This song truly marked the beginning of the Taemin that we know now! Him working with Japanese choreographer Koharu Sugawara opened him up in embracing his androgyny. Being likened and called a girl through his younger years pushed him through a hypermasculine phase. But once he worked with Koharu on his Japanese debut, his dancing style became so much more fluid and grandeous, along with his confidence. Working with choreographer Rino right after this elevated that and gave us the masterpieces we have now!! Want, Move, Criminal, Idea, Advice!!! Truly beautiful to see!
Sayonara Hitori was indeed a part of TAEMIN album, but it was first released as a title track of his first Japanese mini album in 2016. The MV is from 2016 as well.
I have a lot to say about this project and Taemin so strap in. lmao Because his solo work is so deeply personal for Taemin, he has a lot of recurring imagery and themes in his solo work that you'll notice show up across eras: being bound/restrained, having his face partially or completely obscured usually with a mask or his hands, wolves, death/resurrection, hell/damnation vs heaven/divinity, flowers (usually roses and often blue), etc. He strives for beauty and elegance within darkness, unless ugliness and inelegance is the point he's specifically making. His art oftentimes has unsettling or creepy themes and impeccable visuals. He also often showcases duality in his MVs, lyrics, dance, or visuals. I'd say a good 90% of his MVs and performance videos have themes of duality or multiplicity and the splitting of the self/psyche. His lyrics also usually are about exploring his identity both as Taemin the Idol and Taemin the Man. Thus the dualism with the dragons, grieving women, and stone wolves that y'all noticed was absolutely intentional, I believe. Duality (sometimes multiplicity) in Taemin's MVs and stages usually represent his relationship with his stage persona, the industry, or the commodification of and objectification of his body and face. He has a very complex history when it comes to his image given his extremely young age at the start of his career and the ways in which the public and other industry professionals consumed, controlled, and sometimes hypersexualized that image. Taemin uses his solo work as a way to regain control over that image, his sexuality, and to exert his autonomy within a music industry that frankly is manufactured in such a way that it often stifles individuality and personhood. This is why his body of work has dealt heavily with his struggles with identity and culminated in "Advice," the song in which he specifically calls out the way people gossip about him or try to control/restrict him. Taemin's early Japanese EPs "Sayonara Hitori" (2016) and "Flame of Love" (2017) have a dark fantasy theme. Both of these title tracks were included on his "Taemin" full length album in 2018, lead by the "Under My Skin" title track. "Under My Skin" does not have a fantasy theme but is actually an extremely personal song dealing with Taemin's complex feelings about his internal self and was frankly a vehicle for him to process some of the darker emotions he was feeling in early 2018. In "Sayonara Hitori," however, Taemin tells a fictional story of a warrior who has died after a great battle and is making his way through different realms of the afterlife. "Sayonara Hitori" can translate to "Solitary Goodbye," "Lonesome Goodbye," or "A Single Goodbye." The warrior/fantasy storytelling reframes the "goodbye" in the title/lyrics into both an aching parting and a violent separation of death. If we take the MV's story into account when interpreting the lyrics, perhaps the version of Taemin in the white with the straps flowing from him is a spiritual version and the person walking way and not turning back is someone who is still living and has moved on from Taemin's death. Loneliness and grief are mentioned several times in the lyrics. However, Taemin also tells the person he's speaking to, "Don't be sad. In this world, flowers are in full bloom." as if to comfort them and tell them that he has made it to a better place. But how are we to interpret this comfort when the opening imagery is of Taemin's dance both making those flowers bloom in a barren land while also scattering the petals of the flowers into the wind, ostensibly killing them? What about the final lyrics in which he admits at the very end "I don't want to say 'Goodbye.'" and then says "goodbye" three times more anyway? Perhaps Taemin is trying to capture the almost hypocrisy of parting from someone, whether that be a breakup or some other type of separation. You long for them, you know you must say goodbye, you make the choice to leave, but there's always a part of you that regrets and misses them. Now to switch gears a little. I have an exercise I do when I think about Taemin's artistry where I always consider interpreting his lyrics as being about his relationship to himself and the many parts of himself he likes to portray. So if we look at the lyrics through THAT lens, perhaps the violent parting and death is representing a death of his former self. The person he is grieving and saying goodbye to is the Him from before and a new man is walking away without looking back. This particular interpretation would then tie back into the duality we all mentioned earlier. Perhaps there's a version of Taemin that is a warrior (fire realm), a version that's a lover (flower/wind realm), and a version that's a ghost (water/beach realm). Each realm holds a part of himself and when the MV has these realms match cut and flash in and out of each other, they are the parts of him coming together