Waley Wang's tender promo for Crowd Lu X The Black Skirts' Dream Like Me is a split-screen romantic drama about two recent exes who are heartbreakingly likeminded.In the side-by-side narrative, we see the boy and girl separately wandering a supermarket at night, followed by docu-camcorder montages of them cooking for themselves. Poignantly, each time they are creating their own versions of the same recipe. Blurring the lines between past and present, the video has a deeply melancholic style, which is contrasted by the textural Hi-8 aesthetic. Culminating in a dreamy resolution - where the couple reunite in a blend of nostalgia and fantasy - the video feels both original and timeless, and the use of clever graphics throughout - including the recipe cards for each meal - gives extra context to the story. Delicious work from the up-and-coming Waley Wang.
Rob Ulitski - 11th Jan 2023