Satoshi Kon The Illusionist
Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist gives an in-depth and often raw insight into a man who is recognised as not simply one of the greatest animators but also the greatest directors of modern times.
The documentary broadly follows its late namesake’s life and creative career chronologically, from his early manga works to his first feature film, Perfect Blue (1997), all the way through to his unfinished work, The Dreaming Machine and his 2010 death. Along the way are a bevy of interviews with Kon’s contemporaries and collaborators, but also with a number of cinema heavyweights from Japan’s Mamoru Hosoda (director of films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and Darren Aronofsky (director of films including The Wrestler and Black Swan). Not only that, there are a wealth of further interviews with critics, academics and others who give their take on the themes and philosophies at play with Kon’s filmmaking.
The effect of the reliance on various sources and perspectives into Kon and his creations is to construct a more complete picture of an, in many ways, enigmatic figure, that places the man in the context of both his influences and those he himself influenced. The documentary has a hard analytical edge to it where each of Kon’s works are dissected and cast in the context of both their creator and their place within his development as a director and artist. The liberal use of footage from his four major films (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and Paprika (2006)) and one original television series (Paranoia Agent (2004)) also works wonders to underscore the depth of talent and meaning which Satoshi Kon imbued in his works, earning him a reputation for making more cerebral productions that broke anime in to truly adult territory, which was unusual, at least at the time.
Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist doesn’t just focus on the artist, but also on the man who occupied the director’s chair. A complicated figure, it is made clear that of those who knew and worked with him, many hold differing and sometimes opposing views of the man, some remembering him as kind and gentle, others as uncompromising and nasty, with others still seeing both sides. The documentary handles this beautifully by highlighting the auteur’s invocation in his productions of the dichotomy between, or rather the interconnectedness between seemingly opposing concepts like reality and fiction, past and present. As a whole, the documentary is a deeply engrossing look at Kon which flows naturally from start to finish.
The one other question to be addressed about the documentary is this: how much do you need to know about Satoshi Kon or anime and animation more broadly to enjoy it? Those who have seen at least one or two of Kon’s works and have at least a general familiarity with animation, particularly Japanese anime, will get the most out of this, to be sure. Because there is also a look at Kon’s relationship with the broader anime industry in Japan, viewers would be best served by having some of that background so to better understand what is being referenced at certain times. It is also worth noting that the film goes into ‘spoiler territory’ with Kon’s creations. However, even for those who haven’t seen any of his films or his show, or watch any animation at all, this is still a worthwhile documentary to see given the importance of the man himself to modern cinema and for the quality of the movie itself.
