The Spring Day music video cinematically references a short story titled The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and lyrically references a movie titled Snowpiercer.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin is a 1973 work of science fiction about a utopian city whose existence relies on the misery of a single child. The story starts off by detailing the first day of summer and describing how perfect the society is. It then proceeds to mention its one flaw: the happiness of everyone else in the city depends upon the “perpetual filth, darkness, and misery” of one child. When the citizens of Omelas reach a certain age, they are told the truth about their society. Most citizens are initially shocked but eventually accept truth; however, there are a few who decide to leave Omelas. The story ends with the line:
“The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.”
In the Spring Day MV, the BTS members represent citizens of Omelas, and Jungkook is the child who bears punishment for the city.
This belief stems from the scenes where Jungkook is seen alone on a train,
in front of an abandoned amusement park ride,
and running through the scenery where the other members were shown.
(Other members)
(Jungkook)
(Other members, then Jungkook)
The MV deviates from the short story because the other six members who learn about Jungkook’s suffering decide to find him and save him from his misery. The song lyrics discuss how the bad things in life (represented by Winter) will eventually fade away and happier times (represented by Spring) will come. When the other members find Jungkook, his world “lights up”,
and they take him away from the city of Omelas
where they can live together happily.
You Never Walk Alone is the name of the album that Spring Day is from, and there is also a song on the album by the same title. Jungkook, the child who suffers for Omelas, is accompanied by the rest of the BTS members who “walk” with him out of the darkness and into a better world. Essentially, the MV is saying that you’ll always have people by your side during hardships.
The MV reinforces a theme in BU that repeatedly points towards the older members guiding Jungkook through adulthood. This theme is represented in Jungkook’s song Begin from the WINGS album and in many videos throughout BU, such as the WINGS concert vcr shown below.
Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer is a movie about an anthropogenic ice age that destroys most of the human race (and life on Earth) except for a population of humans who inhabit a train called the Snowpiercer. BTS referenced the movie in the lyric “alone on the snowpiercer.” The movie connects to the Spring Day MV due to similar themes like the end of winter (death and darkness)
and the beginning of spring (life and light).
Thank you for reading this far! I hope you had as much fun as BTS had shooting the food fight part of the Spring Day MV!
References
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Summary
Reference GIFs
Hey Nicole,
Good interpretation of the video. I have never listened to their music but from what I’ve read from the lyrics and seen from the video, you’re pretty spot on in your analysis. I think they do an especially good job of representing the good and bad in their videos with underlying messages and symbols. They are attention grabbing and interesting as it connects to the audience.
-Elaina Cohen
awsome!
You forgot about the Sewol Tragedy References!