Tokyo Escalator

There are three different looks or modes packed into this 12 minute short:

(1) A pretty Japanese woman (Emi Elenola, of the band "Demi Semi Quaver") dressed to the nines in a fabulous dress made of black and white striped latex, striking poses.

(2) Hallucinatory, vibrating color image overlays of this woman in motion (perhaps representing dream and memory).

(3) Absurd claymation, a series of comedy routines on silly/raunchy subjects.

The plot: A woman finds meaning to her life, playing the freak in a public place, performing on the escalators in an outdoor atrium in Tokyo. She's troubled by recurrent dreams of riding up a long, unfamiliar escalator, and one day she finds it: an escalator to heaven... or hell? The Second Rate Comedy Club! Chilidog.

This was written and directed by Naoko Nozawa, the woman who among other things, leads the band "Ass-Baboons of Venus". This explain some things.

If you get a chance, you should *definitely* see this, at least once.

But... the claymation stuff, like most comedy, would probably not be so funny the second time around, which is a shame because the rest of it is so visually strong. I would've liked to hear a little more of Emi Elenola singing, (but then this isn't supposed to be a music video).