Things I noticed in iKON's Inception and How it Relates to the Movie

a very long thread; i had a lot to say and twitter character limit is lol

@YG_iKONIC #iKON #아이콘

I had no intentions of posting this so early but like, they really did so well with the small details and if people can see that it might motivate them to stream the performance!

@YG_iKONIC #iKON #아이콘

Disclaimer: I'm not a film major (I just took film classes in Uni because I wanted to) and though I do dance (I do ballroom and contemporary), I don't have much experience in choreography and dance theory so I might not be able to talk about the dance that much! +

I'm also not Korean!Been learning the language but I'm not well-versed with it & culture yet so I won't attempt to try to relate the lyrics with the performance. Youtubers like Berry Best Reacts and even @.droptheroar have videos explaining the performance & how the lyrics relate

before I proceed make sure to check out the performance so you know what I'm talking about ;)



iKONICS ALL OUT
@YG_iKONIC #iKON #아이콘

Okay. Another disclaimer. Whenever I mention Inception, I'm pertaining to the movie. When I talk about atz's song, I'll just specify!

also forgive my typos and grammar

Anyway, to start off I'll explain what Inception is about.

INCEPTION is a sci-fi, action/espionage movie wherein the lead Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief who extracts information from targets by going into their dreams. In the movie, these thieves are called extractors.

Saito, a businessman proposes Cobb and his team to plant an information instead (rather than extract information) -- this process in called inception.

The process of inception is there is a target (in the movie, it’s Robert Fischer, the son of this businessman) and the extractors will create a shared-dream with the extractor, forcing the target to trust the extractors so that the extractors can access the target's subconscious

For inception to work, the information being planted has to be planted deeply into the subconscious (to force the target to believe that that information is real - and not something that was planted, so that the target doesn’t question it)

RIP ME FOR SAYING ‘PLANTED’ MANY TIMES

So let’s talk about the performance! I’ll be explaining this chronologically how it appeared in the video (because then we will understand the “story” in iKON’s performance)

We’re now going to assume that iKON are the extractors while we, the viewers, are their target.

1. The totems

So a totem in Inception is something you can bring to the dream-world in order for you to tell whether you’re dreaming or not (also how you can tell if you’re in your own dream or in someone else’s).

The perf opens with Chanwoo’s clip & we see the spinning top. In Inception, the top is Cobb’s totem. In the dream world, it keeps on spinning. I assumed at first that the pocket watch is iKON’s totem, but now I think that it’s just there to instill the concept of time.

technically, when you’re “building” a dream, there’s no concept of time and space. If you’ve watched the episode, Changmin also introduces iKON’s performance as something to do with time and space.

I think iKON’s totem is also the top since it is referenced throughout the song

2. Planting Information. I haven’t seen many people addressing this but this was my eureka moment. In Inception, Robert Fischer’s father dies. Obviously the company immediately goes to him but what Saito wants is to convince Fischer to dissolve the company.

Cobb and the team place a “fake” memory where Fischer Sr tells Robert Fischer “to be his own man”.

By planting this memory, the extractors were able to convince him that his father just wanted what’s best for him even if it meant him dissolving the company.

Relating this to the perf, we immediately see a document that says Inception by iKON.

The information they’re trying to plant in our heads (since we’re the target) is this performance. They want us to remember “INCEPTION BY iKON”. I’ll explain this further at the end

3. The moving sets. In the movie, when Cobb first hires Ariadne (an architect) he shows her how to manipulate the dream.

It is important that sets are realistic enough so that other people involved in the shared-dream (especially the target) don’t realize they’re dreaming.

Once the target realizes that they’re dreaming, the target creates this projections which would lead for the sets to collapse (further explanation later).

So we start of with Chanwoo on a dimly lit street. Realistic enough, right? This makes us think that we’re in reality +

+ but then they start manipulating the set. From Chanwoo pushing the wall and Jinhwan falling through another wall. DK moving the sets and Ju-ne appearing suddenly in another set.

The part where DK moves the set, we can see that the iKON logo is on both sides of the set+

+ which makes it look like they’re mirroring each other.

