The World Ep. 1: Movement Part 2

Guerrilla and Movement Album

This is a continuation of a previous post. Please refer to The World Ep. 1: Movement Part 1 before reading this post.

Yesterday my mind was blown by Tiny Bug Ink with her explanation of Universe A and Z on a Möbius Strip. I needed to take some time to let that information ruminate in my brain and I came up with one conclusion that helped me make more sense of the issues I was having with my timeline knowing that Movement was not a Halateez prequel.

As you remember in my Ateez Storyline: What (I Think) We Know So Far post, I posited that Awakening of Summer (Rhythm Ta) was the first point in the Ateez/Halateez timeline and was how Halateez got the cromer so that Halajoong could give it to Hongjoong in the Diary Film. That was the main reason I thought Movement would be the Halateez origin story/the Halateez prequel like Fever was the Ateez prequel. When I figured out that Movement came AFTER Treasure, I had one remaining question. "But what about the Awakening of Summer (Rhythm Ta) stage where they got the cromer? Where does that fit?" I was in a quandry.

BUT by putting the timeline on a Möbius Strip and assuming Ateez and Halateez are not doppelgängers but the same people in both the old and new world, I can answer this question! There are not two cromers (one from each universe), there is only one!! The cromer Ateez stole from the museum in Universe A WAS the cromer Halajoong gave Hongjoong in the Diary Film! Older Halajoong gave the cromer Ateez stole from the museum in Universe A back to his younger self in the Diary Film! The cromer is from Universe A because technically Universe A and Universe Z are the same place at different points in time. Which also leads me to believe that Henry Jo of Sciensalver, the man who thinks "humans are the collection of energy and human concerns from an uncertain future can be resolved through science", may have won out and become Z, the leader of the central government in Strictland (Universe Z).

In the same theme, Tiny Bug Ink's hypothesis about Ateez having one eye open and one eye closed allowing hem to see into both universes holds some merit when you connect it to the cromer. If you think of eyes as moon phases, since that is what the cromer uses to work, then eyes open/shut would be the full/new moon and one eye open/shut would be the crescent moon. That is the phase of the moon the cromer uses to communicate between universes but not travel. So in essence, they are able to "see" both universes at the same time through their communication with the cromer.

Diary Entries:

Now that we know where Movement fits in the timeline, we need the Diary entries. This time I can summarize them from my very own photo book!!

A. Intro: The intro starts with an alarm alerting the people of Strictland to pay attention to their leader, Z’s incoming message. It described the perfect world that comes from the government’s protection. This message came through a speaker in the streets but sent a signal into a chip located under the ears of the citizens. They lit up yellow as he spoke. As the message ended, the crowd clapped and cheered Z’s name. During the cheers, music began to blare from the speakers and swallowed up Z’s voice. The yellow light of the people’s chips faded away and the people hearing the music started to get confused. A man looked to his left and saw Hongjoong standing in the shadows, he didn’t know Hongjoong but the name, “Ateez” came out of his lips.

001: Mingi appeared next to the man and threw him a small square machine with a note inside, “There is a chip under your ear. Let the breaker touch the chip.” The other members of Ateez appeared around the square and started singing and dancing to the music coming out of the speaker. The citizens began to shake their bodies unconsciously to the music as they stared blankly at Ateez. During their performance, the Black Pirates began spreading flyers from the sky and handing out breakers. The citizens started to read the flyers, “You are valuable by yourself. No one can define you and no one can control you. Being alive is imperfect and it is beautiful to be imperfect. Read poetry, draw pictures, listen to music, dance, and sing. Therein lies your own answer.” [Black Pirates]

002: Those who saw the message, touched the chips in their ears, noticing them for the first time. The citizens started to use the breakers to disable the chips while Ateez continued dancing. The guardians tried to control the citizens and catch Ateez but they escaped using their cromer. Those that disabled their chips were overcome by emotions of chaos and fear. As they ran away from the guardians, and those who did not disable their chips returned to work with the same blank faces, one person took a leftover breaker and put it in their pocket.

