Super Junior’s “Bonamana”

When I said that Bonamana’s choreography is “high energy,” I grossly underestimated.

This wasn’t a bad performance, but a lot of members were really out of breath and you could hear it through the mics. At first, I was thinking it’s better idea to use head mics, but those suckers would’ve caught everything and it’s better in retrospect that they didn’t use those.

And I’m wildly impressed by Ryeowook. That guy’s lungs aren’t human. He is solid throughout the entire performance and he always has been for all Suju perfs I’ve ever watched. I have a soft spot for Ryeowook because he’s just so dependable live, despite someone thinking that it was a good idea to give him swishy, waterfall hair that he had to flip out of his face every .5 seconds.

I don’t need to say a lot for Kyuhyun¹, but OMG Kyuhyun. It really just tickles my pickle (yep, I just said that) when I find a performer who can sing well and dance well. Junsu of DBSK was my Kpop jjang because he is master at doing both at the same time, but there is still something about Junsu’s voice that I haven’t grown to love 100% even after three years.

Kyuhyun’s, on the other hand, I could listen to for the rest of my life. I generally find that those in SM who are really good singers in each particular group are not natural movers² — Jaejoong (omg worst dancer ever), Ryewook (well, he tries), Onew (FAIL), Yehsung (please), Tiffany (so bad). And even though I never thought of Kyuhyun as a great dancer, he’s become one, which is really a pleasant surprise and makes me love him even more if that’s at all possible.³

¹ I am a fucking liar.
² Exceptions to this are Jonghyun of SHINee and Luna of f(x).
³ SuJu, please don’t break up before I get to watch Kyuhyun sing live.

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Yes, this is the defining Bonamana screencapture.

I’m going to say straight off the bat that,

1. This song is uninspired.

2. This video is amazingly lazy, even by SM standards.

3. The lyrics are elementary.

4. Yoo Young-jin needs to take a HUGE vacation and step away from SM studios for a while. Come back with a few new beats, and then we’ll talk. In fact, he and Teddy should vacation together.

BUT. The song’s choreography makes up for everything.

I was really, really, realllllly unimpressed by the video — I downright disliked it — but I also know that Super Junior tends to spend a lot of time on crafting choreography for their songs. They have the advantage and disadvantage of having 13 10 members. On the one hand, it still looks like a circus when they perform on stage. On the other hand, they get to incorporate cool stuff into their dances because they can break the 10 membered group into mini-groups during the dances.

This is one of the most high-energy dances I’ve seen in Kpop. I get such a rush of adrenaline after watching them dance to this song. A lot of the moves are “??????” and look wild and flail-y but I DIG. I dig everything. I dig the Egyptian walks, the backward-bent kicks, the LAME harem pants. It’s really 70s feeling for some reason, total disco stuff. There are even moves in there that look like moves you would make if you were completely socially inept and completely body/tone deaf and you wanted to fake like you could dance. But it’s all cool.

You know what else I dig?

I DIG KYUHYUN.

He’s sliding across floors, crotch thrusting, participating in dance breaks. WHAT IS GOING ON.

I finally realized what this song reminds me of:

THE FANTA COMMERCIAL WITH THE DANCING FANTA GIRLS.

(Not too impressed with the song on the whole, but I predict sick choreography.)

Not the most original song, but I love the way this is shot. It’s so simple and clean.

And TELL me Tim doesn’t look like an angstier, less baby-faced version of Chun Jung-myung.

Angry Asian Man posted about Boyz II Men performing in Seoul, singing “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday” with 4Men.

Immediately reminded me of this :(