Mise-en-scene: 信愛成癮 (Love Addiction)

The video that I’ve chosen is a music video of a Chinese song called 信愛成癮 (Love Addiction) by Ella.

The subject matter is the 2 women and their relationship between them and the man they are in love with and the theme is an addiction to a love that hurts. The video started with a raining scene and the colours very dull. This gives off a sombre and gloomy mood and this suggests that the meeting between the two protagonists does not bode well for the both of them. The colours in this video are all rather dull and faded. This allows some colours, particularly red, to deliberately pop out and it creates an overall sad tone. In the beginning, one of them was wearing grey and the other lent her a white shirt so both of them ended up wearing white. White represents innocence and purity, coinciding with the fact that none knows about the affair.

The hints of red in the laundromat foreshadows the dangers of their love for the same man and also implies the passion that they have for him.

During the scene when one of them realises about the affair, both of them are wearing the same red dress and the background has more hints of red, perhaps to show also the intensity of the anger they both of them feel at that moment.

Their wearing of the same red dress suggests a sort of common identity that is shared between the both of them—victims, lovers who loved the same person. 

The scene of them hugging each other after their cat fight also suggests that they seek comfort in each other, knowing how hurt the other must be. 

The girl in white at the beginning spots many references of being innocent-snow white, white shirt etc, is always seen in white and at times of the day (never at night) whereas, the other lady is seen in black and in the night when she makes love to the guy. It may be too fast to assume that the girl in black is the mistress. Another interpretation may be that they both represent two different kinds of love—one that is sweet and innocent and another that is playful and sexual.

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The lighting for the sex scene is dim and redden while both the lady and the man are wearing black and the man wears a dark red jacket. The red imitates the passion between the both of them and along with the dim lighting, shows the forbiddennature of an affair. 

In contrast, the lighting in the scenes that shows the sink and home (of the woman in white) is dim too but the scenes spot many greys and whites along with the apple and the dullness gives off a sense of loneliness as the guy is with the other woman instead of her. 

Moths and apples are recurrent symbols in the video. Moths are symbols of death. When they first met, moths are seen on the ceiling and subsequently after, one disturbs the woman in white, implying impending doom upon her relationship, or the death of her boyfriend’s loyalty towards her. During the sex scene, the moths appear again. ‘A moth attracted to a flame’ is a rather common saying that is repeated in the song too and the moths resting on the ceiling during that scene can imply that the woman in black knows that she is doing something that would hurt herself and is wrong but goes ahead anyways because she is attracted to the danger. At the end of the video, more moths appear and as both women choose to go ahead with their relationship with the guy, knowing that there is another girl, it shows that they are both attracted to the flame, to cutting themselves on love.


The apple, most commonly known as a poison apple and the forbidden fruit, is a symbol of temptation and death and the woman in black handing the one in white an apple foreshadows that she will be the cause of her suffering. The woman in black saying that she is not the “evil queen” implies that she is also a victim of love and the scene of both of them in red singing the song shows that ultimately, whether their love for the man is innocent, pure love or love demonstrated by sex and raw passion, both are equally hurt by this complicated relationship. The location of the video is a mostly a laundromat and the constant washing that is done in the video can imply an attempt to purify and a washing off of sins.

 

Shots

team: Yap Qian Yin, Chanel Chan, Lee Qiu Wen

Bully intimidating someone stronger than him

Person betraying team