A couple of Kujira Crowns, both in wagon and sedan form, have popped up in the most unlikely of places — in a K-pop video. At first glance this may seem unusual because, according to the Toyota South Korea website, the company didn’t even officially have a presence in the country until 2009. However, if this video of the song “Sober” by the band Big Bang was really filmed in South Korea, it is likely these were Shinjin New Crowns, knockdown kits of the S60 Toyota Crown built under license.
The history of Shinjin Motors, established 1954, is a tumultuous one. Initially a producer of car parts, when the government began promoting the auto industry the company inked a deal with Mitsubishi. Only 100 vehicles were built before Shinjin took over a defunct rival who was assembling knockdown kits of Nissan’s 310 Bluebird. Shinjin then began producing those, powered by Jeep engines. Finally in 1966, a deal was struck with Toyota and Shinjin began offering Publicas, Coronas, Land Cruisers, and Crowns, as well as large commercial trucks. By 1972, Toyota’s deal with Shinjin ended and the company began a partnership with GM. Today, the Shinjin Bus Company is part of Daewoo Bus.
As for the video itself, it is probably best if you skip ahead to 1:51 unless you’re a K-pop fan. The music is typical boy band fare, and to most readers probably just as disturbing as the neon shag interior of the Crown sedan.
Cool history with Shinjin, but the filming location looks like the northwest US. The K-pop industry has its tentacles in the US and Japan, and they shoot lots of music videos in California. The campground has signs in English and there’s an old Lincoln Town Car.
Nothing really new guys!! Heaps of K-Pop bands have been using J-Tin in their vids recently.
Most of the time it is just pasta rockets or Euro-trash (Lambos, BMWs, Ferrari etc etc), but J-Tin is becoming the new “cool” in the K-Pop video background!!!
Plus, ’cause many bands share similar or linked talent agencies, the same cars pop up across band stable-mates.
Yes, the fluffy, neon shag interior is quite disturbing in “Sober”, but don’t knock Big Bang!!!!
K-Pop & J-Pop kill (murder!!) the normal, Western Pop music hands down!! Everything is turned up to the EXTREME & sometimes still a little stuck in the ’80s. Just how I like it! 🙂
And the girls……….WOW, don’t get me started on how cute their bands are…..!
Just try a little K-Pop, you’ll get hooked.
Can you show us some other J-tin appearances?
wrong, this vid has only been out for ~1 month, so it is something really new, lol
Not sure where it was shot, but that girl with the orange hair is pretty cute…
Hmmm….Toyota’s deal with Shinjin ended in 1972, but these are LHD 1973-1974 kouki Crowns not sold in the U.S. either. The mystery continues…
I can’t possibly imagine why that interior wasn’t a factory option…..
Cheech and Chong became cops?
a bit late to the party, but there’s a(nother) blue MS63 that pops up in the MV for Teen Top – ah-ah. Skip to 1:45 for the first sighting, then it and some other classics are shown repeatedly til the end.
could it be the same kujira goon as in the bigbang vid?
So cool! K-Pop is epic. It’s a lot more creative than the junky pop music we have here in America!