003: Ateez and the Black Pirates celebrated the success of their plan when they returned to their bunker. The breaker that Left Eye developed using failed government chips found in his dump worked! It blocked the control link of the chips and also could lead the people to a black link the Black Pirates use but only if they make the choice to connect to it. This way these people can be saved but only by their choice and the Black Pirates can also be protected from those who would misuse the black link. Mingi then asked why they weren’t using forced linked connections as it could save more people.

004: Left Eye continued explaining why it was important to give people time to overcome the chaos that comes from returning emotions. Once they become more stable, a signal will alert the Black Pirates to contact them. He explained that forcing people to disconnect from the system when they don’t want to, may be detrimental to the Black Pirates.

005: Hongjoong then asked the Black Pirates if they had found the location of Z. They explained that it is not easy to find Z because even the lower level guardians did not know where he was located. As Z is the ruler of this world and the symbol of the Z world, his safety is the guardian’s top priority. What Ateez can do right now is install mirrors and remove the coverings that block the windows of buildings, which will infiltrate the symbolic place that is establishing this world.

006: In the early days the government did not realize the importance of mirrors while limiting the citizen’s emotions. But as the people recognized themselves in mirrors, their emotions kept getting out of control, so the government removed all reflective surfaces. In the same manner, windows allowed people to see the possibility of freedom so they were covered and newer buildings were built without windows. Additionally domes were installed in zones to block out the heat, vitamins, and nutrients from the sun. With the cromer, Ateez and the Black Pirates moved freely between zones to awaken the citizens but the government continued to work to bring the citizens back under control or transport them to the guardian bunker. Now the only way Ateez and the Black Pirates could continue their work was to make as many people aware as they could at one time. They chose Prestige Academy as their first target.

007: An alarm sounded alerting them to an intruder in the bunker. A young boy was crying out for help from the Black Pirates. He explained he got out of the control link during their performance and then realized how bleak and violent his school and the world are after experiencing them with emotions for the first time. That night he carefully explained this to his older brother who attended the same school, but his brother tried to report him to the guardians so he put the breaker against his older brother’s chip. The boy thought his older brother would understand his intent but he reacted differently to being out of the control loop. He was in pain and blamed his younger brother.

008: The boy asked them with tears in his eyes if they knew the Guardian’s Island. This was the same place Yeosang was kept when he was stuck in Strictland. Guardian Island is a facility for reeducating the maladjusted. However, it is also a place to dispose of people who rebelled against the government and other things that stimulate peoples’ emotions like art and music. Ateez and the Black Pirates knew this place well but they did not know that children were being taken there. The boy explained that his brother was about to take his final exam, held after 40 years of education, to determine where he would be placed in society. But now that he is out of the controlled link, he may not pass the exam and might be sent to Guardian Island. The boy accessed the black link to find help from the Black Pirates and came to the closest bunker.

Z. Outro: Mingi, who had a hard time in school himself, stated the exam was not the problem but that others might turn him in before even getting to the exam. They considered infiltrating the boy’s school to save his brother but knew if they did that, their plans for Prestige Academy may fail when they tried later. They asked the boy what school he attended and he stated, “Prestige Academy.” That was perfect as they were already planning on infiltrating there!

Guerrilla Music Video

In Guerrilla we see Ateez hacking into the systems of the central government to spread a message of freedom. Hongjoong and Wooyoung disguise themselves as agents of the central government while Yeosang hacks the system. They spread fliers through the streets and by air but their main goal is to break into the messaging to the students at Prestige Academy and free them. We see that their hack worked on one student who found his way to their Black Pirate bunker at the end of the video.

