Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Since the reunion of Seo In Guk, Ahn Jae Hyun, and K.Will earlier this year, people have been anticipating a collab of some sort. Well, they came through and gave us all a sequel to the iconic “Please Don’t” music video with “No Sad Song For My Broken Heart“.
While I was skeptical that this would be able to recreate the magic of the original if they tried another twist, since they did end up doing it again, I have to say this is about as close as they could get to it. The fact that there’s already multiple interpretations of the plot, on top of people absolutely raging about the end result either way, is a testament to the job they did with this.
While there are straightforward and even time travel theories as well, to me the white butterfly is probably most revealing as to what was intended. Generally it represents the soul of the dead crossing over, so it fluttering in front of Seo In Guk at the beginning was meant to tell us that he’s dead at that point already.
That was the twist, while the music video was designed to make us believe that what was happening is they reunited at somebody’s funeral, Ahn Jae Hyun showed Seo In Guk he was divorced or something, and they were able to restart a long-lost friendship, culminating in Seo In Guk confessing to Ahn Jae Hyun in the tunnel with “There’s something I couldn’t say before … can I hug you just once?“. Following that, Ahn Jae Hyun yells something at him and Seo In Guk turns around and walks back towards him.
However, it’s revealed that the funeral they supposedly met at was Seo In Guk’s, thus the timeline of the music video in reality actually stops when Ahn Jae Hyun is sitting outside on the seats after the funeral (or maybe even while he’s left standing in the funeral hall). The events in the music video never happen, and likely represent Ahn Jae Hyun imagining how a reunion between them could’ve went down, with him living a happy life with his soulmate. Tragically then, the closing is Ahn Jae Hyun being struck with the reality that the relationship will now never be possible, as Seo In Guk walks away instead of answering his phone, thus confirming it can now never be real. Seo In Guk watching over him in the end also has regrets, ending his part on the staircase with a “I miss you“.
I didn’t quite get the significance of the watch at first, but Seo In Guk’s broken watch is stopped at the release date of “Please Don’t”, which makes it likely they’re saying not only has time stopped for him (dead) but he died on that day as well. Later, Ahn Jae Hyun is rocking the same watch, likely as a memory of his friend, and it now works because he’s repaired it. The one thing that bothers me is Ahn Jae Hyun has the watch in the tunnel scene, so maybe there is indeed some supernatural intent there in saying goodbye to his friend/prospective lover.
Either way, “No Sad Song For My Broken Heart” is an emotionally-charged music video, to say the least, and even the sparse lines of dialogue that are separate from the lyrics feel like they have the weight of the world behind them. I liked the twist on the song itself as well, as it’s a breakup song but not really, because it’s more just heartbreak for something that never got to happen. The theme of regret in both K.Will’s performance and those of the actors is expressed about as well as I’ve seen in this medium.
Or KISS's "Because I'm A Girl", lol. https://t.co/gONSGQgjWN
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) June 20, 2024
That said, I’m also all for the time travel theory and Ahn Jae Hyun rewinding the clock to give him and Seo In Guk a happy ending. Maybe if you three involved SISTAR‘s Dasom next time it would end up happy! Also, if you have another interpretation, post it up as I’m curious to hear it and see whether I missed anything.
