Inspecting the MV: EXO's 'Love Me Right'

Before I jump right into the analysis of EXO's "Love Me Right," I will admit that it took me quite long for me to come up with an interpretation of my own.�

Watching this music video made me feel like I was watching a K-pop take on fairytales. While the surreal imagery reminds me of�Alice in Wonderland, especially with EXO's fondness for children's fantasy themes�(Wolf, MAMA, History... etc), I thought that the said reference was a bit of a stretch. Instead, it's almost like EXO wanted to write their own K-pop fairytale with this music video!�

With that said, can I just express how refreshing it is to finally see SM Entertainment finally graduating from the severely outdated box-style set?

We start off with a close-up shot of Lay in bed, singing sultrily at an unknown person. His magical captor, perhaps?�

(You can't see his bedroom eyes, but they're there.)

Next we move onto a football-ready Suho in what appears to be a gym locker room. For some reason, the normal-looking locker room shots are mixed with purple-toned, mystical shots of the boys, who are set in strange backgrounds.

(What's with all the purple smoke?)

Finally we get our dance break, where we see the boys' dancing talents. These dancing scenes continue to be mixed with even more mysterious scenes of EXO members walking down strange hallways, lounging in the same locker room, and even sleeping on train tracks.

(Just look at those moves!)

Sehun's just sleeping on the train tracks like it's nobody's business. Maybe he's enchanted to sleep forever... on train tracks? How unfortunate.�

(Seriously, that can't be safe.)

We also continue to see the boys huddling and walking around a football field, possibly ready to play a game against an unknown (and unseen) enemy team.

(EXO fighting!)

Meanwhile Kai's just chilling in a weird house filled with weird hanging... plants? It almost reminds me of a witch's house filled with exotic herbs for spells and curses.

(So creepy!)

There's a princely Xiumin sitting at what appears to be a royal feast.

We've even got our very own Sleeping Beauty napping away all by himself in the forest.�

(Chen looks comfortable at least.)

And this whole time, D.O's just wandering alone down a weird hallway singing to himself.

(Poor lonely D.O.)

The ending of this video is an elegant mashup of all of these different locations and sceneries. We continue to see more of the boys' dancing to them striding powerfully across the football field to celebrate in the locker room, to more shots of them wandering the mystical forest and train tracks.�

(VICTORY!!!)

The final scene is the empty locker room, void of any color or life. Acting as a sharp contrast to the vivid colors of the music video, we get a sense of closure, almost as if they just labeled it "The End."�

(And... cut.)

Mixing together the mundane football scenes with the strange, almost magical imagery of the forest and train tracks, EXO give us a one-of-a-kind music video that's hard to categorize. The closest match I can make is to Alice in Wonderland, but, like I already said, that seems like too much of a stretch. Instead, it's almost like they're creating their own K-pop fairytale, filled with sleeping members, a stately prince, enchanted forests, and sports teams that magically achieve victory.�

What do you think this MV is about?