Analysis of Blackpink JENNIE’s Music Video ZEN

ANALYSIS

I recently watched JENNIE’s music video, ZEN, and felt like the message of the video resonates with what I want to do with my blog. I opened my blog to share useful tips on keeping both body and mind healthy. The video ZEN, with its emphasis on Buddhist theories, seems to depict the process of growing out of juvenile instincts and ascending into the realm of wisdom, eventually realizing happy and fulfilling life.

 

At the start of the video, I couldn’t help but notice the fact that only JENNIE’s upper body, mainly the face, appeared on the screen. Face is a part of body where major sensory organs including eyes, nose, ears and mouth are located. Therefore, the initial emphasis on face presumably serves to demonstrate how all humans, before reaching the stage of mental maturity, are obsessed with the achievement of bodily pleasure.

 

However, as the video progresses, JENNIE undergoes the process of maturation. The part where heart appears seems to demonstrate the process of emotional maturity. The video moves on to show JENNIE wearing black clothes and blue skirt. Blue is a cool tone color and symbolizes intellect and serenity. Therefore, blue skirt symbolizes the process of intellectual maturation.

 

Finally, JENNIE gets a wing. The wing seems to symbolize the ascendancy into the realm of realization and wisdom.

 

Overall, the video alternates between black and white images and colorful images. The use of black and white seems to be an allusion to the Buddhist theory of how the world is composed of only two entities: emptiness and substance.

 

WHAT IS EMPTINESS AND SUBSTANCE

This Buddhist idea reflects the principle of relativity. For instance, we cannot notice the presence of a green circle if the green circle is surrounded by a green background. However, if the color of the background changes, maybe to blue, we can then know that the circle is there. The principle of emptiness and substance states that emptiness cannot exist without substance and substance cannot exist without emptiness. If there were no emptiness, we wouldn’t be able to know substance. Likewise, if there were no substance, we wouldn’t be able to know emptiness. Expanding this insight, we can conclude that every single entity that exists in the world cannot exist alone. It is only through comprehending the relationships between multiple entities that we can fathom the cosmos we live in.

 

FINAL NOTE

If you are interested in learning more about the context of the JENNIE’s work, investigate about one of the most renowned Buddhism theorists in Silla dynasty, Wonhyo. Wonhyo was on a trip when he, amidst extreme thirst, discovered a round-shaped gourd filled with water. He immediately drank the water and due to initial thirst, the water felt so sweet. Wonhyo fell asleep and woke up the next day. What he believed to be a gourd was a human skull. Wonhyo immediately tried to vomit out the water he drank and at that instant, he realized what would become one of his most influential theories: it is not the world that creates reality. It is the human mind that creates reality.

 

Thank you for reading the post. See you later!