White Surf Style 5!

April 22, 2006 4:36 PM

The videos of Supercar are all awesome, each in their own way. (via antville)
posted by fungible (36 comments total)

There's also an mpeg available for the best one.
posted by fungible at 4:37 PM on April 22, 2006

Indeed extra weird , unexpected, worth giving a look
posted by elpapacito at 5:00 PM on April 22, 2006

I don't think those would be any less confusing in english.

WTF Japan(?)?
posted by 517 at 5:01 PM on April 22, 2006

I don't know what you're talking about, the Be one was by far the funniest. The turtle? Man, that's comedy gold.
posted by vernondalhart at 5:12 PM on April 22, 2006

Well that was... odd.

It does bring to mind that i need to get those rocket arm upgrades before i'm attacked by a Pink-Underwear-Girl. (They are the scariest kind doncha know.)
posted by quin at 5:15 PM on April 22, 2006

Oh, and can we get a NSFW on that second link?

Not a call out or anything, there was just unexpected nudity.

Fortunately i am pretty quick on the Apple-H
posted by quin at 5:22 PM on April 22, 2006

Neat videos. The music is pretty damn good, too. Never heard of them. Thanks!
posted by brundlefly at 5:22 PM on April 22, 2006

Wow, that was pretty insane. I think the only thing predictable about these was the violence against women. Because it wouldn't be Japanese otherwise. But still, wow.
posted by allen.spaulding at 5:22 PM on April 22, 2006

The Be one is NSFW, for those who care on this Saturday.
posted by Aknaton at 5:29 PM on April 22, 2006

as quin already pointed out
posted by Aknaton at 5:30 PM on April 22, 2006

In the comments for the "Be" video are translations of the captions. Knowing who the different people are - especially some of the middle people - enhance the experience considerably. Thanks for the links!
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:58 PM on April 22, 2006

The Wonderword one is very post-Svankmajer.
posted by Hogshead at 6:05 PM on April 22, 2006

Thanks for pointing out the translations, Mr. Michaels. I was wondering about those captions and figured they'd be something like that.
posted by brundlefly at 6:06 PM on April 22, 2006

I thought this was going to be videos of Supercarrrrrrr!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:07 PM on April 22, 2006

No wikipedia entry! Then how do I know they exist?
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:09 PM on April 22, 2006

Also, since I am interested now, another by Supercar. Maybe the creepiest.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:09 PM on April 22, 2006

Oh, and live.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:11 PM on April 22, 2006

I've been a Supercar fan since 2000 (they broke up in early 2005.) Never watched any of their videos till now. Neat.
posted by NemesisVex at 6:20 PM on April 22, 2006

Somebody doesn't want us linking to that mpeg. Might want to turn down your speakers. Or turn them all the way up.
posted by emelenjr at 6:26 PM on April 22, 2006

Thanks Joey. And sorry about the mpeg, worked before...

Anybody know who might have directed some of these? Anybody we'd know?
posted by fungible at 6:54 PM on April 22, 2006

Rad! Some real life Tranzor Z action on the White Surf Style 5 one!

I don't understand why the guy was so freaked out in that one, though. If you're getting slapped around by a pretty, scantily-clad girl, you should probably just learn to enjoy it.
posted by redteam at 7:27 PM on April 22, 2006

A great blend of insanity and sort of making sense. The soccer-executions were like those wacky Japanese game shows taken up to the next notch, as some comment on one of the links pointed out, and the list of captions in another was nice--added a lot of humor. "The AV star I owe so much to." Heh.

The first video struck me as sort of--again!--a wacky Japanese answer to that animated bit in Pink Floyd's The Wall with the flowers getting down with it and pistil getting all floral dentata and ripping up the stamen. (Or vice versa, I'm no botanist.) Oddly sweet at first, then just sort of disturbing in an amusing way. Akin to it, but better.

The creepy kid one is of course all about disaffected youth. Really an answer to the teacher-leave-them-kids-alone refrain, only in this case he uses freaky-eyed super disintegration ray attack! But the system, man, is, like, everywhere man, and those people you think are supportive of you, they just want to suck you into their little suicide cult ritual. Yeah. (I was actually expecting it to end with them all staring at the rising sun and hitting it with a combined eyebeam attack, night falls.)

White Surf Style 5...huh. I got nothin.
posted by Drastic at 7:47 PM on April 22, 2006

Um, I think the nudity is in the second, no third.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:56 PM on April 22, 2006

You know, I was just getting ready to bitch about the proliferation of YouTube links and how if you're going to post one, it better not be five minutes of crap, it better blow my fucking mind. And then I watched these videos. No need to rant.
posted by ColdChef at 7:58 PM on April 22, 2006

OMG! It's a total shoutout to Tranzor Z! I didn't totally get it until the Aphrodite A reference shot out, so to speak. Ah, missile breasts...
posted by redbeard at 8:55 PM on April 22, 2006

Well done, sir.
posted by boo_radley at 10:00 PM on April 22, 2006

Thanks for this!

Supercar's been one of my favorite groups for forever, and it's good to see them getting exposure. Unfortunately, they did break up last year. (Before I had a chance to see them live, damnit!) I recommend their 2000 album, Futurama (has White Surf Style 5 on it), though all their albums are worth getting.

Also check out the movie Ping Pong - besides being a damn good movie, Supercar provides most of the soundtrack. And it's written by Kudo Kankuro, the best screenwriter in Japan.
posted by emmling at 11:36 PM on April 22, 2006

Awesome, thanks.

According to the comments at the antville site, the director of the videos is Gen Sekiguchi. He is also responsible for survive style 5+, a full length movie supposedly in the same vein. Now, off to find myself a copy.
posted by scodger at 11:40 PM on April 22, 2006

Yay!
posted by beerbajay at 2:51 AM on April 23, 2006

The vids were great. But when I first saw the post, I was hoping it was going to be about this show.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:46 AM on April 23, 2006

oh yeah, ping pong - i liked the soundtrack, but'd forgotten about it :P thanks!

supercarstyle5's myspace profile
ss5 trailer
posted by kliuless at 5:59 AM on April 23, 2006

White surf style is a great song and a great video.

If that's the current state of japanese pop music, they'll be crossing over pretty soon..
posted by empath at 9:46 AM on April 23, 2006

No wikipedia entry! Then how do I know they exist?

Fixed.
posted by dhartung at 12:02 PM on April 23, 2006

God jobo dhartung! I redlinked it, but had nothing for content.
posted by beerbajay at 4:26 PM on April 23, 2006

I just saw the Be video last week, and was hoping there was more out there. Thanks much.
posted by jrb223 at 7:25 AM on April 24, 2006

I think the only thing predictable about these was the violence against women. Because it wouldn't be Japanese otherwise.

Ummm, there was violence against men AND women. I didn't think any of those videos were particularily sexist. Plenty of ass-kicking for both sexes!
posted by byort at 11:28 AM on April 24, 2006