Shakai Mondai – “Hikari” (Utada Hikaru Cover) Video
Although recent Band To Watch Shakai Mondai’s cover of J-Pop star Utada Hikaru’s “Hikari” stands on its own without question, it’s perhaps best understood when watched in juxtaposition with the original. Said to be the “mirror image’ of the version made by Hikaru, with its black lights and surrealist themes, it ends up becoming closer to a photo negative.
Working with Philadelphia-based filmmaker Sarah Kim, Rachel Ishikawa experiments with context, twisting the meaning of once romantically-charged lyrics into something far less grounded in reality. Haunted by nostalgia and imagination, Ishikawa’s video examines the moments we come across in our every day lives when our minds wander and take us to a place so poignant we have trouble accepting that it’s outside of our immediate physical reality. Watch below.