Taichi Kimura Captures the Struggle of Japanese Youth in Experimental Short
Caviar's Taichi Kimura has directed a stunning experimental art film shot in Tokyo, Japan.
The film, entitled ‘Mu,’ combines black and white footage with a bespoke poem written by poet Shuya Masuda (inspired in part by the poem ‘Nu’ written by Ryuichi Tamura, ‘Mu’ literally meaning nothing, zero, void) alongside visuals inspired by photographer Daido Moriyama and a textured performance interlude by Japanese rapper Jin Dogg. In its sum, this film creates the physical manifestation of the imagined characters director Taichi has written in his previous film Lost Youth and in his feature currently in development, Neon.
For Taichi, this piece is as if you are voyeuring through his head. The abstract ideas he emits through his work protest that it is okay to be depressed or moody - that this state of flux is necessary even. All of the inspiration he used to create this film constructs a nihilistic albeit nostalgic moving gallery of the modern, young Japanese internal struggle.
Mu, in itself, is an amalgamation of stark, mystical and at some points sinister images which quite successfully create an atmosphere of grit. Unveiling a muted undergrowth of sadness bourne from the murders, terrorist attacks and natural disasters in Japan during the 90s and early 00s. More of an art piece than narrative short film, Taichi says the film’s meaning it is up to the audiences interpretation of his homage to the artists he was inspired by.
For Taichi, the whole piece is about trying to find peace with the dark side of human nature; in this film he is seeking the beauty within the obsidian atmospheres of Tokyo and attempting to merge that feeling of isolation and fear with the duplicitous energies of the youth living there. Modern Japanese culture is known to the West to be flashy and commercial but Taichi is trying to make a different perspective through his use of texture with his black and white footage.
He hopes those that watch it, enjoy it, and find peace within it, knowing that there is no ugliness without beauty, no horror without bliss. He knows life can be tragic, but be unabashedly beautiful at the same time.