to form the whole. Sorry for this extremely long comment. I just love this song/project so much. "Sayonara Hitori" is a seminal piece for Taemin. The choreographer for this song was the famous Japanese dancer/choreographer Koharu Sugawara. It was the first song she ever choregraphed for Taemin and began a years long friendship/partnership between them that has been maintained to this day. Her strong friendship and influence can be seen as one of the things that fueled Taemin's interest exploring contemporary and modern dance more prominently. She is also one of the major influences (along with Jonghyun, Key, and another choreographer Rino Nakasone) who gave Taemin the space to begin exploring his femininity and androgyny in a positive way after many years of struggling with and against it. Koharu also choreographed Taemin's "Move" (the androgyny national anthem), "Flame of Love" (his other big Japanese title) and co-choreographed "Criminal." She also served as choreographer for SHINee's 2018 title track, "Good Evening," the expression of which was so important for their group after everything that happened in late 2017. Taemin has several performance versions of "Sayonara Hitori" in both Japanese and Korean, btw. He has a duo dance version in which he and Koharu performed this song as part of the Hit the Stage dance competition show. th-cam.com/video/IKIbscbXvy4/w-d-xo.html He also has a trio dance performance version that he performed with TWICE's Momo and Jihyo. th-cam.com/video/QFHLhmL5mLk/w-d-xo.html The choreo is a little different than his solo versions so I highly recommend checking them both out when y'all can. Also Taemin's other Japanese releases "Flame of Love," "Under My Skin," and "Famous." I also recommend the "Sayonara Hitori" and "Famous" dance practices. They are superb.
"Sayonara Hitori" is Taemin's Japanese solo debut in 2016. However, Taemin and SHINee have been well-known Japanese artists since SHINee's Japanese debut in 2011. SHINee and Taemin are so famous in Japan that they are considered part of the mainstream music scene in Japan and many don't even consider them foreign artists. They spend almost 50% of their career in Japan, so they are all fluent in Japanese. Fun fact: If you watch one of his live performances of the song in Korea, you will see the Korean version of this song is named "Goodbye." As you probably know, Sayonara means goodbye in Japanese. His Japanese album was so popular that they decided to produce a Korean version of the song later. The Korean version is what you hear if you watch Taemin's "Devil Inside" performance on the dance competition show Hit the Stage or any award show or concert performances outside of Japan. You should also check out the dance practice, the dance practice is not on TH-cam, so you have to search for it. You haven't even begun to see just how amazing the choreography for "Sayonara Hitori (Goodbye)" is. :P This also was the first time Taemin worked with Sugawara Koharu, who is a famous Japanese choreographer. She later also was the choreographer for Taemin's "Move," "Want" and "Flame of Love" MVs, and she helped choreograph their performance on Hit the Stage, and was one of several who collaborated on Taemin's "Criminal" MV choreography. Taemin and Sugawara have worked together for years and they are really good friends. She was also the choreographer for SHINee's song "Good Evening." and she choreographed the dance for Girls' Generation's song "Love&Girls," among others. She loves working with Taemin because his dance style and personality is very similar to her's so they mesh really well together, and that is one of the reasons why she has been featured in several of Taemin's projects. This was the first time that Taemin really learned a contemporary style dance and Sugawara was his teacher. This MV is set in an otherworldly location in another dimension or planet and the prominent feature is a giant moon, just like in EXO's storyline. And, as you may have noticed, there are blue flowers that bloom and then are placed all around Taemin in the casket. Pearl aqua blue/green is SHINee's color, so blue has a lot of important messages when it comes to SHINee. Blue flowers also could be connected to Taemin's solo storyline. We also see blue roses in Taemin's "Press Your Number" MV. And some theories even think the blue flowers could be connected to the blue roses/flowers we see in EXO's storyline. Plus, blue flowers, when equated with a message, usually stand for love and inspiration, and when presenting someone with blue flowers you are telling them you will stay loyal and passionate about them. Which is now thought could be all connected to SM's SM Culture Universe storyline. Taemin's "Sayonara Hitori" is visually stunning and breathtaking. (This is the sort of vibe you should expect from the majority of Taemin's Japanese MVs. They all have this very Japanese feel to them.) If you are curious how this MV was made, you should look up the behind the scenes/making of video, th-cam.com/video/QNLyT4ZZw7U/w-d-xo.html. You will see that for most of it Taemin is dancing in a shallow pool of water on a green screen set. (Very similar to how Onew, SHINee's leader, filmed his solo debut "Blue" MV in 2018.) About the only things that are real in the MV are the water and the piano,Taemin's amazing outfits and his impressive dancing. :D (And because this is one of his Japanese songs, you will get a chance to hear just how fluent and comfortable he is speaking in Japanese. :D)
Con esta canción empece a escuchar Kpop, cuando una noche en 2016 me apareció este MV de casualidad en youtube mientras aburrida buscaba algo para ver.