Which reminds me in the movie about the part where Ariadne creates this mirrored walls (iKON logo being mirrored) and when she “breaks” the glass but the two sides still look reflected

So when the camera focuses on June, we still see the iKON logo at the back like it’s still “reflected”

4. The build to the chorus. This is where iKON starts to plant ideas in our heads. I have a few multi-stan friends who stan Ateez and one of their favourite songs is Inception. When I ask them about the song, they talk about how impactful the chorus is.

So this is me realizing how much of a genius iKON really is and the producers who rearranged this song (Future Bounce, Bobby and Mino -- if I missed someone correct me).

++

By removing the original chorus and creating an entirely different one in their style they’re planting the thought in our head that “this is an iKON song” despite it not really being an iKON song.

I don’t know music theory either, but I know that when you repeat a line over and over again, it gets stuck in your head, and that’s exactly what iKON did. They repeated 돌아라 팽이 throughout the song to make us addicted to it, or make it unconsciously get stuck in our heads.

As many people have mentioned, iKON understood the assignment. They re-birthed the song to make it their own. Even by making it their own though, and putting the iKON brand to it, they don’t diminish the value of the original.

Instead, they put enough of the original in for people to be curious of what the original sounds like (which make more non-atinys actually check out the original song which I think is a win for both groups)

5. The spinning/ turning choreo. Throughout the whole song there are a lot of choreo indicating turning or spinning. The top that is continuously spinning indicates that "we" are still in the dream world.

Them having to repeat "spinning top" / 돌아라 팽이 over and over again makes us believe we're still dreaming because the top is still spinning.

6. Realizing it's a dream. So in Inception, when one of those who are dreaming realizes it's a dream, the world starts to collapse.

We start from Bobby, who literally has camera effects making you feel like you're dreaming. Because, let's face it, dreams are never vivid.

When we try to remember a dream, we don't really remember how things looked like. We remember the story of the dream but not what it looked like.The dreams are hazy. Bobby with the effect is hazy. So the question is, are we still dreaming?

Or are we awake remembering a hazy dream (i.e the camera effects on Bobby). But then, Bobby becomes clearer again, which again brings us back to is this still a dream or not, but since we do question it, there's already a sense of consciousness.

7.The kick.

Have you ever had a dream where you thought you were falling and that's when you wake up? So basically that's what a kick is. Making you feel that feeling of falling so you wake up.

In the perf, Bobby literally jumps back aka he fell, so the kick is starting.

I also saw a few reactors saying this part is a nod to U Mad. Smart Bobby, smart !

++

8. Collapsing sets. Unrealistic dreams causes the sets to collapse. At the beginning of the movie, Ariadne starts manipulating the set too much, making it unrealistic (e.g the roads folding in on itself (we see this in the perf too) and the explosion behind JunHwan).

These are all manipulations where the sets can collapse. Sets also collapse when you're in the process of falling (you're experiencing a kick), since it's technically destroying the set your mind has created.

(this part is also the most im not sure off so correct me lol)

9. In the movie, before the kick takes place, there is a slow-motion part (to be  more dramatic). This happens in iKON's performance too. The slow-mo part which all made our jaw drop.

And then, when the "kick" kicks in, we wake up. So in the performance, after the slow motion sequence, the beat literally drops and we're all supposed to wake up

10. The ambiguous ending. The ending of Inception is highly debated whether Cobb's is still in limbo or he is already back in real life. This is because when he spins the top, we don't see it falling, instead it just ends in a black screen before we could see the top fall.

Anyway, this is also the same in iKON's performance.

Despite "waking up", they continually sing about the top spinning and continually do these spinning motions. The top at the end also doesn't stop spinning. So are we still awake or are we all still dreaming??

Lastly, tying it all up. The mission in thr movie was to plant this idea in Robert Fischer's head.

Assuming, it's the same as with the movie, iKON's mission is to plant this performance in our head. Make it a performance worth remembering! Did it work? Definitely!

Again, I'm not a film major. Idk about dance theory, or music theory. (I'm just a chem major )

This is just my observation being a fan of Inception the movie, of iKON and of iKON's performance.

If you saw something wrong, feel free to correct. Or add to it.

Anyway! STREAM!!

Also there's this too that explained iKON's perf well.

There are so much theories on their performance so if we still get comments saying it was boring or it didn't have a storyline well.....

https://twitter.com/bingutabi/status/1386217444285448199?s=20