Cinema “Kuru”

1994-cinema-kuruThe “Kuru” video is like a tourist in Tokyo, fresh off the plane, wandering about in awe at all the amazing things they’re seeing and experiencing.

The video hangs out in a train station. Even the ordinary sight of trains rolling into the station and passengers walking along the platform takes on new depth. The video takes the ordinary busy experience of a Tokyo train station, films it in black and white and slows it right down. It’s not the experience of a local, but it’s very much that of a visiting New Zealander.

Even the local television is wondrous. We catch glimpses of ads for music videos, television drama and the ubiquitous canned coffee drinks. Filmed off a flickering CRT television screen, it again takes something commonplace and turns it into the exotic. (Just imagine a Japanese video maker using clips of Shortland Street in a vid).

Kuru is a Japanese word meaning “come”, making it very seductive, beckoning video. Here’s someone who’s in love with Tokyo and wants to share the very particular things that have made the city so appealing.

Best bit: racially awkward coffee ad.

Director: Kane Massey
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a treat between meals.

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