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So, months ago, I read that McG (the director) did a music video of the 80's hit "Turning Japanese" with Takashi Murakami (the pop-artist) starring Kirsten Dunst (the actress). She gads around Akihabara (anime mecca), the video plays at the Tate Modern museum in London (artsy mecca). Fine and dandy. And odd group, but whatever, people get around.
The video is now streaming online here. (Video is NSFW.)
I just...wow. This is my thing, my field: transcultural flows of popular culture. The clash and convergence of global fandoms. And I still don't know quite what to say about it.
It has the otaku-metropolis flavour of Akiba, almost. I've been there, and yes, there really are maids in the streets, giant-boobie posters in the shops, and a whole lot of neon lights. But I was surprised that so many men and women in the video (are they actors or just passersby?) looked directly at the camera. People in Akiba when I was there didn't make a lot of eye contact. So it really stood out to me how much this video is constructed around lines of sight. Just check out the blatant eyeline match at 1:57-2:00. It's all about different kinds of looks: watching back and forth, glancing back at the camera, staring blankly into space. Watching anime watchers.
What I can't decide for the life of me, though, is: how much is it about eye contact, making connections, and how much is it about spectacularizing or exoticizing (women/anime girls/feminized Japan), the old power politics of the gaze? Or is it maybe a self-conscious play on both?
February 21 2010, 03:55:24 UTC 2 years ago
All right, I kind of loathe Akiba because I was sort of attacked in the street by a (crazy?) dude there, so I don't think kindly of the place to begin with. But I'm pretty sure the guy in the daisies at the end (and maybe right near the middle?) is Murakami himself.
I have no idea about whether they're actors or passersby; I'd bet passersby, but not by much. The eye contact absolutely has to be direction, and I agree it's really interesting. Given everything, particularly Murakami's involvement, I'd also say that I think the video is both riffing on the old truisms and self-consciously reinscribing them. The other thing I find interesting is how the lyrics shift in meaning when the video actually takes place in Japan. I've seen Japanese women in virtually that outfit actually walking around in Tokyo, and non-Japanese cosplayers wearing sentai suits at cons outside Japan. So in a weird transcultural way she could be turning Japanese? Or at least a non-Japanese idea of Japaneseness based on viewing Japanese media?
February 21 2010, 03:59:25 UTC 2 years ago
February 21 2010, 17:12:30 UTC 2 years ago
Good catch on Murakami! I hadn't noticed.
February 22 2010, 03:18:09 UTC 2 years ago
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're passersby--did you see the female otaku/fujoshi in the beginning? And having seen people being photographed for Fruits, I don't think it'd be hard to get people to enact that blank trope. Also, I don't think too many of those people are actual otaku.
I said more here: http://starlady38.livejournal.com/32389