‘Animal Farm’ Review: BIBI's Bloody Noir Spectacle

On Sept. 27, South Korean singer-songwriter BIBI released her latest single “Animal Farm” in anticipation of her debut studio album “Noir: The Lowlife Princess” scheduled to drop in November. The release, which landed on her 24th birthday, was accompanied by a bloody film noir music video featuring a decadent masked party.

In the music video, BIBI plays Oh Geum-ji, a character inspired by Lee Geum-ja from the 2005 thriller classic “Lady Vengeance.” Set in crime-ravaged 2044, the upcoming album chronicles the life of Oh Geum-ji as a female leader of the underworld that exists beneath the Han River. “Animal Farm” is the first installment of the story and foreshadows more to come, including a companion webtoon.

The song’s music video opens with the introduction of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G minor, Op. 23 No. 55, to which pig-nosed and masked men prepare to feast on BIBI, who is perched on the table in the form of a roast pig. Following a dissonant slaughterhouse scream, BIBI appears in a white dress, walking to a waltz toward her perpetrators. Their impending slaughter is prefaced by their gorging on wine and bread, soon to be their final supper.

“It might be pretty / It might be beautiful / It might be grand,” she sings as she ascends to the table. Katana in hand, the singer charges straight at the pig-headed head of the table and beheads him. “Die,” the chorus begins. Imbrued in blood, BIBI cannibalizes her victimizers-to-victims and even taunts as she beheads them: “Hang my pretty head in your room.” The scene then escalates to an intense no-holds-barred action sequence. BIBI’s characteristic falsettos cut through, the shrill and feline tone helping portray her as a predator and subvert the initial power dynamic.

Transgressive and cinematic, the music video visually cites Tarantino’s Kill Bill: one-woman army, fountains of blood, flying limbs galore. After she beheads her enemies, she is left wondering, “What have we lost?” Drenched in blood, BIBI begins humming ethereally, capturing the emptiness that follows a pyrrhic victory. The piece ends with a cathartic guitar outro.

"I have a new song out. But it's fine if you don't watch the MV. It's pretty bloody," BIBI told her festival audience two days after the release. But beyond the gore, the music video for “Animal Farm” is akin to a short film with action-packed scenes and over two minutes in ending credits. It’s a thrilling peek into BIBI’s upcoming artistic repertoire, including her acting role in an upcoming noir film “Hwaran.”“Animal Farm” is a testament to not only BIBI’s musical prowess but also her knack for storytelling.

—Staff writer Bella Kim can be reached at bella.kim@thecrimson.com.