The first thing I noticed, besides the amazing song and dance moves in this music video was just how beautiful it was. I mean look at these stills:

But the Art Deco set and the slow motion flag scene were by far the most memorable for me so of course I started Googling. I started with where Ateez has found inspiration before. One of those places was the anarchist movement in France where I found this gem.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix, ca. 1830, via the Louvre in Paris, France is an iconic painting related to the French Revolution. This painting depicted Delacroix’s view of the revolution as a shared goal of all Frenchmen, the peasants and the elite, how their blood spilled created a nation. This is Ateez's goal too. For all people to be free. As an aside, Ateez is not the first group to find inspiration in their work. Coldplay used it as cover art for one of their albums.

The next thing I looked into was the art Art Deco scene where Guerrilla is spelled out among the buildings. It looks like artwork so I knew it had to be inspired by something and it was!!

Metropolis is a German film from 1927. I have linked it here if you have 2.5 hours to spare and want to watch it. I will say you can watch it on x2 speed and still understand everything. Here is my favorite synopsis form IMDb for those who do not wat to watch, "Sometime in the future, the city of Metropolis is home to a Utopian society where its wealthy residents live a carefree life. One of those is Freder Fredersen. One day, he spots a beautiful woman with a group of children, she and the children quickly disappear. Trying to follow her, he is horrified to find an underground world of workers who apparently run the machinery that keeps the Utopian world above ground functioning. One of the few people above ground who knows about the world below is Freder's father, John Fredersen, who is the founder and master of Metropolis. Freder learns that the woman is called Maria, who espouses the need to join the "hands" - the workers - to the "head" - those in power above - by a mediator who will act as the "heart". Freder wants to help the plight of the workers in their struggle for a better life. But when John learns of what Maria is advocating and that Freder has joined their cause, with the assistance of an old colleague, an inventor called Rotwang, who turns out to be their nemesis goes to works towards quashing a proposed uprising, with Maria at the centre of their plan. John, unaware that Rotwang has his own agenda., makes plans that include shutting down the machines, with the prospect of unleashing total anarchy both above and below ground." — Huggo

Yes folks, Ateez reenacted a movie poster from a 1927 German silent movie about a dystopian society in their music video!

The last thing I decided to research was blimps/zeppelins. A bunch of dystopian, alternate reality, or futuristic movies have used them in the past (e.g., Equilibrium) and Ateez is using them in all of their Movement imagery. Why? What is it about blimps/zeppelins that screams utopia/dystopia? Based on my research they are commonly used to indicate an alternate universe with a similar time period of our own but they just so happened to take a different technological route since in their world, the Hindenburg explosion never happened. So Ateez is using them in the same way.

They were also used to portray technological advancement in past propaganda. I happened upon this poster from 1931 that Ateez borrowed for Guerrilla while I was doing my reasearch:

So Ateez took inspiration from French, German, and Russian art related to revolution or dystopia to create their music video. That's freaking cool!!

Making of Music Video and Jacket, and Reaction to Guerrilla:

There were only a few small clues provided by Ateez members during the making of videos and the reaction.

• During the the jacket making film, Hongjoong stated in regards to Guerrilla, "It is about the movements in the new world. The friends who are living in the Z-dimension. It's about the Z-dimension and it's a little bit futuristic."

• Seonghwa stated in the music video making film, "We did our best in our sporty outfits and Halateez outfits yesterday." YES, he said Halateez!! This tracks with Tiny Bug Ink's theory of Ateez being the members in the old world and Halateez being in the new world. So the black and red outfits at the end of Guerrilla are our first look at the members turning into Halateez!

• During the reaction to the Guerrilla music video Hongjoong mentioned Atiny was probably wondering about the music used in the end of the scene and asked if Mingi knew what it was. Mingi said of course he knew! Hopefully that means the music is a song that either Hongjoong or Mingi produced!

The Movement Album

When the album first came out, I took a chance to listen to it from start to finish while reading the English translation for all of the songs. If you have not already done that, I highly recommend it. As a life long theater kid, the first thing I thought of when I finished was, "This could be the soundtrack to a Broadway musical." Each track tells more of the story. Here is the story I heard:

Sector 1

During the showcase, Hongjoong described Sector 1 as a place of great wealth. When I listened to the album after reading the Diaries, I thought this would be the song they sang to hype themselves up to go into Sector 1 and try their breakers on the citizen’s chips for the first time. This song is what they sang before the A: Intro diary entry. Lyrics include:

"The lie that changed everything. No one can feel it more"

"Let's go, to the streets of the abyss. Let's go, to the twisted truth. Let's go, everyone wake up."

