Thousand Year Drama Part 1: Satoshi Kon

Welcome to my first post of the Thousand Year Drama! I hope you enjoyed watching Millennium Actress! If you haven’t yet, that’s fine, because this week, before we jump into the movies and it’s greatness, we going to explore it’s creator. Satoshi Kon. But I highly suggest you watch the film before the next post and on, as those will be rife with spoilers. But for now, let’s talk about the man himself!

Part 1: Satoshi Kon

I am a HUGE fan of Satoshi Kon, he’s my favorite director of all time (though Brad Bird is pretty close). If this series goes well, and I enjoy it, I might do the same for some of his other works! And boy, would I have a lot more to talk about. But I’m getting on a rabbit trail here.

So, who is Satoshi Kon? Let’s start at the beginning.

Satoshi Kon was born October 12th, 1963, in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. Growing up, Satoshi Kon had three major influences. Katsuhiro Otomo, who would later mentor him, Yasutaka Tsutsui, whose book he would later adapt, and western movies, which he would later influence. In 1982 he attended Musashino (not the Shirobako studio... sadly) Art University with the hopes of being an illustrator.

In 1984 Kon wrote his first short story, a manga called ‘Toriko’ (Not the Toriko you are thinking of), which won the runner-up award in the 10th Annual Tetsuya Chiba Awards held by Young Magazine (Kodansha). Kon then found work as an assistant for Katsuhiro Otomo, and actually worked on the Akira manga with Otomo. Kon continued his work, he released a six-chapter manga called Kaikisen, or Tropic of the Sea, and wrote the script for Otomo’s World Apartment Horror, which he later adapted back into manga.

Kon worked on a myriad of other films, including Roujin-Z, Kanojo no Omoide, and Patlabor 2: The Movie, he then teamed up with Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in the Shell fame) for Seraphim: 266613336 Wings, a manga that was sadly never finished. He also directed the fifth OVA in the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and wrote the script for Memories’ Magnetic Rose.

The final chapter of Kon’s rise to fame was during the 90’s. Kon began serializing his own manga, Opus, but before he could finish, the comic magazine it ran in was cancelled, and Kon was too busy with another project to finish it personally. That project was his first feature film, Perfect Blue, in 1997. This is where Satoshi Kon really became a household name. Perfect Blue took the world by storm. One of the few films since Ghost in the Shell and Akira to really take hold in the USA. Kon continued his successes, following up with my personal favorite, Millennium Actress (which, of course, is an amazing film), and then Tokyo Godfathers. At this point, Kon had yet to release a bad movie.

Kon then made Paranoia Agent, a 13 episode anime that was basically just all the leftover ideas after making the previous three films. And, in 2006, Kon’s fourth film, Paprika was released. The most beautiful and confusing Kon film, it inspired the 2010 movie Inception (who am I kidding, Inception is a rip-off).

In 2007 we got Ohayo, a one minute short film about waking up. Which is the last completed Kon film today.  And then, on the day of August 24th 2010, five years ago, while working on his fifth film, The Dream Machine, Kon died of Pancreatic cancer.

That was it, Satoshi Kon, was finished. As fans, our only hope is that one day his last film will be finished. But until then, Kon directed only four films.

But enough about how depressing it is to be a fan of Kon. Let’s discuss what makes Kon unique. Satoshi Kon was known for two major things. The blending of two realities, and his seamless transitions. Let’s discuss the first one. Kon absolutely loved this concept. It can be seen in almost everything he’s ever been involved with.

Tropic of the Sea: Myth vs. Reality

Opus: Fiction vs. Reality

Magnetic Rose: Holograms vs. Reality

Perfect Blue: Onstage vs. Reality

Millennium Actress: Memories vs. Reality

Tokyo Godfathers: Coincidence vs. Reality [Annotation: Will make a video about this eventually]

Paranoia Agent: Paranoia vs. Reality

Paprika: Dreams vs. Reality

Unfortunately, we don’t know enough about The Dream Machine to know what realities would have been explored, but, this is Kon we are talking about, so it was definitely going to be addressed within the film. Heck, Tokyo Godfathers was his attempt at trying something different, and he still couldn’t avoid it! [A topic for a later series]

The last thing Satoshi Kon was known for, was his seamless transitions. Now, I am even more unqualified to talk about this than anything else. So I’m going to leave that to our Highlight. Speaking of Highlight...

HIGHLIGHT:

This weeks Highlight is Tony Zhou, from Every Frame A Painting’s video “Satoshi Kon - Editing Through Space and Time”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz49vQwSoTE

I absolutely adore this channel, and this video is one of his best. Tony does an amazing job going into the editing style of Satoshi Kon, a short and fantastic video. Link will be in the description along with the annotation on screen.

WARNING:

The next segment, FAVORITE MOMENTS, does have some spoilers for Millennium Actress, since this is the only episode without Spoilers in the main topic, I thought I’d mention it here.

FAVORITE MOMENTS:

My first favorite moment is Opening Credits in the first 2 minutes of the film. It does a great job of taking this empty space, the drive to Genei, and uses it as the opening credits. It also does quite a bit of foreshadowing. We see many bits from later on in the movie, including Chiyoko’s run to Hokkaido, the ending, and Manchuria, just to name a few. Seriously, the first three seconds of the Opening credits (when Genya rewinds the tape) covers every emotional moment in the movie. Giving you a heart attack of feels if you’ve seen the movie previously. All while giving us some amazing transitions.

