Rina Sawayama’s brilliant bad-date promo slams casual racism

Channelling all the rage she’s ever felt at the fetishising of Asian women, Sawayama’s bitterly comic film for STFU! follows a dinner date from hell with a prize douchebag who can't tell the difference between Lucy Liu and Sandra Oh but says she is a "sexier version" of "literally either" of them. 

Produced by Partizan, with fun nods to Kill Bill, The Ring and Agent Provocateur ads, the film sees Sawayama increasingly aghast at her dinner companion’s crassness as he mansplains about Japanese food (having been to Wagamama at Heathrow, he's a sushi connoisseur), expresses surprise that she can sing in English, and prattles on about how he’s writing a cool new-age version of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Eventually she erupts, giving him a well-deserved slap and morphing into a screaming pop-rock goddess and the promo proper takes hold. 

Ali Kurr said of the project: “When I came on to STFU!’, [Partizan director] Rianne White and Rina had already conceived such an incredible creative vision that it was a dream to jump on board. What I loved most about the concept is how it fucks with your conceptions of what a pop video is going to give you."

Talking about the inspiration behind the single and video, Sawayama explains: “‘STFU!’ is a song about releasing rage against micro-aggressions. As a Japanese girl growing up in the West I've dealt with sexual stereotypes, comparisons with Lucy Liu and having to be an unofficial Tokyo tourist board PR person.”