COLDPLAY – PRINCESS OF CHINA FT. RIHANNAMusic Video Deconstruction

A strong indication of a Chinese theme is beginning to develop with the colours and the symbols on these first two pages.

Already introduced the name of the song and the artists.

These are the first things we see in the music video.

Straight away we are introduced to a Chinese theme.

This is the first actual shot in the video, showing rural Chinese landscape with a man walking through.

The second character to be introduced is a woman who looks important laying on a sofa.

The mise-en-scene and props used give a very authentic Chinese look and feel.

In this shot you can see a building in the background, we assume that the woman is in this building from the look of the outside and the previous shot of the woman laying on the sofa.

The colours in this shot give a very bland and neutral look, whether this is just for the mood of the song or trying to create an isolated feel to where the character is.

In this shot the lyrics of the song begin, the man is singing to the lyrics also.

The colours of this shot are very similar to the previous, I think the same Ideas are trying to be conveyed to the audience

These two shots are in keeping with the Chinese theme, the seem to show that where this man is heading is very tribal and maybe hostile grounds

This man standing guarding the walls of the building is covered in what looks like tribal tattoos again backing up the idea of hostility.

This scene shows a large door with oriental markings on it. The red is a strong symbol of Chinese culture, also the lanterns hanging are stereotypically Chinese.

The dancers however seem to be more stereotypically Indian with the hands moving behind each other but they fit in with the shot.

The first man in this shot is fighting another man with katanas’ the lighting is very low with only a few spot lights on the two fighting, this ‘mood’ lighting sets the seen to be tense and a dark feel to it.

This style of fighting is commonly associated with Chinese culture (marital arts)

The door with oriental markings from the earlier shot opens up to reveal the same woman that was lying on the sofa near the start.

In this shot the room is filled with Chinese cultural objects, lanterns, statues and symbols. The lighting in the room seems to be very red, this is very contrasting to the last scene of fighting.

In this scene the man and the women draw closer to each other. Showing passion for each other maybe.

The man is dressed in black and the woman is dressing in white this could represent good and evil, black is associated with bad things and white is seen as pure or good.

In these scenes there are many different shots of the women dancing with backing dancers behind her all in sync together.

The colours are interesting throughout, in most of the mans scenes the lighting and colours are darker, shades of blue and black this could connote bad things of evil. In the woman's scenes the colours are a lot brighter with shades of red and white, this shows femininity .

The last few scenes switch back and forth from these to shots showing the man and the woman together touching heads

In these scenes the colours are neutral showing connoting that both sides are together, a big contrast from the strong difference in colours in earlier scenes.

The music fades as does the video to black.