Arrested Motion reports on a short film by Takashi Murakami called "Akihabara Majokko Princess."
Starring Kirsten Dunst singing a cover to the Vapors' "Turning Japanese", the video includes footage of Dunst dancing through the streets of the Akihabara district in Tokyo dressed as a colorful princess. If you look carefully at the front image of our "Pop Life" article, you can see Murakami next to a painting paying tribute to this experience entitled "Kirsten Dunst & McG & Me".
Does anyone know if the video is available for viewing online?
Murakami x McG x Dunst - "Akihabara Majokko Princess" in "Pop Life" @ the Tate Modern
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You know, I'm not normally a fan of Ms. Dunst, but she looks incredibly cute in that outfit (and happy too).
Here's a video of the Dunst cosplay but it's set to other music, not her singing 'Turning Japanese'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AEBVotNvgY
I'll be in my bunk...
*wistful sigh*
Oh goodness me. The otaku in me just went a little "Squee!" when I saw this. This is so kawaii I think I might need some insulin.
It is wrong for a 40-yr old dude to be having such unnatural feelings for a starlet in dress-up clothes.
I am chastened.
I saw this video at the pop life exhibit in the tate modern. I like Murakami's work
So this is what passes for downtime between Spiderman films? Ohhhh-kaayyy.
Kirsten.. I love her
Below is from the Tate Modern Website... currently showing in Room 17:
"Also featured is the short film made by the artist in collaboration with Hollywood director McG about Akihabara, Tokyo's manga epicentre. To translate this subculture for a Western audience, film star Kirsten Dunst was cast as Majokko ('magical princess') an anime archetype watched by girls in Japan. The room also includes references to GEISAI, Murakami's spectacular annual Tokyo art fair which provides a platform for emerging artists as well as a gathering place for various sub-cultural groups."
Room 17 Takashi Murakami, Collaboration Addiction
With the launch of his multinational company Kaikai Kiki Co, Ltd in the early 1990s, Takashi Murakami radically expanded Warhol's model of factory production and forged a distinctively Japanese form of Pop art. Employing several hundred assistants to design and fabricate his fine art works as well as various product lines, Kaikai Kiki has allowed Murakami to pursue an ambitious campaign to reassert Japan's cultural relevance.
As well as drawing inspiration from the visual styles of Japanese popular culture - from the geeky otaku world of science fiction, anime and manga to the cute kawaii aesthetic – Murakami has coined the term 'superflat' to link the distinctive treatment of space in Japanese art to a levelling out between high and popular culture. Accordingly, he moves freely among fine art, fashion, pop music, animation and new media, giving equal weight to all of them. Murakami's retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, for example, incorporated a Louis Vuitton outlet in the middle of the exhibition, selling merchandise that the artist had designed for the fashion label.
Murakami has conceived his Pop Life gallery as a reflection of his collaborations and activities that cross over into the 'real' world. It includes jewellery and accessories that Murakami has made with established designers and celebrities, such as Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. Also featured is the short film made by the artist in collaboration with Hollywood director McG about Akihabara, Tokyo's manga epicentre. To translate this subculture for a Western audience, film star Kirsten Dunst was cast as Majokko ('magical princess') an anime archetype watched by girls in Japan. The room also includes references to GEISAI, Murakami's spectacular annual Tokyo art fair which provides a platform for emerging artists as well as a gathering place for various sub-cultural groups.
The youtube video posted above is not a video so much as a slideshow of the same pics you can see in the article linked to.
Damn. When I saw "Murakami" I thought Haruki.
Here's the original images uploaded to flickr that were mentioned on reddit a while ago:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kikidunst_3/3864138084/
Really? When I saw Murakami I thought Ryu... Then Haruki. Then WTF...
Same! I wonder what a short film by Haruki Murakami would look like... I can't imagine it looking anything like this, that's for sure.