Lu Xiao Wei directs a punchy promo for Pianwooo and Ill Japonia, in association with Nowness. Filmed in a derelict industrial zone in London, Kawasaki is the meeting of two trailblazers from the UK Asian Underground scene. We see the artists run (t)rap burnouts together as they commune in the city’s forgotten spaces, with their crews behind them (WAV collective and Eastern Margins — the driving forces of London’s burgeoning East & South-East Asian communities).Boasting fiery performances, exhilarating bike scenes and chromatic cinematography, the video moves at a breakneck pace, skipping any superfluous introduction and cutting right to the chase. Excluded from mainstream Western media and spaces, they run rings around the mainstream rap scene, trading bars in English, Japanese and Korean, combining to create and build their own community under the directorial vision of Lu Xiao Wei.
Rob Ulitski - 19th Jan 2022