#2: Stop Asian Hate

Anti-Asian violence both here and overseas. New videos from Jackson Wang, OnlyOneOf, and more.

I got my first vaccination this week, and since then, I've been checking the Korean Embassy's website to find out when the two-week mandatory quarantine period for tourists will be lifted. As of yet, no luck. I prefer to think about visiting overseas than to think about traveling outside my apartment. I am Filipino and live in New York, and this particular hate crime was against a Filipino woman walking during the day in midtown after going to church. In spite of my best efforts, I haven't been able to figure out how she could have avoided this attack. Apart from carrying a pepper spray holster or a bodyguard, what could she possibly have done? Trespassers will be prosecuted.

All of this made me think of the 2014 death of Jennifer Laude, a trans woman in the Philippines murdered by a US Marine named Joseph Scott Pemberton. The US government spent $500,000 on his defense. After his trial and sentencing in the Philippines, Pemberton was transferred from a Filipino jail to a single-person air-conditioned prison on Camp Aguinaldo (a Philippine Armed Forces base). His sentence was to continue there. He was pardoned by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last year and flown back to the United States. He not only kept his military pay, but the Marines confirmed he won't get a dishonorable discharge. His family expressed their gratitude to Duterte. His lawyer says he'll probably go to college this year. One of the great privileges of being white in America is that you get to be white in America no matter where you are.

Anyway! Here's a quick one on my favorite releases of the year ---

Jessica

"LMLY" - Jackson Wang from LMLY‌‌
Released: March 26, 2021

GOT7 put out their last single under JYP back in February, and Jackson Wang has wasted zero hours since. “LMLY”  — which stands for ‘let me love you’ — is just so good.

Wang sets the “LMLY” video within the steam-and-neon world of ‘90s Hong Kong cinema, and that hazy, florescent world is the perfect backdrop for this glistening new wave song. Simple and repetitive, but it repeats one great hook. That and Wang’s textured, intimate vocals are all this track actually needs.

If you’ve ever heard Jackson Wang give an interview in English (if you haven’t, you’ll get to at the end of this music video), then you I bet you noticed this quirk: he speaks with an unplaceable, American, working class accent, aka “Ryan Gosling voice”. I only mention that because Wang absolutely nails his lovelorn busboy character here, down to the toothpick biting and melancholy.‌

“Libid0” - OnlyOneOf‌‌ from Instinct Part.1
Released: April 7, 2021‌‌

"Libid0," OnlyOneOf's latest sex-heavy single, is not their first attempt (although it may seem like it) at titillation. Early comeback single "Sage," at first looks like your average night-set k-pop boy group video. But "Sage" and its video grows more sinister and masochistic, the song's lyrics, unsettling in their mix of romance and role-play. Sample line: "Take my hand / Please be my God" then later: "Fill me by you, babe / Please put me to bed."

More importantly, "Sage" defined OnlyOneOf as the artier, more risk-taking k-pop group. In an interview with Seoulbeats, their producer name drops their inspirations: Wassily Kandinsky’s Point and Line to Plane, Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, and Dante's Divine Comedy.

So, "LibidO." Again, its first few moments are deceptive -- it feels like any other bright, coming-of-age boy band video. "LibidO" starts with each member solo, then as it unfolds the seven members appear in groups twos and threes, each time adding another layer of sexual tension between the them. Sure, the members are just playing basketball, just eating candy, just hanging out by a stream, so it's on you, the viewer to fill in the blanks. OnlyOneOf just debuted two years ago, but they're actually all older than most rookie groups – their eldest member is 29. Still, they look young, and the way the camera sees them (from around corners and behind trees) makes you feel like you're about to be caught.

I love it. "LibidO" itself is a risque song ("We are like roots sprouting up like veins‌‌ / Get mixed up with no rules"). In some ways the video feels like a challenge to toxic fan/idol relationships, the way fans ship the group members, or demand uncomfortable physical affection between them as fan service.