This Beats Chris Cunningham

This intense video was for Takkyu Ishino's track "Polynasia" (1998) - I liked it so much I've been doing a little research into it's director.



It turns out (after much research) that the director is a dude called, Hideyuki Tanaka - I translated over 10 Japanese pages to find that darn name.

Beginning his career with a stint at network NHK, he then set up his own company, Frame Graphics, which worked extensively on titles for TV as well as gaming software and design. He began directing in 1998 with the explosive "Polynesia" promo for Takkyu Ishino and won many awards for the East Japan Railway Company's "JRSKI" campaign (featuring an extremely photo-real skiing ostrich), and directed the truly nutty anime comedy OH! Super-Milk Chan - to be honest though I'm no fan of anime... It gets pretty lame, just like Japanese "comedy", which really has zero effect on me.

The Polynasia vid really was something new for me though - it was the PS1 standard graphics towards the end that bought on the nostalgia, bringing back memories of the days when all CGI was done in dimly lit/rainy environments to hide the imperfections - see Jurassic Park (1993)



Notice the animation jitter at the end?

The concept was amazing too. It must've been something about the helplessness or obliviousness as to whats going on from the characters. Combined with the voyeuristic role the audience takes on too, it makes for the best use of tension I've seen in a long time...

This next video is for Ishino's track, "Anna" (1999)



Again directed by, Hideyuki Tanaka, this hypnotic vid instead goes for a more vid-art feel rather than the story-like one prior.
I simply love it for the simplicity. It's almost mathematical in it's approach - zombie bites man > man becomes zombie > repeat.
It's classic, and the ironic makeup and mini set used over and over makes it even cooler to watch, especially with the unrelated ballet scenes just thrown in for some variation. Note the mini changes in the window silhouettes and the increasion of speed - coming from such a talented director, this amateur feel is spot on.

If you wanna see more of Tanaka's wack vids check out his Youtube page full of his daft work...
I'll leave you with this:



You can get to OUR Youtube page here. (click "see all" if all our favourite videos don't appear).