@ keikeiaznqueen, I think were on the same track. It seems almost Freudian in a sense, but I think I can appreciate the song a little better now.
I watched the video twice because despite the sadness of the song's lyrics, Ayumi simply looks elegant and composed. I thought it was strange that Ayumi always embodies the song's emotion to the full and it made me wonder why that was. I think the video represents a serene, reflective Ayumi while the other characters are her subconscious acting out as she would like to due to her emotional sate; run away, cry, become as broken physically as she is mentally etc.

:roflmao

That's totally how it went down. :P

I think it's odd that people think the PV looks cheap, as if Avex wouldn't use a big budget for Ayu if she wanted everything to look glamorous (GREEN, JEWEL, Mirrorcle World anyone?). I'm pretty sure the backdrop and cardboard cut-out trees were very intentional. As if to imply the memories and feelings she has of a past love are more real to her than reality. And I'm sure everyone would have freaked if she went with the traditional lost love story plot line that we've just seen with Days a year ago. Calling it repetitive and that she can no longer make a decent PV anymore. Yet this time she does and it's cheap and boring. :laugh

But honestly, I think that's Ayu's thing this year, and I like it. NEXT LEVEL tour was stripped down, very little props, just Ayu. Sunrise and Sunset PVs were stripped down, very little props, just Ayu and her fans. You were PV comes out, stripped down, very little props, just Ayu. Maybe the super glam diva era of Ayu is over? And now she's focusing more on her music and fans now. Isn't that what everyone wanted? :shrug

This.

Ayu got 3 PVs in the top 20 most expensive PVs of all time dammit! She can easily do something expensive if she wants to. But this was obviously not intended to look expensive and glamourous.

^4
fairyland, my name`s woman, jewel, green
=)

^ since when is GREEN in the list and how much did it cost? o.0 wouldnt that make her the female artist with most pvs in that list? madonna has 3, doesnt she?

For the first two, mostly because they had to build everything from scratch, right?

I don't think a lot of money is needed to make a great PV, especially in Ayu's case. Her most expensive videos usually hit or miss for me (esp. GREEN & fairyland, both were pretty but could have easily been made with less money).

Momentum is an example of a PV that I thought was beautiful and fairly cheap. The most expensive thing about it was probably the technology needed for the blue screen.

As far as budgeting is concerned, I can't imagine Avex having a problem with financing Ayumi's videos unless they are (1) Spending the revenue earned from Ayu's products on the production of other musicians (2) Saving up for something really big, IE: Arena Tour 2010, the REAL PV for "you were.." or (3) Avex is just losing money big time.

EDIT: Just listened to "BLAND"...I mean, "BALLAD". This song would have been much better in the instrumentation were more dramatic. Ayu's vocals are very strong at the end, but the beginning was just MEH.

You were... looked like a Neo-Nutcracker stage production, to me. Lots of plays come out for the Christmas season, so I thought that it looked appropriate.

Green costed 1,800,000... she said that on her blog^^

damn, so GREEN even is in the top 10 o.0

Just because she has videos in the most expensive doesn't mean they all are. This PV, in my opinion, does look hideously cheap.

I do agree with that it probably wasn't intended to be expensive looking or glamorous, but that doesn't excuse it from being so ugly. xD

On another note-- I like the way people are interpreting the concept, but I still hate the PV. The concept and the imagery are all wrong for this kind of song. It's just weird and awkward. :irked

And about the list of most expensive music videos--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...e_music_videos

GREEN isn't listed. Only fairyland, my name's WOMEN, and JEWEL are listed.

^ With that I just wanted to show that, if she wanted to have it expensive she could have done it expensive, so it being cheap isn't about her losing popularity or something(because somebody would most likely have said something like that sooner or later)

Why do people compain about the trees? It's obviously a styalistic decision.

No, it was "Ayu+millions of dancers." If it had just been Ayu I would have been a lot happier. :)

I second this. The dancers were used to the point of overkill this year. :dead2

i know there were a ton but i hardly noticed them sometimes. less in-your-face or something?

lol

yeah, even in this PV where it wasn't like they were blatantly in your face...they're still too much of a part of the PV...

But I don't think she really thinks about that.

green isn't listed, but if it costed 1,8m as AYU said, it is among the most expensive =)

those weren`t her dancers... they were random western people...

uh huh...doesn't really matter...

avex probably has to file it or something. Maybe it needs to be submitted to a certain place for it to be counted in lists like that.