And that’s it, next week we’ll actually dive into Millennium Actress. And I must say, I am super stoked to get this going. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will. See you next month!

Today I: Started and Announced a Project

I am about to embark on a HUGE journey. A journey I don’t think I’m really worthy to take. But I’m going to anyway. You see, deep in the recesses of nerdom, in geeky pastimes. There exists a story, a story that far surpasses anything else. Here, in the attic of dorkdom, lies a movie, a very odd movie. Everything from it’s soundtrack, to it’s ending, to it’s presentation, to it’s reception. But I believe this is a masterful movie. A movie that any fan of storytelling should see, and own. This movie, is Millennium Actress.

Let’s back up a second, what is Millennium Actress? Who made it? Why is it special? This posts’s purpose is to answer these questions, convince you to watch the film, and introduce my series of posts fully devoted to this movie. So let’s start with the basic information.

What is Millennium Actress? Millennium Actress is a 2001 Japanese animated movie by Madhouse, and directed by Satoshi Kon.

Well, ok, but what is Millennium Actress about? The basic synopsis is this: “A documentary director and his cameraman interview a former movie star about her life.”

Wow, that sounds boring, so why is this film so special? Well, Millennium Actress is a simple film. It has a simple cast, simple premise, simple story, with simple visuals. What makes this movie so impactful is how much meaning and how many themes are packed into this story. And, of course, how this story is presented.

I’ve gotta be honest, I am incredibly biased, regarding this movie. This movie is my absolute favorite movie of all time, I believe it to be the best film I have ever seen. I know, I know, big words. But it’s my hope to prove my thoughts about this to you in the rest of the video series. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Should you watch this film? Maybe because is the greatest single piece of art every to have put upon this earth? In my opinion... of course. Especially if you want to read the posts about it, which are coming, because I’m going to break down anything and everything in this film. We will be swimming in spoilers. It goes without saying that I adore this film, and will show it to anyone willing to listen to my ranting.

Speaking of my ranting, why am I ranting about this film in the first place? Because I feel like this film is criminally underrated. Which is odd, especially when you look at the critical ratings. So let’s first look at my favorite sites when it comes to anime reviews.

First we have THEManime.org, these guys have great informative and objective reviews. This is a site I highly respect and recommend. And, THEManime gush about this film. Giving it a 5/5, and calling it “One of the best anime of all time,”

Nihon Reviews, another great site. Gives this movie a 10/10, calling it “As good as it gets.” Saying, “For those craving a touching, poignant and moving anime, Millennium Actress is sure to satisfy that wish. With powerful emotion and genuine drama, Millennium Actress will take your breath away.”

And finally, thepantslessanimeblogger.com gives the most negative review out of the three, giving it a 9/10, and saying, “A great story of love told in a great cinematic masterpiece.”

However, Millennium Actress has extended far beyond just anime-centric reviewers.

The NY Times Magazine, while not providing a score, speaks highly of the film, saying, “To watch 'Millennium Actress' is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting.”

Millennium Actress ranges anywhere from 50 to 35 on top animated films lists on IMDb. And has a 92% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tying with Spirited Away. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. The movie took home the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2002 Mainichi Film Awards, and was honored with the Orient Express Award at the 2001 Festival de Cine de Sitges in Spain. The film was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Direction and Writing. It was also promoted by its studio as a contender for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it was not nominated.

So, why do I believe this film to be ‘criminally underrated’? The problem is, while this movie is a critics favorite, nobody else has really seen it. This movie is oft compared to Spirited Away, because they were released the same year, and tied for the Grand Prize as mentioned earlier. But if you were to go on the street, far more people would know Spirited Away than Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress just isn’t popular.

And there is a good reason for that. Millennium Actress is... kinda confusing. Not like, Inception “Dream within a dream within a dream within a dream” confusing, but in order to really appreciate the film, you have to think about it. It is my belief that American movies do too much ‘hand-holding’, we Americans are used to being spoon fed information. Millennium Actress does not do this, and it has turned people off because of that.

There is also the problem of the presentation, Millennium Actress is unique, to say the least. It is not a straightforward story, not in the way it’s presented to us anyway. And while that gives Satoshi Kon miles of space and plenty of freedom to pack in all these amazing layers of character development and storytelling, I have had a few people dislike this film because it ‘didn’t make sense.’ This is the film’s, only real flaw. The fact that this film isn’t all that accessible, not the good, juicy stuff anyway.

And, that’s kinda why I’m doing this. There is so much to be uncovered in Millennium Actress, the movie is a goldmine of storytelling.

So in this series, each post I will cover a main theme or aspect of the movie, rant about how amazing it is, highlight another analysis usually on the same topic. And at the end of every episode, I’m going to point out a favorite moment of the movie in chronological order. So as we progress through this series, it’ll feel like we are progressing through the movie once more!

So that's my what I'm going to cover, this is how I'll do it:

Every month, starting the 24th of August, I’m going to post one of these articles by myself. The date every article comes out on will have meaning. The first one is coming August 24th because that’s the 5 anniversary of Satoshi Kon’s death. The other articles will come out, on his birthday, or release date of one of his movies. If I enjoy this enough, I might do other films and stuff, but that’s at least a year away. So... expect that!

EDIT: Link to the first post!

- The Madman