Samantha & Kevin

The Shower Song begins with a scene portraying Samantha at her brother Kevin’s funeral service. An older man, her dad, leans on her shoulder. We don’t know the cause of death yet.

Character Samantha & KevinActorAmber Layne & Vincent Y. Bidjakin

At The Shower Song’s kernel, Samantha, in jogging outfit, joins Kevin, who’s sitting very peacefully on the water-side of the bridge. We know for sure it’s him because he’s wearing the same earrings in his funeral’s honorary portrait, and then again in the public square where he had been crouched on the floor, indicating depression. This is a meaningful moment acknowledging the realism of The Shower Song. It’s a happy song, sure! But it doesn’t shy away from serious topics like depression or sadness. The public square is a microcosm of life, with its vast array of emotions.

Back to the bridge, calm and serene, Samantha looks at Kevin for a moment and asks, “you know we we loved you, right?” Kevin’s ghost disappears and Samantha, now alone at the bridge, closes her grip and looks over the dark glistening river before resuming her jog.

The audience now understands that Kevin’s Samantha’s brother and this moment was all in Samantha’s head. It didn’t really happen, Kevin wasn’t actually there. This scene very implicitly tries to reveal to the audience how Kevin passed away, by jumping off the bridge. This was perhaps caused by severe depression he was going through.

We also understand that while Samantha is still coping with her brother’s passing. She’s trying to move on and putting it all behind her. Now, the big question is: how are Samantha and Kevin tied to the singer’s story? Click here to find out!

P.S. The drawings are pre-production sketches that were based on the director’s vision and inspiration. In function, they were a guiding force that helped carve the filmed scenes’ composition. At times, you might notice discrepancies between the sketch and the actual scene, and this happens for various reasons: some things look better a certain way in practice, limited resources limit the possibilities or even, the director has honed the idea, or decided to change the meaning entirely. For most of The Shower Song though, the scenes have come out spot-on identical to the vision.