Watch: This music video combines 'Alice in Wonderland' with a strange Japanese way of life
Bonobo's 'No Reason' follows the life of a young man who seeks extreme degrees of confinement.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland is a puzzling work which spawned an entire genre of fantasy- and dream-based literature and film. And music videos.
It is indisputable that the wonderland has been an inspiring playground for the imagination.
In Bonobo’s recent music video featuring vocals from Nicky Murphy, titled No Reason, the influence of Alice’s growing enormous while her surroundings shrink is evident.
But the music video is nowhere near fantasy. It is, in fact, grounded in a dark reality that Japan’s youth face – the need to turn away from societal pressures and live a reclusive life for years.
Over half a million young Japanese follow “hikikomori,” a way of life where people don’t leave their homes or interact with others for at least six months (and can go on that way for years).
Skater-turned-filmmaker Oscar Hudson cleverly visualises this mundane life with evocative camera work that follows a series of rooms which gradually, and claustrophobically, shrink around a man. These rooms eerily resemble Alice’s endless and uncertain journey.
After watching the video, you might find yourself repeating Alice’s words from the book: “What a curious feeling!...I must be shutting up like a telescope.”
Hudson admits that crafting a story with such strong visual cues is challenging. The director felt that moving the miniature camera to shoot on a set built of cardboard and mini plasticine furniture had more aesthetic appeal than simply using computer-generated imagery.
Simon Green, whose stage name is Bonobo, received huge online response with his first single video Kerala. Although it has no relation to the state of Kerala, the video is a must watch for its hypnotic, at times even frustrating, editing.