TAEMIN es fantástico .El artista del KPOP que tiene una identidad propia ,Todos sus MV son ARTE .Esperando su regreso para verlo hacer ARTE nuevamente.❤
Live Performance 🔥🔥
www.patreon.com/posts/redemption-to-80679223
Thank you guys for reacting to taemin
A work of art 👑 6 more days till Taemin's back!
Ayyeeee
This song truly marked the beginning of the Taemin that we know now! Him working with Japanese choreographer Koharu Sugawara opened him up in embracing his androgyny. Being likened and called a girl through his younger years pushed him through a hypermasculine phase. But once he worked with Koharu on his Japanese debut, his dancing style became so much more fluid and grandeous, along with his confidence. Working with choreographer Rino right after this elevated that and gave us the masterpieces we have now!! Want, Move, Criminal, Idea, Advice!!! Truly beautiful to see!
this is definitely one of my favourite taemin tracks because of the way he says sayonara hitori it just sounds so angelic lmao
Sayonara Hitori was indeed a part of TAEMIN album, but it was first released as a title track of his first Japanese mini album in 2016. The MV is from 2016 as well.
WHY HAVE I NEVER SEEN THIS?! Taemin is truely amazing.
Hope you loved it
Is an piece of art ! I love that song ❤ Taemin is amazing ❤
TAEMIN FINALLY POSTED ON TWITTER TODAY AND HE’S COMING BACK NEXT WEEK😭❤️
Thank you for doing this one!! It’s an absolute fav! Thank you to whoever requested this!! Unbelievable amazing taemin 😍😍
No problem 😊
I love the guy in red hoodie reaction! :)) He’s very observant and I noticed that he often notice the littlest details in every MV / music, love that.
Move,and think of you don't forget the other songs
from what i read they say that when hes doing a music Video he puts a lot of input into the vd and he wont stop until hes happy with the results
I have a lot to say about this project and Taemin so strap in. lmao
Because his solo work is so deeply personal for Taemin, he has a lot of recurring imagery and themes in his solo work that you'll notice show up across eras: being bound/restrained, having his face partially or completely obscured usually with a mask or his hands, wolves, death/resurrection, hell/damnation vs heaven/divinity, flowers (usually roses and often blue), etc. He strives for beauty and elegance within darkness, unless ugliness and inelegance is the point he's specifically making.
His art oftentimes has unsettling or creepy themes and impeccable visuals. He also often showcases duality in his MVs, lyrics, dance, or visuals. I'd say a good 90% of his MVs and performance videos have themes of duality or multiplicity and the splitting of the self/psyche. His lyrics also usually are about exploring his identity both as Taemin the Idol and Taemin the Man.
Thus the dualism with the dragons, grieving women, and stone wolves that y'all noticed was absolutely intentional, I believe. Duality (sometimes multiplicity) in Taemin's MVs and stages usually represent his relationship with his stage persona, the industry, or the commodification of and objectification of his body and face. He has a very complex history when it comes to his image given his extremely young age at the start of his career and the ways in which the public and other industry professionals consumed, controlled, and sometimes hypersexualized that image.
Taemin uses his solo work as a way to regain control over that image, his sexuality, and to exert his autonomy within a music industry that frankly is manufactured in such a way that it often stifles individuality and personhood. This is why his body of work has dealt heavily with his struggles with identity and culminated in "Advice," the song in which he specifically calls out the way people gossip about him or try to control/restrict him.
