Thoughts on Momentum PV

[Joey4u615]

i thought the PV was very, very good. i enjoyed this one alot better than "JEWEL", especially the end. i really wasn't expecting that.

it starts out heartbreaking, when it appears to me that everyone is leaving her out in the cold, which when i try to imagine myself in that position makes me feel terrible. the ending makes everything make sense to me, they can't see her.

i thought it was amazing when she turns to snow and crumbles, it was so unexpected for me and it really made everything make sense.

also, the part where she lights the candle, i find it to be so awesome.

great PV for me, i feel comfortable saying that this is one of her bests in a while because of the unexpectedness [keep in mind that i really disliked the "JEWEL" PV].

[the angel song]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eLQ0IfOReqU

That's the link to an animation of the Matchstick Girl. When I saw the opening scenes for it, I couldn't believe how closely it matched the PV. It's like little key elements and visuals were taken from that story, but of course, it's not ALL the same, just the general idea.

[immel]

Indeed, I am completely sure the PV was inspired by The Little Match Girl, but some of the symbolism has probably been changed, so has the story.

[alt.total-loser]

Ayu looked pretty. The setups were pretty. It overall struck me as bland, though. That last scene barely saved it.

[SunshineSlayer]

The more I look at it, the more I'm reminded of the little match girl again. First of all the setting looks like when the story takes place. (late 1800s Danish) And also, that shot at the very begining, where Ayu is looking at the 3 girls by the bicycle is odd. Why that shot? In all the other shots she is looking at families and such with a sort of longing. But the look she gives these girls is different. The girls also look to be poor to me.

[immel]

I get the slightly tingly feeling of over analyzing when we go into reading about what the different looks she gives different people would mean, haha.

But hey, you got points there, Sunny. Yeah, the 3 kids does look poor. Can't help smiling while trying to analyze this video, it gets funny .

Maybe a HQ version will tell us more about it, maybe we'll notice a new sparkle in her eye that means something. Uploading the mpeg2 one from JPS .

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by *hearT_Place*

I always thought the old man was the person she loved when she died, and that a lot of time has passed since her death (hence him growing old).

The problem I see with this is that there were several flowers on the grave and the old man was not the only one to be placing them there because if you look, other people in the pv are holding flowers as well. I would think her death in the PV would be fairly recent, not decades old or else why would other people on the street still be bringing flowers to her grave?

edit: and now I see that this has already been addressed. Darn me for not reading through the thread fully.

[moombasista]

I think I fell asleep

[immel]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

The problem I see with this is that there were several flowers on the grave and the old man was not the only one to be placing them there because if you look, other people in the pv are holding flowers as well. I would think her death in the PV would be fairly recent, not decades old or else why would other people on the street still be bringing flowers to her grave?

I wonder, because neither theory makes sense because of a couple of small reasons. The locker speaking for it being her lover or possibly father, the more than one flower and other families concern speaking for it being something else.

The old man has a major role in the PV, that old man is giving us troubles, isn't he?

edit: and now I see that this has already been addressed. Darn me for not reading through the thread fully.

Bad girl.

[Kikaru]

For some reason it strikes me as fear of reaching the unknown. Sometimes when we see a lonely person that needs love, we want to give it to them, but we're too afraid and shut them out instead. But sometimes by the time we overcome our fears, the loneliness already, in a way, consumed the person. Even when the families all came out with the flowers and the "Ayu" realized, there will be no point because sometime people cannot be saved anymore.

So the lesson: be kind, because you'll never know who'll need it.

/just my two cents.

[SunshineSlayer]

Ok, to fully run with the little match girl idea -
For those that don't know the story, a quick breakdown: A poor girl is selling matches in the middle of winter, but everyone ignores her. She is afraid to go home because her father beats her so instead she stays out all night and uses the matches to try and stay warm. She begins hallucinating and with each lighting of a match she sees things she wishes she had like a food and a loving family. When lighting the last match, she sees her Grandmother, who takes her up to heaven. "The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God."
The next day people find her dead, frozen to death on the street. "In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year’s sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. “She tried to warm herself,” said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year’s day."

Looking at it this way, I think it would explain why the people are reluctant to go to the grave - they feel guilty. And then I would assume the man is the father that beat her and he is feeling guilty as well. It also could be that the people in the video don't want to associate with him because they blame him as well.

And this could still work along side Misa-chans theory as well and that the little match girls spirit has been given a temporary resurrection.

Anyways, just one possibility. There are so many ways to interpret this PV, but this is definitely my favorite I think.

[immel]

You're great Sunshine. You spread light over AHS.

Thanks for the walkthrough, I didn't have it entirely fresh in my mind. It all seems to click a lot better with the addition of guilt.

[truehappiness]

Ayu's crying is judged way too much. :\

She did it in HEAVEN kinda the same way that she did it in HANABI, and people were all "FAKKKEE".

I think that the HANABI tu-ka CM is very similar to this~ just not on a wall.

[panda87]

Originally Posted by Misa-chan

Hmm, I'm surprised some of you have not gotten the symbolism of this PV. Oh well, I'll explain it here if you don't understand what's going on in the PV.

