Introducing VIVI from LOONA (5th Girl To Be Revealed for 이달의 소녀)

Continuing my "Introducing LOONA"-Series, we have now reached the 5th girl to be revealed for this South Korean girl group! Introducing VIVI from LOONA!

Chronologically it all started on February 5th, 2017, when BlockBerry Creative announced that LOONA will have a new project: A Sub-Unit named "LOONA 1/3". The unit would include the already revealed girls: HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul (or YeoJin), and one unrevealed member, whom was revealed on February 12th, 2017 to be "VIVI". Featured below is the LOONA 1/3 "(Valentine Girl)" Preview Version (uploaded Feb 13, 2017).



LOONA 1/3 would release their mini album "Love & Live" before VIVI's song would (I will delve into that in my next blog-feature), and even performed on variety show(s) prior to her own MV-release. ViVi was confirmed as the "April Girl" on April 5th, and her solo song "Everyday I Love You (feat. HaSeul)" subsequently premiered on April 16th. HeeJin, HyunJin and YeoJin also appeared in the MV!



The visual and style was unmistakably early-to-mid 90s, with over-exposed faces and settings creating the mood, and props+accessories befitting the period too. That aesthetic would subsequently bleed into another single from LOONA 1/3 (but we'll get to that later). And for folks who have not lived through that period, maybe you can check out my features for 90s (Western) POP: HERE, HERE or HERE, to see for yourselves.



The single was released in April 17, including the B-side track "Everyday I Need You", which the MV for (featured below) was released on May 13th, featuring then-unrevealed member JinSoul - who would later be apart of another Sub-Unit, "Odd Eye Circle". That is another uniqueness of LOONA, whereby chronologically revealed member would culminate in forming a sub-unit, and when all 12 girls are revealed, forming LOONA - which we will get o later. THAT said, ViVi would be the only girl in LOONA to first debut in a sub-unit (in this case "LOONA 1/3"), before her own single premiere.





"ViVi" is the given stage name for "Wong Ka-Hei", who hails from Hong Kong, and is the only "foreign" (non-Korean) member in LOONA. According to all reports/mentions of her life, she had learnt the (South) Korean language in Korea. Becoming a trainee under Polaris Entertainment/BlockBerry Creative in 2016, the girls from LOONA also helped her in learning their language. She is currently living in the dormitory with the rest of the girls from LOONA, while her family resides in Hong Kong still.

Thus far - from HeeJin to HyunJin, to YeoJin - the girls' "stories" had been pretty straight forward, and "normal" ... although from HaSeul, the production begun to "experiment" with concepts such as the duality of the character, "boy vs girl", and perhaps was questioning the status quo with "Let Me In"'s song lyrics, and the visual aesthetics ... but when ViVi appeared/was revealed, the "story"-aspect took a slightly swift turn...

As part of the LOONA-lore, ViVi is an "Android", who along with the other three girls in LOONA 1/3, reside on "our" Earth", and were high school students, singing about lost loves and the like, performing primarily in Hong Kong, New Zealand. She is powered by her backpack she carries, which needs to be plugged into a socket to recharge. We see that as a viewer of the music video (for "Love&Live"), and subsequently we also see the rest of the girls - specifically HyunJin and HeeJin knowing that she is an android, and that her backpack needed charging. You folks still with me so far?

Here is a a splendid fan-made video (by loona_vi) chronicling "LOONA ViVi : A Cyborg Story" (based on edited imagery from "Love&Live, and "You And Me Together" MVs)...



The origins of her condition, her situation, is oft left to folks and Orbits (the given and recognised name of LOONA's fandom) to speculate and discuss, and is as much as the allure of the LOONAVerse than any given answers for, IMHO.



Subsequently, ViVi is as well "connected" to "YVES" (The 9th girl to be revealed in LOONA), and we see her appear in Yves' music video 2017 s "NEW" as well, and again in 2020's "Why Not?". Understandably this might be confusing to the non-follower of the LOONAverse, and might read wholly undecipherable (I as only able to grasp the notion of this when I delved into the lore in the beginning simply because I was and still am a comicbook and genre-media nerd lol) And even so, her existence in the lore has never been as clearly defined. Regardless, you can choose to avoid all these, and just enjoy her music, which quite frankly is not enough of!

Besides her own single, and songs with LOONA 1/3, ViVi also participated in "The Carol 2.0" (MV featured below / previously featured HERE) alongside Cheorry and Yves, circa "13 Dec 2017".



After her single album debut, we continue to see ViVi involved in all their Dance Cover performances, stage performances, stage show, and reality travel show "LOONA THE TAM", leading up to the current era.

Also featured in this blog-feature are some episodes of LOONA TV, and her (currently) sole LOONA LOG (Uploaded "13 Sept 2020") - filmed and edited by herself! Also as a bonus include in this post, is a bootlegged-filmed excerpt from "Letter To HongKong" (from "Cinema Theory: Up & Line" - here is another video but with no English subtitles), which we get to hear ViVi speak in her own native Cantonese. She is as well conversant in Mandarin/Chinese (we have heard her in other promos and VLIVES with LOONA), and apparently English.





Birth name: Wong Ka-Hei (黃珈熙)
Birth date: December 9, 1996
Birth place: Tuen Mun District, New Territories, Hong Kong
Color: Light Pink (연분홍색)
Animal: Deer (사슴)
Reveal date: February 14, 2017
Representative Country: Hong Kong/Busan, South Korea.

UPDATED: The following Concept Photos were revealed (From June 3-June 6, 2021) in anticipation of LOONA's 4th mini album [&] comeback, scheduled for 2021.6.28 pm6 (KST) Release.




TEASERS for LOONA 1/3 which I will post next...






(Information via / Images via @loonatheworld)

Featured below are three of my photo-card pulls of ViVi for LOONA's [12:00] album purchase, from "A" Version album, "C" Version album and "D" Version album!



PERSONAL COMMENTARY:
BlockBerry Creative has oft been criticised by Orbits to have lack of lines and screen-time for ViVi in LOONA, from MVs including "favOriTe", "Hi High", that sole split-second in "Butterfly", and up to "So What?", where we hear even lesser lines, and this is not hyperbole on my part, or me simply following the fandom, IMHO. It was way too obvious to ignore.



Although when "So What?" was released, I couldn't help but realise the Hong Kong Riots was happening at the same period ... and seeing ViVi wearing a partial facemask, really hit different for me. In my own corner of the world, I had speculated this was a "reaction" to the situation in Hong Kong...! Or perhaps it might not be a "fortuitous look" for her to be dancing and singing, while the riots were happening (?) ... But the reality was, the MV was filmed before said situation in HK, and I probably was overthinking, having delved too deep into the lore (:p), so, it remains a gripe, and not an excuse... Give Us More ViVi!

It was until "Why Not?" and subsequently "Star" where we begun to see much more of her, both in dance formations, and in edited music videos. Variety show cameras also are catching more of her too, it seems! I will not critique on the "intent", but instead appreciate the current opportunity to see and hear more ViVi...!

LOONA TV #81-82, #85-86




ViVi and the girls visited another amusement park years later,
and you can view them apart of the first season of "LOONA THE TAM".




MORE RANDOM VIVI VIDEOS (Including #VIVITREND​):




To wrap up this blog-feature, I present a 20 year old "Viian", in a "Makeup Tutorial for Work"-video (presumably pre-LOONA?), from back in Feb 2016...!