Note: contains major spoilers for Perfect Blue and Paprika, minor spoilers for Inception, Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan
Note #2: because I think music enhances the reading experience, I have taken some soundtracks from the relevant anime that could add to the mood or something like that. Also they give a better idea of what the film is like. I don’t know. Enjoy.
Note #3: This is by no means a comprehensive review of animation and cinematography. In order to get a full idea of what I’m talking about, just go and watch the anime. If you want to learn even more afterwards, then look at my links below – my objective is to introduce people to certain aspects of animation.
An Introduction
Satoshi Kon was an animator, film director, and screenwriter from Hokkaido, who died sadly in 2010 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 46, leaving behind five works of avant-garde audiovisual media.
While Satoshi Kon might not be very famous in the West, his cinematography and style has influenced some of the most famous contemporary western films.
In particular some scenes from his movies were straight lifted – Darren Aronofsky, maker of films such as Black Swan and A Requiem for a Dream purchased the rights from Kon’s Perfect Blue and used one of his scenes in Requiem for a Dream.
Aronofsky’s Black Swan also shares many plot similarities to Perfect Blue in transforming an actress’s life into a living psychological hell. A scene from Perfect Blue of the main character looking at her reflection in a train is also used in Black Swan.
Christopher Nolan’s Inception also includes a few scenes that seem to pay homage to Kon’s Paprika, which is also about a dream machine.
However, I’m not saying that Aronofsky and Nolan ripped of Kon, but Kon’s influence is undeniable across the world of film.
The Dreamworld
Kon produced four movies and a 13 episode TV show, and all of them except one focused on the blurring between reality and dreams. This is where he takes full advantage of the animation medium, and where I believe he excels above all others. While Nolan’s Inception might be a mindfuck with all the changes in dreamworlds (note: I have not seen Inception, only clips and plot summary), I don’t think it can compare to what literally amounts to LSD trips.
The Youtube channel “Every Frame A Painting” has a great video on Kon (which I’ll link at the end, and probably tells this story better than I do), and he says “the opening four minutes of Paprika has five dream sequences, and every single one of them has a frame cut – by comparison the first fifteen minutes of Inception has four dream sequences, with only one match cut.”
Here is the opening in question (the only version I could find was subbed in spanish, sorry):
When I first saw this scene, I was stunned and confused. I had already watched a few of Kon’s earlier movies, so I knew what to expect, but I was not prepared for this. There are constant breaches in the barrier between dreams and reality, with people turning into cameras, dinosaurs, guitars, and dolls dancing in the streets. There are even more trippy scenes later – this parade scene is just a major WTF moment.
The scenes in Paprika are just so incredibly surreal that it’s absolutely impossible to draw the line between dreams and reality – the entire time they’re joined eternally together. Paprika also makes statements about the internet and our consciousness as humanity, statements that seem much more relevant as our lives become increasingly interconnected to the web.
However, as we’ll see with Perfect Blue, Kon’s techniques are not just for detailing a scientist’s LSD trips – he can create a variety of emotions, including terrifying the fuck out of us.
Music for this section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBxsRiG5eYU&feature=related
Perfect Blue is about Mima, an idol, and her descent into madness after she leaves the idol scene to become an TV actress and eventually gravure model. A stalker surfaces as pictures inside of her room are posted to the net and her every action is written in complete detail (such as how she gets off the train). She gets faxed paper filled with the word “Traitor”. Scenes become increasingly disorienting and insane as people around start getting injured – first, a man delivering fanmail gets severely injured from an explosive trap set up in the letter. Mima agrees to be fake raped in her TV show, but the scene is so graphic it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s real (and also gives Perfect Blue its R rating, it definitely deserves it) Eventually it’s impossible to tell the difference between dreams and reality again. At many points in the film an event might seem to occur in Mima’s life, only to be revealed instantly that it was part of her acting job. As people connected to her show “Double Bind” get killed off, and an imposter called Me-Mania that runs the stalker website claims that they are the real Mima and that the current Mima is a fake, Mima’s sense of reality becomes shattered. Loosely and confusing scenes are repeatedly shown as Mima’s life falls apart, and the audience begins to wonder what Mima’s brain is thinking. An alter ego Mima shows up in her idol dress
and begins to torment her endlessly during her production and in her daily life. It’s hard to show with clips just how disorienting this editing is – it takes a full watch to truly comprehend how disturbing it can get. (Also
Watch a clip of Mr Nerdista from YT explaining just how brilliant Kon’s editing is here. Only watch until 5:05 or just stop after he talks about Requiem for a Dream, because there are major spoilers in this video.
Why Anime?
People not accustomed to anime might ask why animation has any advantage over live action in this sense. Here I’ll quote Kon himself in an interview:
“I think editing for live action and animation share some similarities but are fundamentally different. If you show a photograph or a painting for five seconds, the volume of information is different. However you shoot a photograph or film, there’s a lot of visual texture, colour and extra information to take in. Whereas in animation, only what is intended to be communicated is there. If I had a chance to edit live action, it would be much too fast for audiences to follow. In animation, the audience understands this momentum.”
Because anime is essentially created from just the imagination of the directors and scriptwriters and artists, the options you have to display scenes are larger. Kon took advantage of this and cemented himself as one of the greatest anime directors ever.
Sources
Interview Source: http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/satoshi-kon-2/
Paprika/Inception comparison: http://www.agonybooth.com/inception-ripoff-paprika-26479
Kon picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Kon
Perfect Blue pic: http://blog.alltheanime.com/perfect-blue-horror/
Learn More – If you’re actually interested in anything I said
Kon in general: https://youtu.be/oz49vQwSoTE – pretty much this blog post, just better and in video form.
Perfect Blue is Scary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJmK5SOeQBc
Color Theory in Perfect Blue: https://youtu.be/2D9iZfedoiY
Perfect Blue Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u1J3BIfwG4
Animation in Perfect Blue, getting down to the nitty gritty of frame time and art techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPbrjieNFtI
Interview with Satoshi Kon: http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/satoshi-kon-2/
Making of Paprika Pt. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlHCdi6ASE0
Making of Paprika Pt. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFGa4tpM-iM
Paprika Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwtSxbq8Hqo
Match Cuts: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2011/05/25/graphic-content-ahead/