「Winter Bear」as a Film: Taehyung’s Literary Devices and Images

In Winter Bear, Taehyung is a traveler not only in matters of space but also of time.

https://soundcloud.com/bangtan/kimv02 


#뷔 #BTSV #Taehyung #방탄소년단뷔 #태형

Forewarning: this thread is filled with spoilers from “About Time” so if you haven’t watched it yet and want a wholesome experience of the film, do skip this long preamble especially the screencapped text which you will encounter soon in the thread. +

I added these spoilers for those who haven’t watched it but wish to understand how the film was contextualised in Winter Bear. I think it’s best if people watch it first though!

Firstly, the conceptualisation: Taehyung mentioned that he watched About Time (2013) and got addicted to it when he was in London, 2018. He compared the movie to a bear. +

“: last year i watched a movie in london and got addicted to it.
: to bears?
: no~bears...i was thinking about what should i compared to it(the movie) and i compared it to bears.”

cr. koosmotae

What I also like to add here is Taehyung has watched About Time way before he came to London, and he was already fond of it and of the actress Rachel McAdams.

When I rewatch films that I really like after a certain time, I do it either for the purpose of seeking familiarity and relief or when I want to rediscover the film in a new light. It’s possible Taehyung was rewatching too for either purpose though we won’t really know...+

But the one thing that I’m sure of is Taehyung reconnected with the film.

He’s also specified a scene from the movie which inspired him to make Winter Bear.

So, how does “About Time” fit into Taehyung’s project? (I call it a project because it is obviously also an effort for MV directing and cinematography).

Here’s what goes on to in the film: the protagonist is from a family where the men have the ability to travel through time. +

Said protagonist named Tim stumbles on a potential romantic interest, Mary, who is also interested in him - but fate and timing wasn’t on his side for the first try. So he goes through several time traveling efforts to woo his love interest. Of course he eventually succeeds...+

And this is the important bit about the scene that Taehyung has mentioned to have inspired him (spoilers, lots):

For anyone who’s watched the film, or has read the above tweet, keep the details in mind - because it’s obvious that Taehyung has recontextualised and repurposed elements from the film to write his own narrative.

Ok, now onto the song and MV itself! +

{“She looks like a blue parrot, would you come fly to me? I want some good day, good day, good day. Good day, good day.”}

The first half of the verse, sung in warm, low-breath chest, I believe this is when Taehyung recalls moments of hellos and goodbyes. As a whole, he seems to juxtapose “good day” and “good night” to convey this meeting and parting. +

When Winter Bear was first released, many assumed that the “blue parrot” alludes to the extinct species of the Spix macaw, and has related it to Taehyung’s loved ones that departed this plane of existence. +

This seems likely - as we see and hear birds chirping at the very beginning of the MV, and then the frame switches to Taehyung as if he was taking images of the birds in the sky. The birds foreshadow of their importance to this entire project:

When Taehyung starts to rewind back in time later in the MV, we see more avian species present in his reality, but the “blue parrot” is nowhere seen, and said creature realistically cannot be seen in the flesh anymore.+

It’s also interesting to note that the color blue may also be a reference to the film prtagonist’s love interest — who wore a blue dress for the first time they see each other in the flesh. After all, her dress becomes a point of conversation in the same scene +

(and she also wears blue during the time he does get to ask her out on a date - the right pic above). But for here, Mary & Tim do not get to spend the evening for a date instead they promise each other to meet as Mary leaves. +

Before they part, Mary greets him “good night”. An unwanted goodbye after a brief exchange of hello’s. +

I wonder if Taehyung was projecting his feelings onto Tim as to console the character’s impatience and desire to spend time with Mary as he sings “I want some good day, good day”. Like Tim, Taehyung seems just as eager to meet and be with the person he sings for.

