Japanese pop band back number shared a snippet of the music video accompanying its upcoming new single “HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” the song currently being broadcast as the theme of a romantic TBS drama series starring Kyoko Fukada.
The video was directed by Shuichi Banba, who has helmed the visuals for some of the band’s earlier songs, such as “Boku no Namae wo” and “ARTIST,” as well as documenting its live performances. He explains that the concept of the video was to capture the passage of time during someone’s birthday, from the stroke of midnight when it begins to when it ends 24 hours later.
“The video expresses the flow of time over the course of a day, and the wish to turn back the clock,” Banba explains.
The short version intertwines slow-motion and rewinding images of a female protagonist and the band’s performances taking place at various times throughout the day. The lyrics written by frontman Iyori Shimizu is about unrequited love — “Happy Birthday to me, who has a crush (on you),” he sings in the chorus — and the dreamy visuals express the loneliness of someone longing to spend their birthday with the one they love.
The full version of the video will be included in the limited first edition of the single, which drops Feb. 27, along with behind-the-scenes footage and a digest version of the band’s concert at Tokyo Dome during the 2018 Stay With You dome tour.