DJ Shadow: Six Days

My friend who's a big Wong Kar Wai freak pestered me 2 buy this DVD Single, telling me how cool it was and boy was he right!

This music video/short movie has some of the most mesmorizingly beautiful photography I've seen from (the great) Christopher Doyle yet -the underwater sequence especially.

The story is a "your cheatin' heart" tale set within the strange locales of a warehouse and a swimming pool. It has a weird scene involving the romantic couple giving each other strange tattoos and a cool little kung fu fight scene thrown in there for good measure too.

The song itself is a funky chill out tune (which reminds me of the Malcolm McClaren song 'About Her' from the KILL BILL Vol. 2 soundtrack)it features a haunting sample from a track called 'Six Day War', whose refrain 'Tomorrow never comes until it's too late' digs its way into your head and won't let go.

Most people will recognise the lead actor Chang Chen of Happy Together and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame but the female lead was a mystery to me.

All in all, a gorgeous looking little video with an odd quote from Bruce Lee at the end: "The possession of anything begins in the mind." Indeed!

Six Days is a promotional video for the audio recording 'Six Days' produced by musical artist DJ Shadow. The video is directed by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai. The video's plot is rather complex and decentralised however basically follows a deteriorated relationship in which the female character is inaccessible to the male character which is obsessed. The emotional attachment is metaphorically represented by a numerical figure and the emotional pain and suppression is represented through the subsequent erasure of the numerical figure. The video plays out much like a dream sequence. Wong Kar Wai is notorious for the use of numbers within his films. The imagery is denatured and the use of natural colour is skewed which creates the atmospheric cinematography which matches the atmospheric and melancholic mood of the music and lyrical content.

WKW can do nothing less that transcendentally. He turned his brief "Eros" segment into something worth cherishing.

Now this. I admit to an aversion to music videos. I know some folks think many are are clever, but almost every time I watch one I'm a bit disgusted at the sameness. Its pop art, and the market drivers are going to pound it, shape it into banality. How else to sell?

But this. This has that Doyle touch. They decided to reference, I think, one of the most beautiful films ever made: "Pillow Book."

If you have access to any of WKW's later projects, you need not waste your time with this. But if you are thumbing through music videos, stop here. Turn the dumb music off and watch.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Damn, getting a tattoo on your armpit. Why would you do that? It must hurt like crazy, don't you know how many sensitive nerve endings there are in that area? No wonder the woman is screaming and grasping onto the bed frame. It's not a particularly attractive area to get a tattoo as well - it's all sweaty and gross.

But I like this music video. Very dreamlike and ethereal visuals with saturated colours that match the trippy DJ Shadow song (by the way, I like this version way more than the Fast & Furious remix). Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Doyle always go hard. Plus, I like Chang Chen, he was in Dune and I liked that movie.