First, the candle scene should be the easiest to explain. There is a myth that there is a dark cellar-like place which houses candles. Every single living person in the world has his own unique candle, some versions of the myth says that the person's name will be carved onto the candle itself. The point is, as long as your candle is still alight, you will remain alive. You will die only when your candle has burnt completely or the flame is extinguished accidentally. The guardian of these candles is Death himself in some versions, while an old man in others (this may be one reason why it's an old man who lays flowers under the lamppost, but we'll get to that point soon). In a perhaps more well-known version, there are hourglasses instead of candles, and I'm sure many of you have heard of this version before.

Next is ayu standing all alone under the lampost like a rejected hobo . The reason why she's crying may not be obvious at first, but read the lyrics and watch till the end and you will realize that she is most probably dead, and she misses someone who is alive, ALOT. The line "The days when I loved you were the last miracle to me" shows that she probably died for love. That will then explain why she seems to be singing at the top of her voice, but noone notices her presence. Yes, the people looked at the spot that she was standing at, but they do not see her (a spirit), they just look at the spot because it reminds them of her.

Last thing. In the myth, the guardian of the candles has his own personal candle which never goes out (probably the yellow one in the PV). The guardian can choose to shorten a life by extinguishing a candle, or he can extend it by using his own flame to light up an extinguished one. My guess is that the blue ayu (as the guardian here) helped to light up the snow ayu's extinguished candle, which allows her spirit a brief visit to the living world. That's why she appeared in the PV, and just in time to see an old man lay out flowers for her. In the end, a gust of wind extinguished the candle, and snow ayu distintegrated just before the old man can see her.

i agree... also, my other opinion on the old man:

after watching the PV, this is wat i think:

she's a ghost singing to the loved one she left behind a long time ago: the old man who brings the flowers. see how she looked at him with love in her eyes, tears falling from her eyes and when he noticed something and turned around, she wanted to reach out to him. its soooo sad. and if you look at the old man's expression, bringing the flowers, he looked so sad... the lyrics are directed mostly towards the one she loved whom she left behind when they were "too young with no knowledge about the world and walking, laughing together and hanging onto each other"... *sniffles*

[SunshineSlayer]

^ But in many of her PVs, the lyrics are only somewhat related to the video. Often time the videos themselves tell their own story and are only thematically similar to the lyrics.

[darc_aqua]

"M" + "No way to say"

[Syphex]

When I see her actually cry at concerts, I get teary-eyed myself, but I don't believe her act at all in this PV. It looks so lame. She did a much better job in HANABI episode 2.

What?! HANABI II was atrocious. She looked like she was trying to scream out some tears or something. It looked too wierd. Her crying here was decent. IMO her best "fake almost-about-to-cry" would be the short CAROLS video intro at AT2005. Spot on.

And I loved the ending. I just hope the old man isn't really her old lover or anything, its a bit lame. But it seems to make the most sense so yeah =/

Nice PV. On par with M and No way to say, but far inferior to something like Free & Easy.

[darc_aqua]

I thought the crying in both of these PVs were very emotional (HANABI ep.II and momentum). Shes always cried that way. I seriously her crying in HANABI ep. II was "atrocious". Of course, its fake cause its a music video, but she can really put her emotions into it.

[moombasista]

she should take crying lessons from demi moore

[BigAyuFan]

^.........

i no this is kinda long but i think this might help shead a little light on things
hmm Ayu did say in the interview,for her album,that there was a secret behind this video to .anyways there have been quite a few interpratations already posted i think alot of them make alot of sence but heres what i think the PV means(not that anyone elses is wrong most likly mine is wwaayyy of)

candles
first of all like Misa-chan said about the candles i agree with the way about the flames of other lives and stuff but from what i can see all the candles r blue and has white over parts of them.now if u look at that from a point u can really see the picture of the sky and clouds (well at least i see that) now i also think that the flames of the candles can mean 2 things.1 other spirits of other people(but it dosent make much sense,i will show u guys later on)or 2 its measuring the amount of time shes allowed to visit( part of it makes sense and part of it still dose not).
ok for the first reason that it could be spirits of other people is because thats the easyest way to see it,glowing flames on candles,u have to think of a bunch of other peoples lives first.but the reason that dosent work is because when the big gust of wind comes across all of them r blown out..........now that would have ment a bunch of people would have died,but this was only about Ayu's spirit.
ok now for the second reason it partly fits because the candles can represent the amount of time she has left to visit the world.the reason that fits is because after the gust of wind put out all of the flames Ayu dissappears in to snow,meaning her time was up.but the reason that dosent work is why would she want to go back to visit??i mean in the begining she was just there crying and i dont belive she would go back to cry and i dont think she was expecting that man to go up to lay down flowers either.so the cndle part i still dont understand.

only 1 person placeing flowers
.....now that i rewatch the video it seems as if the only one giving flowers was that old man....im not sure how to explain but if u look at the mans face he seems to be disappointed while he was digging up the other flowers.and in the video it shows one of the families about to go put flowers on the grave but the mother shook her head so they didnt go to put flowers down.

Father
most people think that this is about her father which i dont think makes much sense because why would Ayu be showing that she died and her father being sad??wouldent it be the other way around??and im not exactly 100% supportive of the whole Ayu knows her fathers dead,im not sure i just think there is enough proof.

there is someone standing near the light pole
i really dont think that there is someone standing next to the light pole,i belive that the people r really just looking at the grave because its right behind the light pole.Also at one of the parts of the PV at 3:48 it shows no one near the light pole.and if there was someone there the old man would have just gave the flowers to that person.