"Open your eyes, open your eyes with me. Feel it, feel it with me. Like the light in the sky, we are free. Nothing, nothing can't stop. Let's go into the sector one"

Cyberpunk

This song seems to be from the perspective of those under the central government’s control or maybe those being put under their control. The lyrics tell a story of going numb and a longing to feel alive.

"I am crushed by the silence falling like a veil. Only the silence of the lost souls that were taken away (No way). I'm getting numb as if I'm paralyzed."

"I can't feel anything in this place, full of lies. This is a frozen night where everyone is asleep."

"The existence itself is doubtful, life has lost its meaning. It's inevitable, but I'm still asking for the answer. Lost in a black and white photo studio. Who am I? I, my, my, mine."

"Harmonious streets where nothing blooms. The clock hand stopped because it lost its meaning."

"I wanna feel alive (Just wanna feel alive). Don't wanna stay in the dark (Stay, stay in the dark).

Guerrilla

We then reach Guerrilla. Here is the action part of the story. They are now going through with their plan to break into the sound system and spread their message.

"Living with the eyes of emotion closed. Doesn't it mean anything to you?"

"Dance, break that wall, with our feel. Spread it out, guerrilla. This is how we shout, loudly, keep it loud. Until everyone opens their eyes. Dance, break that wall, with our feel. Spread it out guerrilla. This is how we fight, now we’re gonna ride. Wake up the world, we are, woah."

The Ring

In The Ring Ateez is talking to those who have been let out of the control link. Those who are feeling in chaos due to all of the new emotions thrust upon them. They are asking those people to not fear those feelings and work through them so they can follow Ateez into the light as they are promising their protection.

"Don't be afraid, open your eyes. Follow me, come into the light."

"See everyone's tears. Remember their wounds. I can't hang up. Repeated stimulation cannot be stopped. Even if I have to pay a big price. The pain and suffering right now. If you can stop it, that's it. I keep shouting while I'm left here."

"Shout louder! Shout out loud! We got power, make a wave. Change the world. We got power, make it rain. Oh, I'll protect you, I'm a defender. Silence the darkness, murder. Our sound is like the thunder. On top of the world, we stand again."

Where Do I Go

Here we have another song from the citizen’s perspective. Most likely those who have been sent for reeducation. Those who used to know themselves but are losing that knowledge.

"It is chaos in the feast of disorder. I may not be me. Fall out, blow out. In the reflection in the mirror. My eyes look empty. In my memory, I had different eyes. *Where the hell am I*"

"In a world about to explode. I am losing me more and more."

"Uh-oh, where do I go? Low, low, low, diving deeper. Uh-oh, where do I go? In what sense for what reason. Are you lost (Is it true?). Low, low, low, diving deeper (Diving deeper)."

New World

We end with Ateez again asking people to follow them into the new world. To wait for the darkness to clear and open their eyes and minds to new possibilities. To join the resistance so they can be unstoppable against the central government.

"When the darkness is clears. One ray of light will be enough. Just follow me. It is the time. (This new world, it's–)"

"Open up your eyes, open up your eyes. Open up your mind, open up your mind, oh, new world. Can't you feel the storm? Can't you feel the storm? Can't you see me now? Can't you see me now? Oh, new world. Wake up the world with thunder, we are. We are unstoppable like a storm, we are."

Final Thoughts

The Movement album tells two sides of the same story. Those who are losing their emotions and those who are getting them back. It tells the story of Ateez working to aid others in recovering their emotions through song, dance, and technology (a breaker for their chips). It is their first step in becoming Halateez. They started in Sector 1 and ended right before infiltrating Prestige Academy. That is where they are going next.