Music Shorts special guests greet the audience
Manami Kurose's beautiful smile
Starting this year we've started the Music Shorts competition! Music videos have progressed so far, they are complete and definite works of film art and this will certainly prove to be one of our most popular and celebrated programs. With Masayuki Furuya selecting and leading the program, the 1st edition featured 5, count them 5 special guests. I'll give you all a quick rundown.
Director Jang Jae-hyuk brought 3-man vocal group Soul Star's "Only One For Me", a romantic ballad with 3 love stories telling the visual story. Very high quality visually, tastefully done and guaranteed to give a mighty pull on your heartstrings. Quite excellent.
Next up was Toshiro Sonoda whose "Say Your Dream" is a 13-minute epic starring the biggest Japanese visual-kei rock band Glay. The story line involves a group of WWII Japanese prisoners of war in a camp run by allied forces. The story comes full circle with an act of bravery and kindness in the camp causing an unexpected reversal of fortune in the present day. Epic, big-budget filmmaking, and it's a music clip!
The other guest of note was 17-year-old singer Manami Kurose who was the subject of a doc about her trip to find her musical self to Taipei, Taiwan. The short is a revelation about the power and appeal of music across the globe, breaking all boundaries of borders, politics, language, and race. It's plain to see Manami's journey of growth as a person and artist, at times heart-breaking and at times inspirational. quite an accomplishment as a music short film!
Finally co-directors Bajune Tobeta and animator Takae Koyanagi brought "Blue Butterfly" which features Ryuichi Sakamoto and popular vocal duo Kirinji. A beautifully animated piece of work.
All in all, entertaining, inspiring, and most important perhaps, music X movies = magic!
DJ John
