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EXO - 170318 Vogue Instagram update: “Here’s the teaser for #VogueKorea’s #fashionfilm ‘EXO TO XOXO’ featuring #DO, #Sehun, #Chanyeol, #Kai, #Chen, #Baekhyun, #Xiumin, and #Suho of #EXO. Stay tuned for the film to be revealed on #VOGUE.CO.KR.”

Credit: Vogue.

fychen

Chen’s EX’ACT Interview

If EXO was a movie genre, which movie would EXO be? What about your life? EXO would be a movie about friends in their youthful 20’s. The members all have overflowing energy, and have exciting experiences. We laugh together, fight sometimes, are sad together, and these youthful appearances would add up to a youthful movie. For my life um, a normal documentary would be the closest. It was really boring. Before I did music. While doing music my personality changed a lot, and my life has changed from a documentary to a youthful movie. In this album, which of the lyrics do you like the most? I like truthful lyrics. In “Lucky One”, “In the same time Oh, the moment we become one I am the lucky one” seems to be the best to me. It’s saying that that moment is lucky. Rather than lyrics like “We met and it was fate”, I like these expressions more. What time and place do you like? I like midnight. At 11:59:59, after 1 second the day changes. That standard is fun. I’m just sitting still, nothing is changing, but at midnight the day changes in the entire world. It’s as interesting as growing older. I don’t know about a places that I like. Rather than liking a certain space, I think I like places with certain feelings. Rather than new and stiff places, a place with a subtle mood, a vintage feeling. The charm of vintage places is that there is a comfort in increased value. Do you prefer familiar or unfamiliar places? Familiar places. It’s comfortable with people working or in a familiar environment. But even though I like familiar places, I can have fun in unfamiliar places. There are times when I try new things in familiar places. For example, in music I like working with unfamiliar genres. What brings up memories the most? These days, there have been more TV programs and experiences of listening to remakes of old songs. So when I listen to songs with a lot of memories, I suddenly think of memories. For example, ballads that were popular at the time, or when I listen to seniors’ songs I think of that time. How old I was, and what I was doing when this song came out. Rather than pointing out a concrete song, I think of TVXQ hyungs, when TVXQ debuted I was in elementary school. Then I think of how much I liked TVXQ hyungs and sing along with the memories. What do you want to always be curious about? Songs. Ah, rather than saying songs, saying music is more accurate. Rather than only liking to sing, I like music itself, so I want to try more diverse genres and challenge different areas of music in the future. Of the past, present, and future, which is the most important? The present. I think of how I can make my next self from today’s self. I don’t want to dwell on the past. The past is gone, and you can’t return. Of course, past experiences have shaped my present existence, and I will exist in the future. But I can only shape the future today, in the present, so I think right now is the most important. One thing that’s good because it’s old, and one thing that’s good because it’s new? One thing that’s good because it’s old is relationships. Of course, meeting new people and having new experiences and making new connections makes good things happen. But I’m the type, when I meet someone, to first see whether I can meet the other for a long time, and I’m more comfortable when I’m with people for a long time. Of course, I like trying new things and learning from meeting people. Recently, on a music program I did a duet with Chanyeol, and it was a very new experience. I knew that Chanyeol was good at singing and had a sense for music. But doing the song with just the two of us, I felt that Chanyeol’s musical sense was intact, and that part was new to me. So in the future, I want to work with more artists. Like I felt when singing with Chanyeol, I was motivated to work with others with musical sense. What moment do you absolutely need in your life? I want to make myself a song that I want to sing, and I want to sing it onstage. In daily life, has there been a moment that you thought was perfect? As I’ve been working, that kind of moment has not happened as of now. There’s always something I found regretful, or a greedy part. Ah, a few days ago I was with my family, and all of us were gathered together in one house, that was really perfect. Have you had an eye-opening experience? When I entered the company and debuted. In the beginning, my breadth of thought was too narrow. And when I started music, I thought the areas of music were restricted to vocals, everything was drawn in a narrow world in my head, entering the company and debuting and promoting I started seeing many other things, I started trying other music genres, and I met a lot of people who think differently from me. When do you have the most confidence? Honestly, I think I’m the most like myself when I’m singing onstage. And when I’m with my family. When I’m with my family I’m Kim Jongdae, when I’m singing I can show Chen’s appearance the best. If you had a twin or a doppelgänger, what kind of person would you like them to be? A model student that follows the rules. I like living freely, but it would be fun if that person followed the decided frames and lived by the textbook. But at the same time it would be good if they were very gentle. Facing that myself would be fun. When I meet that person they would be influenced by my methods. And say, ‘You can’t live like that.’ (Laughs) Do you think you’re a consistent person? I have consistent beliefs and promises, but to some extent I change according to the surrounding environment or situation. My unchanging belief is that ‘I don’t regret my choices.’ Because of that, I make careful choices. Do you think people change due to internal factors or external factors? External factors. Definitely because of the environment. There is good change and bad change. Rather than saying that people change due to internal factors, external motives are more important. For example, if someone’s attitude toward me changes, I change according to that as well. And aren’t there people who change based on what is available to them? But at the same time, I think that not changing and holding the belief of sticking to your priorities is part of existing. Is there someone who you were close with that you suddenly found unfamiliar? When I debuted and gained fame. People I knew for 10 years were still seeing me as ‘Kim Jongdae’, but suddenly they saw me as ‘EXO’s Chen’. People become unfamiliar to me when I’ve known them for a long time and they don’t say that ‘I know you as Kim Jongdae’. With those people, when we talk or go around it’s not as comfortable as before and I have become more careful. Are you burdened from others’ expectations? At what moment do you let go of that burden? Always. When I think of others who expect from me, I think of the fans’ expectations first. I always have to try to show a different color or a different appearance. When we prepare for an album, recording or practicing choreography, just because we’re pros doesn’t mean that we have a burden and we settle. But that burden is not stress. I want to keep doing music in the future and giving better songs, so that kind of thing is like fun homework. And I know that I’m still lacking, so I think it’s a problem that I definitely have to cross. What are you most afraid of? Nothing is scary. We don’t know what sort of thing is approaching us, and it’s unbelievable, but Earth could be destroyed tomorrow. Rather than worrying and preparing for that part, I think of it as passing anyway and I stay faithful that the things I do today will help me in the future. Do you believe in coincidences, or inevitability? Coincidences. I don’t know much about inevitability. It’s like saying, ‘This is your fate.’ I don’t have things like that. Everything is a coincidence, even if it’s just for a moment. Every moment can become an opportunity, those opportunities should not be dropped and grabbing them is a coincidence, if they pass then they pass. I even think that my appearance right now is a coincidence, really. Do you like clear or ambiguous things? I like clear things. Ambiguous things have a lot of variables. So you handle plans according to the situation. But if you particularly pick a clear answer, you can have clear situations. When does silence demonstrate the most force? When you need silence more than words is when you’re talking about your feelings with others. Rather than just me talking, I think it’s more important to be quiet and listen to what the other person has to say first. When you find that people are hurt by others, or need something, or find something in particular, when the other party is talking, always be quiet and listen. If you could make one thing in the world last forever, what would it be? I don’t know. Health. But I don’t really show a lot of concern for health. So I think I want more health. Of course nothing is forever, everything changes, grows old, I know that everything goes on, but I want my health to last forever. But I don’t want everyone except for me to get old. Sometimes there are scenes like that in movies. It looks really lonely. So that’s a contradiction. I don’t not want to get old, but I want to stay healthy. What is the most valuable thing that you cannot see? Trust. Reciprocal trust between people.

