There’s something special in finding a great song that takes your breath away because of the music video. The track reiji no machi by パソコン音楽クラブ from their second album Night Flow recently gave me one of the special moments. The tracks is rather poppy with a sad undertone but the synths keep it from feeling down but dramatic. The oddly peaceful females voice is kept to the same 5 beat delivery until each hook. It works really well and is catchy even without understanding the Japanese.
On its own, the track is wonderful but the music video is what made it stand out for me. The director they hired, 田島太雄, takes
these dramatic movements at fast and slow speed semi-circles. This camera work applied to Japanese daily life, which makes it feel more special. What works so well is how clean and high quality the footage is while most scenes are dark. It’s almost as if the use of lighting makes japan feel cleaner, brighter, and almost artificial than it really is. So much so, that I wish my eyes could experienced life in this quality.
I just want to watch more footage like this, an entire movie if I could. It’s addicting to see the world so perfect.