This week we’re reviewing G-Dragon’s Coup D’Etat, and we decided to do something a little different since he’s a little different. The video had a series of very distinctive scenes, so we’ll go scene by scene and talk about what we thought!
First scene had cool crinkly skin…makeup badassery right there. The crinkly skin had this light translucent thing going on. The bed sheet hing was a little holly hobby, but also provided a nice contrast with the clean, sleek, modern suits we see later on. The head covering thing and the tattoos were a nice touch.
The second scene had weird long hair and a snazzy suit. The hair was…um…less than ideal (it was a bit skunk stripey and didn’t do much for him). At least he looked rather insane, which is probably what they were going for. It was too mullet-y for me. We are both BIG fans of well-fit, classic black suits (‘a work of art’ in Ruby’s words), and the skinny tie is very in right now. The gloves are nice, make him into a much shadier character. Eyeliner is sexy. Dayum.
LITTLE MINI CRYPT KEEPER IS ADORABLE AND CUTE AND IN A GOTHIC RUFFLY SUIT AND WOW THAT RHYMED. Also the red glove was a nice touch. Things I know about graphic design: if you add red to black and white, it makes it 23894725x better.
We liked the dressed, long and red and slinky with subtle variations. Lace gloves are again a nice touch here, as they are throughout the mv. Its good when a symbol like that keeps showing up. There’s something about gloved hands that makes people trust you less, ya know? The blindfolds, in combination with red lips and hair pieces, is so outlandish that it works. The fishnet veils were….questionable, but we’ll let that go. Getting a little bridal…but maybe that was the point. Lipstick was a win. Ruby says they have that masked conformist thing going but also very clearly the temptation and the richness. They’re wearing expensive clothes, decked out in lace and sparkles and lipstick. Gd is slowing losing bits of the suit from the wrecking ball…he’s standing there in just the white shirt, with a red stain over his heart. The earrings were nice.
Same suit, hair, and makeup from the scene with the wrecking ball, but no gloves now…still losing bits of the outfit, but the pieces that are lost differ. The view of the makeup up close was lovely.
GD is dressed in all the hallmarks of opulence. Velvet suit, rhinestones, a bowtie, velvet shoes, earrings, and still the same awful hair. It’s probably supposed to be symbolic hair but really guys? The scene isn’t a wow yay fashion type of scene, but it shows the idea of wealth with all the nice shiny things. There are also more faceless women, dressed just as sexily in classy black dresses and gloves again. They have strange hats with beaded curtains concealing their identities. They also have chainsaws, which are such a great accessory this season.
In the scene with boiling pots of money, it’s the same deconstruction of the original suit…this theme and the gloves thing are being carried through much of the mv and the continuity is nice. Ruby noticed that the first thing we see is his money tat…clever.
In the electric chair scene, he’s still losing the classy suit—his shirt is untucked, his shoes are gone, same with gloves and earrings and tie and hair neatness…he’s falling apart and his clothes are going with him.
When he’s getting shot at, there are two verryyyy important accessories that he’s alternating between: a blindfold and a ski mask. The blindfold, following themes from earlier, again means he is blind. The mask implies he is hidden, yet can see out.
Gd is in a suit again, but this time slightly different. More detailed, there are black buttons, two-tone shoes, he still seems to be missing his tie, (we think that's what’s falling off?) The reporters are all female, dressed in simple black and white suits and blind folded, they are wearing heavy lip liner and a grayed out tone on their lips to draw attention to their lips without sex appeal. It’s interesting…all the extra characters are women, but they got less seductive and even more threatening as the mv went on.
Gd is wearing the velvet suit from the white tree scene but now has a muzzle/face piece in the shape of a beak. We like muzzle. It’s an interesting follow up from the last scene used where he was also being sort of trapped down by outside forces and now he’s stuck in place surrounded by birds. His hair has gotten a lot neater though. The shoes were an interesting shape. Bow tie now.
So black face isn’t really appropriate. Guyssss. Also, he’s wearing a dark suit with rhinestones but this time a black shirt and no other embellishment. The gloves have also returned, marking him as another shady character. Ruby says “Usually I hate grills, get that metal out of your mouth, fool. That's not food. But I actually really like this. the incisors are associated with violence, tearing, biting, and I love that its in this entirely black and white bit and then BANG GOLD so subtle yet really startling and effective”. I didn’t notice the grills at first, but I like that it’s not all of the teeth, just the incisors.
In perhaps the simplest outfit of the mv, we see him the most free. His hair has been tamed, and the suit is all black, black shirt, no embellishments. He looks great, but it’s definitely the most restricted we’ve seen him.
The last outfit was interesting, as it pulled from a lot of different parts of the mv. He’s wearing a red robe of some sort, with red gloves and a ski mask. The ski mask is red and held together with safety pins. It might have just been necessity but it looks great. Its that makeshift revolutionary idea. I totally thought they were skull hands at first, which makes it even cooler. We liked that its one of the only colors in the video, it's a pop at the end to really leave you with an impression. Ruby loved the eyeliner, but she wished it had been changed for this scene. Something different just to show like this is the odd man out. Maybe even like a red underline only or something. Very avant guarde and dramatic.
Whew that was a long review. You can tell we really really liked to talk about this one. Let us know what you thought! We swear we don’t bite. We don’t even have chainsaws.
-Ruby & Em <3
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