Yang Fudong for Prada: First Spring

So Prada contracted Shanghai-based avant garde filmmaker Yang Fudong to direct a black-and-white short film to promote its Spring/Summer 2010 ad campaign. Based on the scenes, it was no doubt shot on location at Shanghai Film Park in Songjiang.

While we get the bleak overtone, we see the perfectly attractive models and we're amused by its accompanying surrealist art references, we wonder - if a film looks better when it is paused (flawlessly-executed visuals in almost every frame), is something seriously wrong? Perhaps models just are not actors and it's best if they are left to do what they do best: Modeling.

Or maybe the problem lies more with Prada. Why waste time and money on a short film, calling it "a new direction in Prada’s visual communications," when all it wants is an extended glossy magazine print ad? For readers who are still unconvinced, check out how the short film works so much better as a frame still outside the Prada store at Plaza 66.

For those without VPN, here's the film uploaded on Youku.