{“Looks like a winter bear, you sleep so happily, I wish you good night, good night.good night, good night”.}

It’s interesting that Taehyung specified a sleeping bear during the winter season, which should be taken in figuratively. While “sleeping in the winter” in relation to animals is often associated to hibernation, “sleep” isn’t just what occurs during hibernation. +

They go through physical changes as well — their bodies experience reduced heart rate and blood flow, lowered their body temperature, a slow down on metabolism, and significant amount of weight loss. +

As grisly as how science may speak of this, it almost seems like being near the state of dying. The winter season is also always associated with death and endings; spring season symbolizing the opposite.

And yet Taehyung sings to her, “you sleep so happily”, implying that he himself notices she is happy, content, and softly and breathily wishes her a “good night, good night”. He sounds calm and accepting, or so we might think. +

If we go back to the film, the scene where this line from Winter Bear seems to have been inspired from is a sheer display of acceptance — one of the rare moments in the film where the protagonist allows life and fate itself to set things on their own course.

Now with the images of the blue parrot and the winter bear expounded, I’d like to interpret this entire verse as to how Taehyung sees the person he’s talking to in Winter Bear: that this person in Taehyung’s life is rare and is one of a kind. She is his beloved. +

She is most likely gone, away - and yet he immensely desires for more time with her.

And if we go by this interpretation, as much as Taehyung acknowledges his beloved person may be happy and content with how things are, Taehyung isn’t, and we hear that in the chorus.

{“Imagine your face say hello to me, then all the bad days - they’re nothing to me with you.. winter bear... ooh, ooh, ooh~ sleep like a winter bear.”}

It is striking that Taehyung uses the word “imagine”, a very specific word that means to “picture or form a mental image of”, and to be even more specific — “to form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case”.

Taehyung delivers this message to her in his sweet falsetto, the tone quality almost similar to the lower ranges of a wind instrument. Falsettos are often used to emphasize strong feelings of love, longing and pain. +

These feelings seem to be all heightened in the way Taehyung uses his falsetto, and how he contoured the melody — legato for a longtime’s worth of yearning. The acoustic guitar’s timbre since the first verse plays continuously +

and its melancholy is emphasized as more strings - the violin and cello - come into the picture. These instruments’ timbres are known for depicting sadness.

{“Ooh, ooh, ooh ~ sleep like a winter bear.”}

We don’t get a second verse, but the drums also enter the soundscape to power up these emotions. The feelings just continue to flow along with Taehyung’s consistent, free falsettos of “Oohs”.

One of his last lines is him greeting said beloved person to “sleep like a winter Bear”. And what sounds like a synthesized whistle takes over in place of Taehyung’s voice to fill us in for the rest. As you’ve noticed, he loves to make use of tasteful cadences in his songs.

He uses the concept of traveling not only in the sense of moving from one space to another, but also w/ time. In the MV we see clips of Taehyung in his travels & takes pictures of them. The camera is a timetraveling device in the sense that it allows him revisit these moments.

At this point, the music video starts to rewind time - Taehyung walking backwards and we get a shot of him doing so in the darkness (In About Time, one of the requirements to time travel back in time is to do it in the dark).

The use of light leaks scattered across the MV could imply Taehyung’s trying to get back to several points of time all along. These captured moments are imperfect in the aesthetic sense but they are important - important enough for him to burn the images on his film camera. +

[For more insight in this, you can read this thread as I expanded the aesthetic use of light leaks here] https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1235963951914946561?s=21

All the while, The electric guitar also starts to distort and complicate the feelings that are already present - longingness, sadness, pain, love... Eventually the Mellotron joins in - the tone is bright, thick and quick, allowing us to feel a spark of hope.

It does feel like he was trying to go back in time in the MV. We also start to see shots of different kinds of birds through Taehyung’s lens, as if searching for the blue parrot all this time, but we know that such bird will not appear before anyone else’s eyes, not Taehyung’s.

Eventually Taehyung turns around and walks straight ahead into the night - the effects of light leaks fade and we are brought to somewhere else - the green park where we see him earlier. Did Winter Bear MV-Taehyung successfully travel to his desired moment in time?