week 3

Dunhuang Chen

0244729

Critical Practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AY7hYQ8-FM

This is the MV of Within Temptation-Utopia, one of my favorite song.

From very beginning, a man in a black wind coat with a hat is appearing from the tunnel in the light. He is walking along, the motion is slow and steady, people only see his silhouette because of high contrast lighting. then we could see more detail about him but his face is still obscured and he is still maintaining in mystery.

We are seeing several scenes about bank performing that is crossing with main story line at the beginning, and a member of bank -a guitarist is in the same scene with that black suit man, he is playing a guitar like a homeless then the men tossed a coin to him.

The man is about to passing through a cross, however he turned and walking toward to the left, he is noticing that something is gonna happening seemingly. Then the scene is jumped into next story. A bareheaded man is following an old women into a elevator. The old lady must be a blind person because she wearing a glasses and close shot shows us that she is touching braille alphabet. The black suit man has followed them into the elevator together. The bareheaded man is checking around in order to avoid being spotted by others, the next camera lens shows that the man is watching him, however he steals the old lady`s wallet and he is not aware of the presence of the man at all.

The man is walking on a overpass along and cars are running on the street. (here is just purely instrumental playing). Then he is looking at a masked young man who is spraying a pentacle. Next, several people are stealing somethings from containers. His face displays disappointment and helpless. A teenager is running in front of him after robbed a old women. Later, he is walking on a quiet road and a sexy women is standing in the distance. Audience feels like that She is kinda waiting for him somehow. Whereas a car is stopped and take her. the man witnesses all of these and being in tears, (here is purely instrumental playing again.) suddenly, he is running to somewhere instead of walking because He realized that something is about to happen, he found a mother and a her child are standing near the street. The mother is taking on the phone and her her son is playing a toy. The interesting part is that the toy is the  only colored prop here. The man saved the boy by preventing him from trying to pick up that toy he dropped by an accident. But the toy was smashed anyway. The boy is moving head toward to man and the man is looking downward to catch the boy`s sight. Then the mother and son are crossing street and his mother is not seeing anyone. The man is back to light tunnel at the end.

The whole melody is beautiful and full of sorrow and sadness. Generally, the entire tinge is low saturated and cool. This song is about how the human race is beginning to dwindle. the man on the video is like "God" or an "Angel", who comes to earth and sees all the bad things we have created, and the tears fall from his eyes; but he is trying to "tell" us that we should do something now, otherwise the world would become a worst place. He saves a boy from being killed, giving the meaning that all the hope for a better tomorrow is at the hands of the children. As always. "Utopia" references how people try to blind themselves to the horrors of the dying world. The human race has created their "perfect world". But those of us who see the corruption ask, "If this world is perfect, then why does sorrow rain on Utopia?" Hence the line "Why does it rain, rain, rain, rain on Utopia."

I think that the verses are a sort of break-up story, showing two people who were lovers but have to go their separate ways. They both have a different idea of what their perfect world is. ("You're holding my hand but you don't understand. So where I am going you won't be in the end.") this is why humans can never create a perfect world: We all have a different idea of what perfection is, so as we all try to reach our own Utopia, we naturally get pulled apart in the process because we all are looking for something different. There is no cure for mankind; we all have to do what is right for ourselves individually. We are all searching for answers, and they are not given for free because we all have different questions.