Was 2NE1’s recently released music video inspired by the drama “You Who Came From The Stars?”
The girl group 2NE1 recently released the music video for their new song “Come Back Home,” which features a futuristic science fiction theme. In the video, 2NE1 singer Sandara Park and her unhappy boyfriend live in a grim reality? Or do they?
In this bright psychedelic MV, it’s hard to tell whether her boyfriend is trying to escape his reality by taking drugs or taking medicine for a terminal illness. Is he hooked up to a machine to experience an addictive virtual paradise? Or is he hooked up to a futuristic life support machine that also gives him the illusion of living his relatively happy former life.
The video relies heavily on themes from the film “The Matrix,” in which Keanu Reeves realizes that the reality experienced by most people is a virtual one. As in that film, when people have the cord pulled from their synthetic reality, they stop thinking/knowing they exist. But when Sandara Park pulls the plug on her boyfriend’s machine, is she killing him or freeing him?
It’s also possible that the music video capitalized on the love for all things alien inspired by the popular drama “You Who Came From The Stars.” It’s easy to imagine Kim Soo Hyun’s character Do Min Joon, the alien hero of that drama, in a spaceship such as the one that 2NE1 seem to be piloting.
There are even a few frames where the graphics are superimposed on Dongdaemun Plaza, the UFO-like center, which was featured in the drama, and is also the home of Kwon Sang Woo’s office in “Cunning Single Lady.”
And there’s the opening image of a billboard in the distance, which looks a lot like the billboard Jun Ji Hyun’s character Chun Song Yi had her image on. It was the reason she moved to that apartment.
Sandara Park even made a cameo in the final episode of “You Who Came From The Stars.” She is seen walking down the red carpet at the film premiere. That’s where Do Min Joon reappears and can suddenly magically kiss Chun Song Yi without getting sick.
And we know that Sandara Park is a fan of the drama. The singer recently said she was motivated to get in shape this year by watching Chun Song Yi’s weight struggles.
And what about that delay? According to YG, the release of the new video was delayed due to technical issues. But it certainly did not hurt that the release waited until a few days after the finale of “You Who Came From The Stars.”
The video was released just as fans were having withdrawal from the alien-human romance.
Coincidence or not, the video is a fun futuristic fix.