Japanese Breakfast has shared a video for “Picture Window,” a release-day single from For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women). Michelle Zauner directed the video, shooting a shadowy romantic short on the streets of Seoul with actors Kim Gyuri and Omega Sapien. Sapien’s “energy and charm were so readily apparent,” Zauner elaborated in a statement, and “Kim’s “feeling for melancholy and uncertainty turned out to be a wonderful counterpart.” Check out the video and statement below.
Michelle Zauner:
Ever since I was a young girl I’ve dealt with intrusive thoughts of loved ones dying horrible deaths. When someone is running late or they’ve neglected a text or even if they’re just looking over a balcony, my mind has a tendency to run to the worst case scenario, a reflex only exacerbated by my experience of many real deaths. It can be both a relief and a struggle to love someone who doesn’t share this same proclivity for anxiety. “Picture Window” explores that dynamic.
We shot the video while I was living in Seoul last year. My idea was to follow a couple, constantly tracking left to right, as one partner charges boldly forward and the other, progressively anxious, becomes increasingly reluctant to follow.
When I met Omega from Balming Tiger, I knew immediately he would be perfect for the first role, his energy and charm were so readily apparent. Gyuri Kim, with her feeling for melancholy and uncertainty, turned out to be a wonderful counterpart.
I wanted this video to feel like a short film, and watching it back, it’s bittersweet to look back on my year abroad—the wonderful people I met, the neighborhoods I loved and lived in. The constant tracking from left to right is a reminder of how time continues to pass no matter how forcefully you struggle to beat it back or rush to get ahead of it. I watch out the window as the scenery passes, visualizing all my unlived lives swishing past.