trans: andie @ fychen ϟ please take out with full credit!

notbecauseofvictories

Can you tell me why Frodo is so important in lotr? Why can't someone else, anyone else, carry the ring to mordor?

but someone else could.

that’s the whole point of frodo—there is nothing special about him, he’s a hobbit, he’s short and likes stories, smokes pipeweed and makes mischief, he’s a young man like other young men, except for the singularly important fact that he is the one who volunteers. there is this terrible thing that must be done, the magnitude of which no one fully understands and can never understand before it is done, but frodo says me and frodo says I will.

(when boromir is thinking of how he can use the ring to defend gondor, when aragorn is thinking of how it brought down proud isildur, when elrond is holding council and gandalf is thinking of how twisted he would become, if he ever dared—)

but then there’s frodo, who desires nothing except what he has already left behind him, and says, I will take the Ring.

it is an offer made out of absolute innocence, utter sincerity. It is made without knowing what it will make of him—and frodo loses everything to the ring, he loses peace and himself and the shire, he loses the ability to be in the world. It’s cruel, the ring is cruel, it searches out every weakness you have and feeds on it, drinks you dry and fills you with its poison instead, the ring is so cruel.

and frodo picks it up willingly. for no other reason except that it has to be done.

(the ring warps boromir into a hopeless grasping dead thing, the power of the palantir turns denethor into an old man, jealous and suspicious, it bends even saruman, once the proudest of the istari, into a mechanised warlord, sitting in his fortress and bent over his perverse creations—all the best of intentions, laid waste)

but there’s a reason gollum exists in the narrative, which is to show—well, to show what frodo might have been. because even as frodo grows mistrustful and wearied, as the burden of this ring grows heavier and heavier, he is never gollum. he is gentle to gollum. he is afraid—god frodo is so afraid for 2/3 of these books he is so tired and afraid, but he keeps moving, he walks though it would pull him into the ground, because he asked for this, he said he would.

someone else could have carried the ring to mordor, I suppose. the idea of a martyr is not dependent on the particular flesh and blood person dying for some greater purpose. but such a thing has to be chosen, lifted onto your shoulders for the right reason, the truest reasons, and followed into the dark, though it would see you burnt through and bled out.

I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.

iridescentoracle

#the older I get the more defensive I become of frodo #because frodo was whole and pure and unthinking and he did this terrible necessary thing #thinking of nothing except that it had to be done #and that is so hard #in the world #that is so much #that is a hero’s burden (via notbecauseofvictories)

frodo-sam

I will take the Ring to Mordor. Though…I do not know the way.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) dir. Peter Jackson

frodo-sam

Hobbits really are amazing creatures! You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.