8 ‘Love Never Dies’
Romance and Christian symbolism in a Japanese rock video
Christian symbols are commonly used in Japanese popular culture to express ideals such as romanticism and Occidental exoticism. This concept fuels the imagery in the video at hand: ‘Love Never Dies’, by the Alfee, features Christian architecture, Caucasian models, crosses and, most significantly, a guitar in the likeness of the Virgin Mary. Here, as in the wedding, Christian icons are used to convey a perceived modern version of romance. In this case modernity is set in an indeterminate past, conflating the traditional and the modern into one visual concept that exists in opposition to the present. The present and future encased in the past is ...
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