The Year in PW Part Two: Thank Heaven for Little Girls…
...for little girls get bigger every day!
The Year in PW Part One – A-chan Squared Plus Nocchi Squared Equals Kashiyuka Squared
Thus begins my countdown of the issues and topics I feel were most substantive to the year in Asian music appreciation for Pink Wota. I have a lot more to say on certain topics, a lot less to say on others. I’ll be presenting ten topics, then offering a year-end Top Ten list of musical releases. All from a purely subjective point of view, you understand. Let’s begin!
Contemode is pretty much the opposite of “something new” in the world of J-Pop, but this year a lot of attention was turned on mastermind producer Yasutaka Nakata with Perfume’s ⊿, an album that drew as much ire as it drew love. I can break it down easily in my mind with one simple phrase, and it’s pretty much the same thing any of you can use to rest your minds when I sigh and shake my head over Morning Musume: Haters Gonna Hate. Though the standard allegation that “Perfume aren’t real singers” is incredibly easy to disprove, the image that Contemode has marketed only furthers this misperception.
Look at these GQMFs
Watching them in concert doesn’t really help if you’re one of the people who thinks that singing ability is the only thing that defines an artist. A Perfume concert, no matter how magical and well-executed, is pretty much 100% playback. Never mind the great, always perfectly synchronized and certainly physically challenging dancing, the never over-the-top acting, and the absolute fierceness of A-chan, Nocchi, and Kashiyuka. Let’s just throw all that out of the window and say that songs like “Edge”, “NIGHT FLIGHT”, and “love the world” just don’t count because of how much production went into the vocals. Never mind that Nakata basically took all the best parts of artists like Oakenfold, the Chemical Brothers, Erasure, Kraftwerk, and to a pop idol extension Kylie Minogue. He threw those parts in a blender and added a decidedly Japanese dash of eccentricity. Toshiko Koshijima of capsule was Lady Gaga before Lady Gaga was in junior high. Now Perfume are accused of not being real because they don’t sing live.
[Series] Araki Hirofumi’s Body Language #1: Karasu 10 Promotional Video
(Disclaimer: I love Araki to pieces and mean absolutely no disrepect by my commentary).
I’ve been saying for a year now that I need to do a series about Araki’s body language. There are simply too many instances in which I’ve spent the majority of a video determining its content and Araki’s mood simply by watching how he behaves and what gestures he makes. I could probably say a lot about the inner workings of his mind–maybe I would be totally wrong…but maybe not.
I’ll go ahead and say this up front–the content of the videos I use is irrelevant. That I cannot translate them is irrelevant as well. In fact, it’s much better if you don’t know what’s going on.
Exhibit #1: The Karasu 10 Promotional Video
(Embedding for this video was disabled. I have provided the link above so that you may watch the video in live action. You’ll definitely want to do that before you continue reading. Meanwhile, I’ve provided screencaps).
From the beginning of this video, we can already tell that one of two things is true: (1) Araki is very unhappy about needing to be in this video at all, or (2) He got absolutely no sleep the night before and is running on pure autopilot.
It may be a combination of both. Either that, or he really just hates everyone in the room at this particular moment.
[Series] Reimagining Subpar Ayumi Hamasaki PV’s – ‘Sparkle’
Before I even begin this edition I want to put forth yet another unpopular opinion of mine (it seems I have a lot of those where Ayumi is concerned): I did not hate all the videos from NEXT LEVEL. After ‘Mirrorcle World’ (trust me…that’s a part of this series, look for future editions), I was full ready to not like anything Kazuyoshi Shimomura did to follow it up, I must admit. But I don’t blame him, particularly, for everything that goes wrong. He is a great photographer of places and scenes, simply not of people. We’ll get more to that later. Conversely, though, I think Luiz Hernandez is gold at directing people, but his other directorial bits and pieces need tweaking. One unifying theme hurts most of the NEXT LEVEL videos: editing. Nevertheless, I liked most of them to some extent. Some fans hated everything about them (and, no doubt, everything about the album). That’s fine, because arguments can definitely be made against aspects of each PV, both aesthetically and from a marketing standpoint. When ranking the PV’s, here, I’ll try to play an even hand at it, okay?
RANKING THE VIDEOS OF NEXT LEVEL, FROM BEST TO WORST:
#1 – Days (Dir. Takahide Ishii) Takahide Ishii isn’t all that bad, and this video is definitely the best of the bunch. A solid story with some great stylist work, simple and effective editing, with an actual visual SCOPE added, even though it could have gotten away without it, possibly. It’s a heart-tugging treat, and Ayumi’s acting is subtly beautiful for once in years.
#2 – GREEN (Dir. Kazuyoshi Shimomura) The only KazuShimo video I can get behind. I love the dancing, the Shanghai feeling, the real effort to infuse the period influence into every bit of the visual experience. I even liked the white feathered chicken suit, mostly because it was true to period. The dancers are all on point, and there are some stunning visual moments (Ayumi emerging for the “lift” at the chorus break being #1, undoubtedly). The gender-bending love story between Midoring and Ayumi is lovely. BUT. The big problem here is that Kaz can’t direct Ayu for shit. She stumbles through the streets of Shanghai during the first verse, looking mostly drunk, over-enunciating every lyric when she doesn’t need to. I can barely take looking at it, for that. But…despite all that, it gets more crap than it deserves.
#3 - NEXT LEVEL (Dir. Stanley Izumi Kim and Luis Hernandez) Okay, fine, it’s “just Ayumi driving a car”, but it’s gorgeous, well-shot, and it fits the song. Ayumi looks natural and happy, and the landscapes are breathtaking. It’s a matter of opinion, this one, and just happens to be vry polarizing because of that.
#4 – Curtain Call (Dir. Stanley Izumi Kim and Luis Hernandez) I have only two qualms with this triumph of direction and production (long tracking shots are awesome, okay?) 1 – Ayumi looks way too unnatural in that getup. Hair pulled back violently into a too-tight bun, ill-fitting maxi-skirt tight dress? Ugh. Something more casual, more flowy, both in hair and costume, would have been better. 2 – That fucking ballet walking. I have first-hand respect for ballet walking – it takes poise. But if you want me to believe your heartfelt love song, Ayu, look less like a rod is up your ass. So, no problems with the concept and direction (fucking phenomenal), but NO BUYS on the stylist.
#5 – Rule (Dir. Takahide Ishii) It’s not bad, but it really, really, really could have been better. I rarely watch the video, mostly because of her hideous costume. Despite the great “dogpile on the dancers” sequence, some great choreography, and a nice set, it sort of meanders and never seems to cohese. What was the point? This isn’t a problem when no point IS the point (I’ll be getting to that in my proposal for ‘Sparkle’), but ‘Rule’ seemed to start off with a storyline. I was intrigued. Then…nothing happened. There was no ninja battle. Sorry to have wasted your four minutes.
#6 – Sparkle (Dir. Kazuyoshi Shimomura) ……I have to stop playing an even hand. This one was a complete pile of shit.