Director Joseph Kahn lives in one crazy world. It’s a world in which sci-fi, comics, pop culture, and movies implode on one another into an insanely mashed-up mixup of media, delivered with a strong dose of digital effects. (Holy metaculture, Batman!) If anyone could save music videos, Kahn is your man.
The Korean creative’s latest is a Western sci-fi epic, rife with movie references like Planet of the Apes, a blonde babe, cowboy laser blasters, a unicorn, robots, holographic musicians, Western action with Hong Kong kung-fu choreography, and enough style to make Tarantino look like some poor schlub with a Handycam. (Sorry, Quentin.) And that’s before the poop starts a flinging across your screen — really. Now we just need some new genres to cross-breed, like BBC costume dramas and Adam Sandler flicks, or MGM musicals and porn.
Previous outings by Kahn included directing the Toxic video that actually made Britney Spears incredibly cool (no mean feat, though choreographing a dance through a tube of lasers helps), and the Without Me video that admitted Dr. Dre is far more awesome than Eminem. (Dre, supposedly as Batman but looking a bit more like Shaft, seems genuinely bemused by the spaz that is Eminem as bat-sidekick Robin. And, really, haven’t you always wanted to watch a giant pink rabbit beat the crap out of Moby?) At other times, Kahn directs like a VJ, remixing old kung-fu classics for Chemical Brothers. But the new Muse video is probably his most virtuostic yet.
Sure, it’s eye candy, but it’s delicious. At age 34, this guy is further proof that the really cool people all drop out of NYU. Everyone together now: KAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!!!!
MUSE Knights of Cydonia [QT Video]
Joseph Kahn Homepage [Official]
Joseph Kahn Music Videos [Official]
Joseph Kahn [Wikipedia]
Knights of Cydonia [Wikipedia]
Got a suggestion for the video inspiration of the week, to help us lighten up, face our Cinema Displays (or, erm, CRT tubes) and get to work? Don’t be shy: shout out hi.