Kon Satoshi Kon

I realized a couple of days ago that my four month stay in Japan has almost come to an end. I've discovered a lot about this country these past three months, whether it be how much anime mirror real-life Japan or how little the average Japanese person knows about how Japan is perceived among the western masses. Today, however, I want to talk about one man in particular whose work I've come to fully appreciate in one of my classes here: Satoshi Kon (今敏, Kon Satoshi).


When quizzed on who the greatest director of all time of an animated film is, most people's answers will tend to fall either with Walt Disney or Hayao Miyazaki (West and East curiously), and although the works of both these men are undeniably both visually memorable and breathtaking, I still find myself answering this question with neither of those two. This past year and a half I've had the experience of discovering that the greatest director of all time of an animated film was none other than Satoshi Kon, may he rest in peace.

The first time I ever heard the name Satoshi Kon was during a news interlude on an anime channel I used to watch where they announced that Kon's most recent film, Paprika, had won many awards around the world at various film festivals. At the time I had no idea who the man was or what the film they were mentioning was about, but those names, Satoshi Kon and Paprika, stuck on to me for some reason. Therefore, when I read last year (summer 2010) that famed director Satoshi Kon had died of cancer, I found myself remembering that news interlude and wanting to see what had now become his last movie (his following project, The Dream Machine, is set to be released posthumously, but is currently MIA).

What Inception should have been

Paprika's setup was fairly familiar to me; I had seen Inception a couple of months before so the concept of jumping into other people's dreams was still fresh in mind. Going into the movie I had already made up my mind that it was probably going to be some variation on the plot seen in Nolan's movie; I was very wrong. Paprika blew me away, not only with it's beautiful visuals and impressively fluid animation, but also with the way in which it shattered the wall between spectator and movie without falling into self aware humor. It blurred the line between fantasy and reality to the point were they became indistinguishable.

This is the magic that permeates all of Kon's work; be it Millenium Actress or Tokyo Godfathers or Perfect Blue or Paprika, they all involve mixing fantasy with reality in some way or another. Millenium Actress is about a girl pursuing her first love, even though she doesn't know his name or remembers what he looks like. Tokyo Godfathers is about three homeless people, the lowest members of urban society, becoming shining beacons of humanity at its best in their quest to reunite a baby with her mother. Perfect Blue is about a woman losing all sense of reality and her identity as she transforms from a pop idol singer into a risque actress.

Ultimately, Satoshi Kon's films manage to do what other animated films fall short of achieving: they invite the audience to reconsider those aspects of "reality" which they take for granted. All four films suggest deep levels of meaning regarding what the interchange of ideas and what existing preconceived notions do to a person's perception of reality. Walt Disney's movies wow us with animation marvels of their time and cinematic flair; Hayao Miyazaki's movies move their audience with memorable set pieces and fantastic stories of maintaining balance between humanity and the world around it; but only Satoshi Kon's movies let us dive deep into philosophical thought whilst still remaining emotionally attached to the films heroes. For that, Satoshi Kon is now my favorite movie director of all time.