and Jungmo.
- CSJH (The Grace): Dana and Sunday.
- Solo artists: Boa, Kangta, Zhang Liyin (who promotes mainly in China), and J-Min (who promotes mainly in Japan).
Mini-Review: Starship Planet (Sistar, Boyfriend, and K.Will)–“Pink Romance”
After helpfully announcing who was in the music video (thanks!), this songs stands out because of its rap part, the fact that it’s basically a series of co-ed duets, and the interesting harmonies produced by the members when singing together (K.Will/Hyorin and Soyu/Donghyun’s duet parts come to mind). And that last note was probably my favorite. So many harmonies! *squishes them*
The video proceeds in a meta fashion, showing us the members all acting very silly in the recording studio and several lightly decorated rooms. I think they play some sort of game, too. It looks like Duck-Duck-Goose to me, but surely they’re too old for that…? I guess you’re never too old to be silly.
I was going to let all English slide in this edition, especially if the video shows sparklers (I love sparklers!!), but it’s just so bad here that I have to comment. Why title your song something that none of your artists can even ballpark pronounce?
Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“WTF are all those flags on the wall? CANADA!” [My boyfriend is a proud Canadian; I’m American.]
Mini-Review: TVXQ–“Winter Rose”
We have two really cute kids, a snow globe, and HoMin looking out fogged up windows to the snow outside. Then HoMin dress up in nice peacoats, go to a park, and sing a gently flowing Japanese ballad in the snow. The kids later join them wearing these huge furry hats.
I’m particularly fond of the way the boys sing “Close to my love.” It sounds really romantic.
Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“I was sure the little girl would fall off her stool and crack her head open.” [I apologize for my bf; he can be really morbid and still expects all Kpop MVs to end with car crashes.]
Mini Review: Wonder Girls’ Yenny and 2AM’s Jinwoon—“Last Christmas”
The Wonder Girls’ Yenny (Yeeun) and 2AM’s Jinwoon collaborated on a cute gift for Wonderfuls (and IAMs). It’s an acoustic version of Wham’s 1984 “Last Christmas,” with Jinwoon on guitar and Yenny on vocals. I’ll embed the original here for those who are curious:
Their pacing is much faster than the original, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I appreciate up-tempo songs as much as anybody else! I was pretty pleased with Yenny’s English pronunciation, too—clearly the Wonder Girls’ promotion in America has helped her. But I wish she were more…confident about it, I guess—more like Raina’s Jooyi in her cover of Christina Aguilera’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Yenny is such an amazing singer and can really belt it out when she wants to. And maybe this song doesn’t necessarily require that, but if she were surer of herself, I think it would sound better.
Additionally, OMG, Jinwoon is so cute! I like how well he and Yenny seem to get along, almost like brother and sister. Their moment when they started laughing during the intro was pretty funny. I’m sure fans will appreciate this collaboration.
Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“Her English is surprisingly good; it’s a pretty nice cover.”
Bonus! Yesterday I linked a funny bonus vid, so for today here’s KevJumba. Enjoy!
Whew! Happy Holidays, everyone, whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice, or just that fact that it’s December!
I will be traveling with the bf for the holidays, so updates will be more sporadic for the next little while. Sorry. I’ll update with new reviews when I can. Thanks for reading!
<< Go to Part 1
0 kisses:
What did you think?