无法观看？前往优酷
The music video for London-based musician Grades’ “King” was created by the award-winning Japanese director Taichi Kimura. The video features a young Japanese student with giant pigtails and a highly active imagination. While she is head down, buried with school work, her mind begins to wander from her studies at hand, into a world of make-believe where her school becomes a cartoon battlefield and she plays the role of an adorable heroine.
《King》是居住在英国的日本导演Taichi Kimura为伦敦音乐人Grades制作的音乐录影带。影片中，顶着两个巨大的双丸子的头的日本小学生，突发奇想把学校变成了卡通片里的战场，将自己从沉闷的课业里暂时解救出来，化身正义王子，和故事里的怪兽们展开大战。
From the music video’s storyline, the audience can catch glimpses of Kimura’s own child-like sense of creativity. Growing up, he was infatuated by video games. So, the idea of incorporating video game-like elements into this music video came quite naturally to him; his goal was to make a video with mass appeal. “As a child, I always dreamed of delving into an interactive world where I could defeat the bad guys and become a hero for a day. I assumed that many others have this same dream,” says Kimura. This nostalgia became the starting point for his video, which he thought would stir up memories of simpler times as a child for many viewers.
说起这支MV的故事构想，我们看到了导演Kimura纯真任性的一面。在日本长大的他从小就是一个电子游戏迷，所以就自然想到以游戏作为切入点，去制作一条能串联大众的影片。“我一直有这种幻想，自己成为了游戏世界里头和敌人对战的那个英雄，所以我也假定这个世界上很多人也会和我有同样的想法吧。” 拍摄这支童真的MV，Kimura想带着观众一起回到那个单纯勇敢极具创意的儿童时代。
Kimura had hoped to shoot the video in a traditional school constructed with wood, envisioning a location with warm tones, a location that wouldn’t look out of place in a Hayao Miyazaki film. In the end, they found the ideal filming location in a mountainous area a few hours away from Tokyo. As this school was in such a remote location and situated on a mountainside, it was difficult to transport the entire crew and all of the equipment. But in the end, Kimura felt that the result was truly worth the hassle.
在选景的时候，Kimura想拍摄一个木结构学校，就像宫崎骏电影里的场景一样，是暖色调的。最后他们在离东京几小时路程的一个偏远山区找到了这间学校。这个场地位于半山腰，要带整个拍摄团队以及大量的拍摄器材过去实在不是一件容易的事情，好在拍摄出来的效果达到了他们预先的期盼。
The young star of this music video, Lyka, was discovered by Kimura on YouTube. “Honestly, I usually hate music videos with dancers. But when I randomly came across her on YouTube. I thought that she was absolutely gangster. She was super cute but had such a strong attitude and crazy skills. The video treatment was actually written based on her.”
影片中的小演员Lyka是Kimura在YouTube上找到的。”坦白来说，我原来还蛮讨厌有舞者的MV的。但我意外地在一条YouTube视频中发现了她，我觉得她很可爱，但也带有一种邪恶又疯狂的气质，有自己强烈的个性和态度。这正是我故事中的主人公，我按照她的形象设计了整个故事。”
This being Kimura’s first-ever attempt at adding animated elements into his video, he enlisted the help of animator Rapparu to bring his vision to life. The animation process for Kings was extremely intense, requiring five animators who worked between 15 to 18 hours a day, on rotation, to achieve the final result. Laughing, Kimura says, “During the creation process, I was very harsh. I remember Rapparu called to say that he couldn’t take anymore and wanted to kill himself. I told him that’s fine, but kill yourself after you finish. Since then, he calls me a demon, which is fair play I guess.”
这次与Kimura合作的动画师是Rapparu，这也是Kimura第一次尝试有动画元素的影片。他笑说，“合作的过程中，我非常严苛，我还记得有一次他电话过来，和我说无法承受下去了想要自杀，我只回复说，那就等到做完影片后再自杀吧。自此之后，他便称我为魔鬼了。” 这部影片的动画制作过程非常紧张，5个动画师每天工作15-18小时连轴转，才达到了最终想要的效果。