Taemin's early Japanese EPs "Sayonara Hitori" (2016) and "Flame of Love" (2017) have a dark fantasy theme. Both of these title tracks were included on his "Taemin" full length album in 2018, lead by the "Under My Skin" title track. "Under My Skin" does not have a fantasy theme but is actually an extremely personal song dealing with Taemin's complex feelings about his internal self and was frankly a vehicle for him to process some of the darker emotions he was feeling in early 2018.
In "Sayonara Hitori," however, Taemin tells a fictional story of a warrior who has died after a great battle and is making his way through different realms of the afterlife. "Sayonara Hitori" can translate to "Solitary Goodbye," "Lonesome Goodbye," or "A Single Goodbye." The warrior/fantasy storytelling reframes the "goodbye" in the title/lyrics into both an aching parting and a violent separation of death.
If we take the MV's story into account when interpreting the lyrics, perhaps the version of Taemin in the white with the straps flowing from him is a spiritual version and the person walking way and not turning back is someone who is still living and has moved on from Taemin's death.
Loneliness and grief are mentioned several times in the lyrics. However, Taemin also tells the person he's speaking to, "Don't be sad. In this world, flowers are in full bloom." as if to comfort them and tell them that he has made it to a better place. But how are we to interpret this comfort when the opening imagery is of Taemin's dance both making those flowers bloom in a barren land while also scattering the petals of the flowers into the wind, ostensibly killing them? What about the final lyrics in which he admits at the very end "I don't want to say 'Goodbye.'" and then says "goodbye" three times more anyway?
Perhaps Taemin is trying to capture the almost hypocrisy of parting from someone, whether that be a breakup or some other type of separation. You long for them, you know you must say goodbye, you make the choice to leave, but there's always a part of you that regrets and misses them.
Now to switch gears a little. I have an exercise I do when I think about Taemin's artistry where I always consider interpreting his lyrics as being about his relationship to himself and the many parts of himself he likes to portray. So if we look at the lyrics through THAT lens, perhaps the violent parting and death is representing a death of his former self. The person he is grieving and saying goodbye to is the Him from before and a new man is walking away without looking back. This particular interpretation would then tie back into the duality we all mentioned earlier.
Perhaps there's a version of Taemin that is a warrior (fire realm), a version that's a lover (flower/wind realm), and a version that's a ghost (water/beach realm). Each realm holds a part of himself and when the MV has these realms match cut and flash in and out of each other, they are the parts of him coming together to form the whole.
Sorry for this extremely long comment. I just love this song/project so much. "Sayonara Hitori" is a seminal piece for Taemin. The choreographer for this song was the famous Japanese dancer/choreographer Koharu Sugawara. It was the first song she ever choregraphed for Taemin and began a years long friendship/partnership between them that has been maintained to this day. Her strong friendship and influence can be seen as one of the things that fueled Taemin's interest exploring contemporary and modern dance more prominently. She is also one of the major influences (along with Jonghyun, Key, and another choreographer Rino Nakasone) who gave Taemin the space to begin exploring his femininity and androgyny in a positive way after many years of struggling with and against it.
Koharu also choreographed Taemin's "Move" (the androgyny national anthem), "Flame of Love" (his other big Japanese title) and co-choreographed "Criminal." She also served as choreographer for SHINee's 2018 title track, "Good Evening," the expression of which was so important for their group after everything that happened in late 2017.
Taemin has several performance versions of "Sayonara Hitori" in both Japanese and Korean, btw. He has a duo dance version in which he and Koharu performed this song as part of the Hit the Stage dance competition show. th-cam.com/video/IKIbscbXvy4/w-d-xo.html
He also has a trio dance performance version that he performed with TWICE's Momo and Jihyo. th-cam.com/video/QFHLhmL5mLk/w-d-xo.html
The choreo is a little different than his solo versions so I highly recommend checking them both out when y'all can. Also Taemin's other Japanese releases "Flame of Love," "Under My Skin," and "Famous." I also recommend the "Sayonara Hitori" and "Famous" dance practices. They are superb.
I left this on your patreon but thought it would be good to put on the YT video too.
