Memory erased to the cue of 'delete': Epik High x DAVICHI 'Mise en scène'

Today's NONOL PICK is 'Mise en scène', the single Epik High and DAVICHI released together on October 13. The two acts' connection began last October on 'EPIKASE', Epik High's YouTube content. According to the Bugs credits, the lyrics are by TABLO, MITHRA JIN and Kim Hanjoo, the music by Kim Hanjoo, TABLO and MITHRA JIN, and the arrangement by Kim Hanjoo of Silica Gel. The album introduction on Bugs is a single line: '망하면 은퇴' ("if it flops, we retire"). The title, mise en scène, is the film term for deciding what goes in the frame and how, and the music video, too, restages scenes from four romance films. Times follow the official music video.

0:00 · A film that opens with 'AUTHOR'S NOTE'

The video opens with white text on a black screen: 'AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.' It's the same sentence that appears at the start of the film '(500) Days of Summer'. While 'Sincerely yours,' follows at 0:04 and 'EVICHI.' at 0:05.6, the only sound is drums, and the bass and synths come in at 0:04. From 0:11, one more person steps into an elevator where someone in headphones is riding. In '(500) Days of Summer', too, the elevator is where the two leads first strike up a conversation.

0:31 · 'XXX' in the lyric sheet

In the first rap part, the word after '네 말대로 난' ("just like you said, I'm") is hidden as 'XXX' in the Bugs lyric sheet. In the music video it's heard as is, while in the 'Clean Ver.' posted separately on the YouTube channel 'Epik High - Topic', the voice drops out for a little over 0.2 seconds at that spot. Line the two recordings up side by side and everything else matches, 0.1 seconds apart.

0:48 · Vertical subtitles arriving with '떠난다면'

At 0:34 a frozen lake appears, and at 0:39 a person with blue hair and a person in a knit cap lie side by side on it. It's the scene on the ice from the film 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. When DAVICHI's first line, '떠난다면' ("if you leave"), begins at 0:47.9, vertical Chinese characters appear on a black screen at 0:48. The text, which begins with '那是一種難堪的相對' ("It is a restless moment," as the film's English subtitles put it), is the intertitle that opens Wong Kar-wai's film 'In the Mood for Love'. Next, someone in a qipao stands in front of a wall covered with the characters '記憶' (memory) and '別' (parting). When the first chorus, '뻔한 인연의 연쇄 속에서' ("in a chain of predictable fates"), begins at 1:01.4, the screen moves to a yellow dress on a bench at dusk, a scene from the film 'La La Land'.

1:18 · 6.6 seconds where the song goes empty

After the end of the first chorus, '나는 잊혀질 준비를 하겠어' ("I'll get ready to be forgotten"), the voice and bass drop out from 1:18.6 to 1:25.2, and the drums only hit a few short times. What's left is keyboard and synth. Meanwhile, on screen, a person in a white coat watches the bench scene on a bank of monitors, and at 1:22 a hand turning the knobs of a machine appears. When the second verse begins at 1:25.2 with '붉게 피어난 장미도' ("even a rose that bloomed red"), the person on the ice returns, and from 1:30 cracks spread across the ice. At 2:31, round devices are attached to the temples of four people, a scene that recalls 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', a story about erasing memories.

2:04 · '모든 기억 속 날 / 삭제하라고'

The second verse includes '삶엔 없잖아 되감기 / 네가 원한 사랑, 그저 맥거핀 / 영화 같은 이별이 어딨어?' ("there's no rewind in life / the love you wanted, just a MacGuffin / where's a breakup like the movies?"). A MacGuffin is the film term for a device that keeps a story moving but means little in itself. From 2:04.7 to 2:08.0, as the second '모든 기억 속 날 / 삭제하라고' ("tell yourself to delete me / from every memory") plays, the wall covered with '記憶' (memory) is erased to black, as if burning away.

2:39 · The last 14 seconds not in the lyric sheet

After the final chorus ends on '나는 잊혀질 준비를 하겠어', lines that aren't in the Bugs lyric sheet run from 2:39 to 2:53: '정말 난 잘해줬는데 왜' ("I was really good to you, so why"), and '죽도록 사랑했는데 왜 / 내 몸과 맘을 다 줬는데 / 모든 걸 잃어버렸는데' ("I loved you to death, so why / I gave you my body and heart / and I lost everything"). It's the chorus of Epik High's 'Love Love Love' (feat. 융진). From 2:48 the screen shows four people reclining in four black chairs, and at 2:55 the credits roll with the words 'mise en scène'. Apple Music

DAVICHI holds solo concerts on December 12 and 13, and Epik High holds its first solo concerts at KSPO DOME from January 22 to 24, 2027.