MUJI, born in Japan in 1980, ushered in its 40th birthday. On this occasion, MUJI released five 1-minute short films Cleaning, dedicated to those who keep the world clean.

The film is composed of fragments of cleaning by people of different identities from all over the world. Similar actions show a very coordinated sense of rhythm in different scenes and characters. With the slow-paced background music from the music master Ryuichi Sakamoto, it brings a soothing, calm and healing feeling.

Maybe many people don't have the patience to finish the entire 5-minute video, but this is also in line with MUJI's brand tone, Simple and Comfortable . In this impetuous and noisy era, clean and pure emotions become rare things in our life. Watching these people cleaning up, it seems that souls have also been purified.

Regarding this set of short films, MUJI also explained the concept behind it:

Cleaning is not just mean cleaning up items or the environment to be spotless. A little observation will reveal that the so-called cleaning actually refers to activities that allow people to reach a proper balance with nature.

In nature, the environment is reorganized in a direction suitable for itself, and the animals that construct urban space are only humans. Therefore, the environment created by humans is “Artificial”. Artificial, will make people feel comfortable.

When artificial materials such as plastic or concrete that overly eroded nature continue to spread, people in turn begin to miss nature. And if "natural" is allowed, then dust and leaves will be allowed to fall, and vegetation will grow wildly.

Therefore, human beings are in the process of continuously and appropriately accepting nature and at the same time properly eliminating it.

The same goes for building houses and gardens. Excessive emphasis on artificiality will deviate from nature. The fallen leaves do not need to be fully swept.The vegetation does not need to be cut off, so it is better to grow moderately. Like the Dunes left behind after the waves rushing to the beach recede, perhaps exploring the "moderate comfort" achieved by the mutual interaction and restraint of man-made and nature is the true meaning of "cleaning."

In 2019, we filmed cleaning scenes around the world. At that time, Corona Virus had not yet swept the world. At that time,we wondered whether there is the essence of human being hidden in the ordinary daily cleaning activities that transcend culture and civilization.

Now that the world has stopped, we looked at those photos and videos at this time, and couldn't help feeling that ordinary life is so beautiful. Looking to the future, no matter how advanced the technology is, people are still creatures in nature. Human bodies are always reverberating with an endless rhythm, which makes us want to listen carefully.