Welcome to Theory Time, the column where I explain the hidden meanings behind music videos using all those terms you learned and grew to hate in high school English class. For our first-ever edition, we’ll be taking a look at FTISLAND’s brand new music video for their single “Wind.”

The song is one about denial and heartbreak. Centered around someone who is left in shock after their partner leaves them, the lyrics start with a dedication to make their former lover come back. However, as the song goes on, the person comes to terms with the situation and becomes determined to never let their lover come back to them. It’s a journey from shock and agony to moving on, all in the span of four and a half minutes.

When it comes to the music video, this story is reiterated through four main colors: white, blue, red, and yellow. Each of these not only represents a stage of the whole acceptance process, but also gives a little more detail into the feelings associated with each stage.

White, unlike the rest of the colors, actually represents two stages. The start and end of the process are represented by white, showing the dual nature of the color. It’s not always the joyous color most people imagine.

The video starts with all five members standing in a barren hallway, looking away from each other. They’re all dressed in white, which usually implies cleanliness or purity. However, since none of them are smiling or interacting, and all of them are seemingly lost in their own thoughts, it’s more accurate to associate the overbearing white color as a symbol of isolation.

We continue on, seeing white throughout the first half whenever the girl is shown. This ethereal-like light that surrounds her represents the way she’s being remembered. At the beginning, she is the ideal girl who’s worth fighting for—the one whom the person won’t let get away, in a sense. This white light surrounding her represents purity and innocence.

There’s one exception, however, which is when she’s shown embracing Minhwan in a mixture of blue and red light, making the scene almost purple-ish.

Blue represents the person’s memories of their lover. At first, they remember the calm, relaxing moments with their lover to help combat the confusion and unrest that they feel after being left behind. In fact, just after showing all of the members standing in the barren white hallway, they’re shown trapped in a blue box, once again looking away from each other. This is them focusing on their pleasant memories, in turn isolating them in the present.

Red, on the other hand, represents the current feelings. Betrayal, anger, passion, and determination are all represented by red, which is why it’s so present when some of the members are alone. Jonghoon is surrounded by a red triangle when we first see him playing the piano, while Jaejin is trapped in a room of red light. In fact, Jaejin represents the one having the hardest time letting go, since he’s also shown as the one chasing the girl as she runs away. He ends up dropping his glass and then screaming, all while still trapped in his negative emotions.

Gold is the second to last color in the process, symbolizing knowledge and wisdom. These moments that are covered in gold light are the moments where they finally understand that their lover is not only gone, but that they’re also better off without them. Honggi seems to enter this understanding almost immediately, since he’s alone in the room with gold light at the beginning. We also never see him with the girl, since he’s already moved into the acceptance stage. Seungyun’s moment with the girl is also basked in gold light, and they’re facing away from each other, suggesting it’s more of a metaphorical coming-to-terms mental image than an actual memory.

We then come full circle back to white, only this time, instead of white symbolizing isolation, it represents transcendence beyond the anger and loneliness into freedom from the emotional ties to their past lover. It’s like wiping the slate clean, only in color form. They’ve gone through the whole cycle of grief and, in a sense, are born fresh.

tl;dr

There are five stages to this anti-love story, represented by four different colors. White for isolation and loneliness, blue for remembering the good ol’ times, red for being angry and hurt that they were left behind, gold for realizing they’re better off moving on, and white again for mental clarity and emotional purity. Each of these colors plays such a strong part in the visual storytelling for “Wind” that you could very well just squint while watching and still understand what’s going on.