[MV Review] FIESTAR - You're Pitiful

Jeistar Fiestar have made their comeback with the mini album BLACK LABEL, and their lead single "You're Pitiful" is one of their best offerings yet.

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED (unless you don't like Jei, in which case you will probably be severely disappointed)

If you've been paying attention to me and my recent slew of articles, you'll easily notice that I've become infatuated with Fiestar. More specifically, I've become infatuated with Jei. I won't get into the specifics, but fellow Jei fans will rejoice in the lavish attention that the MV has so graciously given her.

F L A W L E S S

This time around, Fiestar have elected for a more storyline-oriented MV with occasional sprinkles of choreography and closeups for flavor. It's been a while since I've reviewed an MV with a plot, even one sparse as this may be, so I found it slightly more interesting than its surface-level tropes may indicate. At first blush, you might think it's a standard "girl(s) break up with guy" kind of deal, but this goes a little deeper than that. Rather than sit around and mope about how sad they are without their ex, Fiestar stick a knife in their man's wound, twist it, and salt it for good measure with the lyrics and presentation. Just check out the chorus:

You’re so pitiful, more so than when you left me behind
So pitiful, over the past few months,
I’ve heard things are different for you now
You’ve become so small
You’re pitiful, no matter how hard you try,
You’ve changed so much
The way you talk, the way you look,
So unlike you, so weak

Damn. The MV follows a similar premise. The majority of the broody scenes are more contemplative in nature or devoted to the male lead, in this case some schmuck named Baek Sung Hoon. I dunno who he is, so he's probably not that big a deal. At any rate, the story of the breakup is told through a series of flashbacks conveniently labeled as such with different aspect ratios. Seriously. The MV goes through like 3 different sizes and it was really irritating to make gifs of this thing for that reason.

The action kicks off with Jei and her wonderful booty stumbling across a mysterious hole in the wall, and like anyone with a hole in their wall, she is curious as to what is on the other side. Lo and behold, for some reason, it leads to her boyfriend's apartment.

She spots him spotting her lipstick laying haphazardly on the floor where anyone could trip and fall and break their goddamn neck or something. Instead of being a good person/boyfriend and picking it up to put away, he instead...

...USES HER LIPSTICK. HOW DARE HE?? THAT SHIT'S EXPENSIVE SPONSOR PRODUCTS SHE'S SUPPOSED TO USE CAREFULLY AND REVIEW IN A SERIES OF WEB VLOGS...!! However, being the saint that she is, Jei doesn't get angry and instead chooses to gently talk to her boyfriend about not putting his filthy mitts on her things and sticking his disgusting manlips on her beauty products without permission.

Her boyfriend completely flips the fuck out, accusing her of being an uptight bitch. Why can't he use her shit too, he argues. Boys just want to feel pretty too, he says. Maybe he's right or maybe he's not, but he lays hands on her and THAT'S NEVER OKAY cause we inferior disgusting pigs in male clothing should ALWAYS love and treasure women. Tempers fly and he, in a fit of uncontrolled emotion, bursts out with the damning phrase that ends it all: "Fuck you, I AM gay! Why do you think we only had anal sex with you face down with a beanie on to cover up your long hair?"

Jei, being the strong independent woman she is, realizes her own self-worth and leaves the sham of a relationship behind. With a final letter to sum up her feelings, she moves on and leads a successful life inspiring millions of young girls all over the world.

Her ex does not take this very well, turning to drink to dull the pain. He becomes a raging alcoholic, squandering all of his money on cheap whiskey and shitty soju.

No one cares what happens to the stupid man in the end anyway, so all's well that ends well.

Truly Fiestar have come up with the best anthem of female empowerment of all time. By far. The song itself is just as good as its lyrical message. Similar to another "Black" comeback (*coughRainbowcough*), "You're Pitiful" is a minimally composed midtempo track written by Shinsadong Tiger and produced by a team named Batter #4. I dunno who they are, but they have done magical things for Fiestar. As an interesting side note, LE apparently has credits on this song as well. Clearly she and Batter #4 kept Shinsadong Tiger on track and helped him pump out another gem like "One More."

I really enjoyed the song at first listen, no growing necessary. Everything about the song just comes together really well, with no lagging parts or particularly bad segments. Particularly earwormy are the "geuttaen neon gab (Baby I don’t know Oh I don’t know) / nan eul (Baby I don’t know Oh I don’t know)" lines. The dragged out "gab" and "eul" are so hypnotizing...! And before anyone asks, yes, I thought Yezi's rap break was serviceable and they did a decent job of incorporating it into the song without lagging or making abrupt tempo shifts.

Though I dunno what this car has to do with anything...

Visually speaking, everyone is well-styled and look gorgeous. Of course, Jei and Linzy are head and shoulders above everyone else but that's not to say the other 3 are fuggo. There is a lot of ass focus in this MV, and the camerawork does nothing to hide this -- the choreography bits have plenty of dynamic zoom and low angles for those so-inclined to fap to a fine derriere.

Make sure you catch the live performances or the fapcams at least, this MV does not do the choreo justice. It's pretty well done, though I fear for the safety of the Fiestar members every time they go up on those chairs. Perching precariously on one of those things barefoot is pretty nervewracking on its own, let alone dancing in heels on them. Pray for their ankles if you are a true fan.

Like I mentioned earlier, the MV is really Jei-dominant. If you like her like I do, this MV is nothing but perfect for you. If you're a fan of the other members, Linzy for instance, you're going to be disappointed by how little they appear in this MV. Jei takes center for most of the choreo formations, has the most solo screentime, and the drama plot line stars her. Admittedly, Linzy doesn't get shafted quite as hard as the others, but still.

I do have one complaint though. Why the hell is there so much food in this MV? It's not even being eaten, it's all just props and artistic close-ups. Seriously, we do not need to give 5 seconds of the MV to a shot of a can of peanuts when we could give it to the other girls in dire need of time, aka Cao Lu or Hyemi or Yezi.

Someone clean that mess up!!

TL;DR:
"You're Pitiful" is probably the most flawless release of the year thus far, and you'd be quite pitiful indeed if you snooze on it.

+:

• JEI
• LINZY
• everyone else looks good too
• choreo is pretty nice
• butt focus for ass men and women all over the world
• "interesting" story line MV

-:

• anyone not named Jei is starving for screen time
• why so many food clips

I give this a 4.5 out of 5. I also highly recommend the rest of the Black Label mini album. It's really damn good.