Saturday, September 25, 2010

R.I.P. Satoshi Kon

So it has been about a month since the death of director Satoshi Kon, and I wanted to high light some of the titles he created that I personally thought were interesting. Mr. Kon directed a total of six animations, five of the animations were released from 1998-2006, but the last animation will be released posthumously soon in the year 2011. The animations are as listed: "Perfect Blue" (1998), "Millennium Actress" (2001), "Tokyo Godfathers" (2003), "Paranoia Agent" (2004), "Paprika" (2006), and "The Dream Machine" (2011).  Although he released five animations, I have only viewed one of the animations "Paranoia Agent".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anabfAg06U
Paranoia Agent is about a designer Tsukiko Sagi, a shy character designer who created a popular character, Maromi the pink dog. Tsukiko is under pressure into creating a new character who is as popular as Maromi. As she goes home one night she is attacked by a kid on skates with a bat. Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, two detectives are assigned to the case, but think that Tsukiko is lying until a second attack is reported. 
As the story progresses several more people are attacked by the assailant, who is appropriately named "Bat Boy". More and more people become aware of "Bat Boy", although the only people that get attacked are people who are in crisis. As time goes by one of the detectives become obsessive about the case of Bat Boy.When Tsukiko is confronted again by the bat boy she realizes that he is a figment of her imagination that she created due to the stress she received from work. When she finally admits the truth behind the lie, "Bat Boy" finally disappears. 
I think one of my favorite points about Satoshi Kon's works are the psychological factor that is played on by him. In several of his works an interesting plot is highlighted by a psychological view that the main character encounters and fights with. 
I do want to one day see all his works, but two of the works that have me captivated with recently is Paprika and The Dream Machine. Paprika has an idea similar to the recent film of Inception, with people going through the dreams of other people. I will provide a better summary of it when I watch it in the near future. I am also anticipating the release of The Dream Machine. I think it will be interesting to see his final work. 

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