Fantasia ’21: Satoshi Kon, the Illusionist

Satoshi Kon is such a significant anime filmmaker, his tragic death created a conundrum. Is there a filmmaker who has the stature required to follow in Kon’s place and finish his last, unfinished film, who would also completely minimize their creative inputs, to maintain Kon as the sole auteurist hand guiding it? Of course, fans sure would like to see his producers figure something out, since Kon only released four full-length features and one thirteen-episode series during his lifetime. Pascal-Alex Vincent surveys the work and themes of the anime legend in Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist, which screens as an on-demand selection of the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Four films and change might not seem like a lot, but his first three films recently had full theatrical re-releases and his fourth, Paprika, is largely seen as the “inspiration” for Inception. According to Darren Aronofsky, he asked and received the master’s go-ahead to include a significant “homage” to Kon’s Perfect Blue in Requiem for a Dream. He was instrumental to the rise of anime’s popularity in the West, along with Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), and Katasuhiro Otomo’s Akira. Yet, his popularity cut across genres and fandoms.

Taking its title from Andrew Osmond’s nonfiction study, The Illusionist follows a conventional documentary approach, mainly just incorporating talking head interviews and film clips. However, Kon’s visuals have lost none of their pop. Most tantalizing are the excerpts from the unfinished The Dreaming Machine. Ostensibly, it would have been his first children’s film, but still sounds like it would have featured similarly existential science fiction themes. Had he completed it, Machine might have been compared to Wall-E in the way Inception and Paprika are often likened.

Japan Society Monthly Classics: Paprika

If you are being tormented by your subconscious, she is far more willing to help and much more pleasant to be around than Shinya Tsukamoto’s Nightmare Detective. Ironically, she is the avatar of the brusque but still attractive Dr. Atsuko Chiba. Unfortunately, the technology that allows her to visit other people’s dreams falls into the wrong hands in Satoshi Kon’s animated new classic, Paprika (trailer here), which screens this Friday as part of the Japan Society’s Monthly Classic film series.

As Paprika, Chiba has been counseling hardboiled police detective Toshimi Konakawa, who is plagued by visions of an ill-fated shooting and a mystery man from his past. Konakawa only knows her as Paprika, but that is enough for him to be smitten. Technically, she is Chiba’s alter-ego, but she seems to exhibit some level of her own free agency. Nonetheless, Konakawa still immediately recognizes Chiba in the real world when he meets her during the course of a case.

Rather inconveniently, the DC Mini, the device that allows Chiba and her colleagues to monitor and interact with patients’ dreams has been stolen. The assistant of the device’s inventor has also gone missing and the project director has suffered a psycho episode as a result of a dream-based attack launched by the thief. Initially, all patients and doctors hooked up to a DC Mini are vulnerable to this dream terrorism, but eventually everyone’s sub-conscience (or perhaps the collective unconscious) will be at risk.

Based on a novel by Ysautaka Tsusui, Paprika neatly balances the science fiction of films like Inception and Dreamscape with the psychological intrigue of thrillers like Hitchcock’s Spellbound. It will probably frustrate the pedantic because the nature of Paprika and the powers of the DC Mini are rather slippery and constantly evolving. However, it is a consistently provocative film, especially when drawing parallels between the dream world and cyberspace.

Paprika is chocked full of wild visuals, including a dreamland parade of subconscious hang-ups that looks like it could have influenced Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars. It also boasts some unusually well-delineated characters for an animated film, especially Konakawa and Chiba (and maybe Paprika too). Frankly, it holds up pretty brilliantly nearly ten years after its initial American release, even though Inception subsequently poached on its subconscious terrain. Every science fiction and animation fan should catch up with it and they will have a chance to do so on the big screen when the Japan Society projects it this Friday (10/7), as this month’s classic.