Shivering on the Ice, Believing in Something / Utada Hikaru "A Flower of No Color"

The insight

The lyric "If you can't believe in yourself, you can't believe in anything" overlaps perfectly with this stage of pure white snow. Maybe it's precisely because it's no color at all that it holds the potential to become every color.

The idea

Apparently this wasn't done with special effects — they really filmed it sliding on the ice. There was a moment when the snow underfoot seemed to glow in rainbow colors, which turned out to be a natural phenomenon called a "46-degree halo." I think that sense of tension you feel comes from the fact that this footage was made while they were literally shivering from the cold.

What happened

It won Gold in the Film Craft category at the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS 2024. It also picked up staff awards in the Director, Cinematography, Grading, VFX, Choreographer, and Performance categories.

Afterthought

Utada Hikaru tweeted that this might have been the most physically demanding shoot she's ever done, and that says it all. Behind that beautiful footage was a set where people were slipping, falling, and shivering as they made it — and I think that's exactly why something comes through the screen. Believing in something, I'll get through today too.

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