"Sayonara Hitori" is Taemin's Japanese solo debut in 2016. However, Taemin and SHINee have been well-known Japanese artists since SHINee's Japanese debut in 2011. SHINee and Taemin are so famous in Japan that they are considered part of the mainstream music scene in Japan and many don't even consider them foreign artists. They spend almost 50% of their career in Japan, so they are all fluent in Japanese.
Fun fact: If you watch one of his live performances of the song in Korea, you will see the Korean version of this song is named "Goodbye." As you probably know, Sayonara means goodbye in Japanese. His Japanese album was so popular that they decided to produce a Korean version of the song later. The Korean version is what you hear if you watch Taemin's "Devil Inside" performance on the dance competition show Hit the Stage or any award show or concert performances outside of Japan.
You should also check out the dance practice, the dance practice is not on TH-cam, so you have to search for it. You haven't even begun to see just how amazing the choreography for "Sayonara Hitori (Goodbye)" is. :P
This also was the first time Taemin worked with Sugawara Koharu, who is a famous Japanese choreographer. She later also was the choreographer for Taemin's "Move," "Want" and "Flame of Love" MVs, and she helped choreograph their performance on Hit the Stage, and was one of several who collaborated on Taemin's "Criminal" MV choreography. Taemin and Sugawara have worked together for years and they are really good friends. She was also the choreographer for SHINee's song "Good Evening." and she choreographed the dance for Girls' Generation's song "Love&Girls," among others. She loves working with Taemin because his dance style and personality is very similar to her's so they mesh really well together, and that is one of the reasons why she has been featured in several of Taemin's projects. This was the first time that Taemin really learned a contemporary style dance and Sugawara was his teacher.
This MV is set in an otherworldly location in another dimension or planet and the prominent feature is a giant moon, just like in EXO's storyline. And, as you may have noticed, there are blue flowers that bloom and then are placed all around Taemin in the casket. Pearl aqua blue/green is SHINee's color, so blue has a lot of important messages when it comes to SHINee. Blue flowers also could be connected to Taemin's solo storyline. We also see blue roses in Taemin's "Press Your Number" MV. And some theories even think the blue flowers could be connected to the blue roses/flowers we see in EXO's storyline. Plus, blue flowers, when equated with a message, usually stand for love and inspiration, and when presenting someone with blue flowers you are telling them you will stay loyal and passionate about them. Which is now thought could be all connected to SM's SM Culture Universe storyline.
Taemin's "Sayonara Hitori" is visually stunning and breathtaking. (This is the sort of vibe you should expect from the majority of Taemin's Japanese MVs. They all have this very Japanese feel to them.) If you are curious how this MV was made, you should look up the behind the scenes/making of video, th-cam.com/video/QNLyT4ZZw7U/w-d-xo.html. You will see that for most of it Taemin is dancing in a shallow pool of water on a green screen set. (Very similar to how Onew, SHINee's leader, filmed his solo debut "Blue" MV in 2018.) About the only things that are real in the MV are the water and the piano,Taemin's amazing outfits and his impressive dancing. :D (And because this is one of his Japanese songs, you will get a chance to hear just how fluent and comfortable he is speaking in Japanese. :D)
Thank you for reacting Taemin Song😘
I love and enjoy your reactions❤
React to Taemin's Black Rose performance video
Con esta canción empece a escuchar Kpop, cuando una noche en 2016 me apareció este MV de casualidad en youtube mientras aburrida buscaba algo para ver.
TAEMIN's live stages and dance practices are always awsome
TAEMIN is the different level. THE KING of kings
I see anything SHINee I click aggressively
FINALLY!
This is definitely one of my favorite TAEMIN Japanese songs and MV the storytelling and lyrics are spot on.💙💙💙💎
Taemin is a Amazing!!!!!
React to Taemin- Black Rose THE STAGE
You guys should check out Circle by Onew!!! It’s so good!!
TAEMIN es fantástico .El artista del KPOP que tiene una identidad propia ,Todos sus MV son ARTE .Esperando su regreso para verlo hacer ARTE nuevamente.❤
Amazing!!!!
2 DAYS UNTIL TAEMIN COMEBACK OMG
Please react to NCT U - Round & Round🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Pls react to Treasure Rytm ta & Bang Bang Bang and TREASURE - TOUR IN KYOCERA DOME OSAKA ‘VolKno’ you can watch the video in their youtube channel
Jisoo flower teaser react to pls
The Marvel dis almost got you a dislike. 😤