Where the fall lands, a 'B' and a 'U' crack open: LEE HAN GYUL's 'BUNZI'

This is the music video for 'BUNZI', the title track of 'NOISE', the first mini album LEE HAN GYUL released on October 14. The album introduction on Bugs calls it 'a Latin pop-based song with a powerful bass line that grabs your ear from the very start,' and describes it as a story of throwing oneself in at the end of hesitation. The music video, too, begins with a fall, and there's one more fall just before it ends. In between, we split the sound by instrument and measured, in 0.1-second steps, the moments where the backing empties out and fills back in. The song is the same recording as the official audio on YouTube (2:49), and in the video it starts 1.4 seconds later. Times follow the official music video (2:56).

0:02 · Arms spread wide, then backward

The video opens looking up from below at LEE HAN GYUL, standing alone under a cloudy sky. At 0:01.7 the bass line and 'Es la lucha' start together, and at 0:02.8, the moment both arms spread out to the sides, the drums come in for the first time. A low rumble that isn't in the audio joins in here, too. At 0:03.6 the body tips backward and drops out of the frame, followed by a shot plunging down through the clouds. While the fall lasts (0:04.0–0:05.9), the drums are barely audible. At 0:05.8, in a car's side mirror, someone falls through an awning, and at 0:06.0, the moment water sprays up from the wet ground, the drums come back. The first 6 seconds look like the album introduction's 'the moment of jumping, past the fear' put on screen.

0:06 · A 'B' and a 'U' cracked into the asphalt

At 0:06.4 the camera looks straight down at the ground. Around LEE HAN GYUL, lying with arms and legs spread, the asphalt is cracked into the shapes of thick letters. Pause and zoom in, and the two letters to the left of the body are 'B' and 'U', the first two letters of the title. The ones on the right are hidden by the body or drawn in a flowing hand, so they can't be read. The red plastic stools and striped tarp from the mirror are here too, so this looks like the very spot of the fall. At 0:07.6 people in white hoodies gather around and film downward on their phones, and at 0:07.8 LEE HAN GYUL, still lying there, shields the face with one arm.

0:20 · Three sharks swimming through 'try to stop me'

The first Korean in the lyrics is verse one's '막아봤자, I'll break it' (try to stop me, I'll break it). While this one line runs, from 0:20.6 to 0:22.5, the camera holds a wide shot of LEE HAN GYUL dancing on a dock at a yacht marina. In the water right in front, three sharks swim with their dorsal fins out. The shark shot starts at 0:20.7 and ends at 0:22.5, just as 'I'm on my way' begins.

1:24 · The one line where 'NOISE' shows up in the lyrics

The second pre-chorus (the stretch right before the chorus) changes two of its seven lines from the first. Where 'Nothing's getting in my way / I'll keep fighting through the pain' was sung at 0:31, 'Let the noises fade away / Make that pressure 808' comes in from 1:26. In the lyrics on Bugs, this is the only line with the same word as the album title, 'NOISE.' '808' comes from the name of an old drum machine and is a common nickname for a heavy, low drum sound. On screen, it's a card table. At 1:24.2 a surveillance camera on the wall appears with its ring of red lights on, and at 1:27.0 LEE HAN GYUL pushes the pile of chips sitting in front into the middle of the table. Our main photo is the shot right after, at 1:27.6.

2:08 · Heat spreading from the fingertips

The bridge (the part late in a song that shifts the mood) opens with the last Korean in the lyrics, '점점 더 느껴지는 Saving my soul' (felt more and more, Saving my soul) (2:05–2:09). At 2:08.8 the fingertips start to glow orange, as if seen through a thermal camera. By 2:09.2 it's the whole hand, by 2:09.6 the arm, and by 2:10.8 it has spread up to the upper body. At 2:11.2, as 'And we'll run it all night long' (2:09.6–2:12.5) carries on, the picture switches to a thermal view from above. Among people showing up blue, only one person glows red, moving toward the camera.

2:12 · An explosion with no explosion sound

At 2:12.4, as the bridge ends, a warehouse wall bursts behind LEE HAN GYUL and a blue boat shoots up into the air. Yet the music video adds no explosion sound of its own. When we compare the video's sound with the official audio every 0.25 seconds, sound that isn't in the audio is added only in the first 8 seconds and after 2:47. The same goes for the black SUV lifted by flames at 2:21. Instead, the song empties out. The bass drops at 2:12.4 and even the drums stop at 2:13.4, leaving only the voice on 'I'm the best' (2:13.5) for 0.9 seconds. By the time the backing comes back all at once at 2:14.3, the picture has already moved under a 'fresh FISH' sign.

2:45 · A cracked helmet, and that sky again

The bass drops at 2:45.3 and the drums at 2:45.7, and the last 'Es la lucha BUNZI' is left to the voice alone. The picture passes an eye behind a cracked helmet visor (the face shield) (2:45.6), and at 2:46.8 it returns to a figure standing under a cloudy sky, like the first scene. The outfit is the same black, but this time there's a black helmet on. The first time, the fall went backward while looking up at the sky; at 2:48.8 it goes forward, the helmeted face turned down. The song ends at 2:49.5, but the video runs 6 more seconds. People in white look down into the camera (2:49.6), the 'LEE HAN GYUL' logo passes, and then, in the middle of a crowd of white hoods with heads bowed, LEE HAN GYUL gets up and, at 2:54.4, looks up. It's an ending the official audio doesn't have. Apple Music

The Bugs credits list Hawoong (하웅), Kohway, KINSHA and TAEO for the lyrics, clabin, Hawoong (하웅) and TAEO for the music, and clabin for the arrangement. The music video's description names director Moswantd (Minjun Lee, Hayoung Lee), along with clabin on sound effects (Sound Effect), the same name as the song's composer and arranger. The album news is in our October 15 news briefing, and the release-day preview is in our October 14 news briefing.