Group Tamashii “berobero”

A music video for the rock band Group Tamashii led by ABE Sadao and KUDO Kankuro. The images of an unidentifiable hairy creature marching through the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku feel strangely poignant against a contrasting background of dazzling neon signs and people coming and going through the dimly-lit streets. It is a work that gives further depth to the images shot using simple techniques.

Simple dynamism that moves ever forward
There is a song that cries out an order to “advance” through the night. There are images of walking purposefully through darkened streets. The happy collaboration between the power of the song and the power of the images, berobero is a muscular music video consisting of roughly six minutes of forward motion, almost all of it contained in a single cut. The expressive style of the images themselves is extremely unusual in both concept and execution. At the same time, there is no hesitation in the straightforward approach taken in conveying the spirit of this outstanding song. The work thereby succeeds in using the power of the images to draw forth a more intense expression of the song’s message.The critique here, by the way, has not taken into account the perspective of “post-earthquake Japan.” Indeed, the song itself was written before the earthquake. Still, it seems to do more to give us the courage to “move forward” than any of the numerous “support songs” written in the disaster’s wake.