The biggest problem with Ayumi's videos does not lie in the directors, but rather in the video concepts. The direction itself tends to be great. Set design and image composition are stunning, too - and her use of symbolism is rather great. But the concepts for the videos themselves are usually stale or go nowhere, so even the best director cannot turn them great. They usually do a very good job with the concept they have, but a bad concept with a great director attached is still a bad concept and will result in a subpar video. Look at Song 4 U as example, the direction is wonderful, the design is sleek and functional without any major flaws, but the concept itself is incredibly bland and would fit a short commercial better than a 4 minute clip.
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Originally Posted by Raleigh
Most of her videos have a lot of random imagery which doesn't seem to make sense or a storyline which leads to nowhere.
...rather than having random imagery thrown in...
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You should brush up your knowledge on Baroque, Romance and Classical era symbolism. It seems to me you simply don't get most of her symbolism- rather than it being random -, since I can assure you in the vast majority of cases it is not random and her videos make perfect sense upon having a basic knowledge of the types of symbolism she uses. They may not be particularly deep or unique, but they are definitely not random.