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Sadly, it's been a while since the K-pop scene has released a music video that I've wanted to take the time to delve deeper into and go as far as to review and analyse it, but if there is one person you can rely on to provide a beautiful comeback, it's IU (full name: Lee Ji Eun 이지은). Her new and 3rd full length album, Modern Times was released on October 7th and is an extension of the jazzy feeling you get from her single, and the music video I'm about to look at, The Red Shoes (분홍신). The teasers running up to this comeback have been impeccable themselves, and well worth the watch if you enjoyed The Red Shoes. I've been a big fan of IU for a long time and see her as one of my role models. She always provides a distinctive sound that is unmistakeably IU and impossible to replicate without immediately being accused of copying her style, she's found her niche that brings more unique flavours that hold their own in a currently very generic sounding K-pop scene. 

The plot itself is pretty easy to follow, and as common in IU's more recent music videos, follow a fantastical narrative as a reflection on her story telling songs. On hearing the title, I had a vague recollection of a Photography essay I wrote last term where I had briefly mentioned a film "The Red Shoes" (1948) by British filmmakers Powell & Pressburger (that itself was based off the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen). This explains the introduction to the music video "restored and remastered, The Red Shoes" and the old style film reels that our male lead introduces us to. The story tells of a girl who was forced to dance continuously by her shoes, as is present in the choreography of the video. Of course, unsurprisingly, the original plot has been altered is multiple ways, needless to say it lacks the gruesome streak of Andersen's original story, or the multiple movie adaptations that have been created since. But there still lies the sinister element of those cursed dancing shoes. 

The music video alternates between monochrome and colour shots, and effectivily so. The black and white scene focuses on the choreography of the song and invites us into the world of the silent movie; where IU is the leading lady. It effectively has an essence of the 1920s and the refound popularity of stories like The Great Gatsby as well as influences of the Jazz age: art deco staircases with sharp and geometric edges, band stand, dancers. The transition from black and white into the colour sequences comes in the form of the red shoes themselves, that illuminate red in this monochrome world and strap themselves to IU's feet. Normally the use of selective colouring (or "colour splash" as it's also known) in film and photo irks me as I find it tacky and reminiscent of early times getting to grips with Photoshop. In this case though I feel it is tastefully done and appropriate to the story's plot, and almost reminiscent of the 19th century process where black and white shots began to be coloured by hand. 

The dreaded shoes and their splash of colour eventually bleed out into a fully coloured frame and the beginning of IU's journey into a new world of colour, vibrancy and life: into the future (I suspect the 50s but it's less clear to me) and the company of the male lead who had played her film (model, Jang Ki Young). Here IU is introduced to a host of male companions and through a series of dressing up, her red shoes are thrown away and replaced with pink (and safely uncursed) ones. All seems well for a few scenes of the video as IU enjoys this new and playful life but of course it won't last. Soon enough the cursed shoes come to life again and chase her, colouring the new world she loves back into dreary black and white. The use of the ladder in the centre of the dance room emphasyses the fact that IU is doomed, cornered in a sense, so the Red Shoes can catch up with her and she cannot escape them. Reluctantly she surrenders to her fate and puts the shoes back on and is returned back to her silent movie, back to a time where she will dance forever for the entertainment of others without escape. It's a much less grizzly end to the original story; where the dancer resorts to cutting off her feet along with the red shoes and they continue to dance with her feet still in them, but effective nonetheless and a much more glamorous, lighthearted and ultimately K-pop friendly interpretation. The idea of film and the cinematic is carried through by the inclusion of credits; that feature behind the scenes filming, bloopers and a final roll of credits featuring a tap dancing IU, reminiscent of a mime, dressed in striped shirt and bowler hat.

A small alleyway, split into twelve ways. Where can I go to meet you again?

This part reflects on the decisions our heroine has to take once she steps out of her monochrome film life. It suggests that the path she took into the new and bright future was the right decision, and the pink shoes that replace her red ones give her freedom into the summer time she dreams of.

They say you can go to better places if you wear better shoes.

This verse is highlighted alongside the saviors of the pink shoes that IU is given, and they, along with the male lead, can be seen as symbols of hope; that she is happy at last in this "better place": the colourful future where she is no longer forced to dance forever through film.

My lost summer time, will I still find you wandering through strange times?

In correlation to the music video, the "lost summer time" refers to this colourful, new world that IU got to experience, the "strange times" can be related to her entrapment in the past in her silent movie and the element of time travel that the Red Shoes allowed her to take.

Summary

Bullet point notes & final recap in the read more below!