Satoshi Kon
The most important stance for me as a director is
to continuously keep asking of the ideas,
“So where do you want to go?”
SATOSHI KON Born in Kushiro, Hokkaido. After leaving Musashino College of Arts, he started working in the manga industry. His first anime project was Rojin Z, whose writer and mechanical designer was Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). Kon also worked with first rate animators, including Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) and Koji Morimoto (The Animatrix). In 1997, he directed his first animated feature film Perfect Blue, which deals with a murder mystery in the pop music industry. Although his material varies from project to project, he always cuts into the ambiguity and contradictions of social issues. His other feature films include Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika. His 13-episode 2004 TV series, Paranoia Agent, grapples with today’s Japanese society which is full of uncertainty and fraught with unpredictable danger.
Among the most critically acclaimed Japanese animation directors who enjoy international fame, Satoshi Kon’s keen eyes especially sparkle when he is digging into social issues and original ways of representing fantasy and reality in images. This past June, he visited New York to attend the film series “Satoshi Kon: Beyond Imagination” at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the “ANA Nippon Eiga” series. He chatted with Chopsticks NY and revealed his attitude toward making animation
Your current works deal with a variety of themes and topics, but where does your creativity and inspiration come from?
I wonder if it’s a trend or what…. Whenever I am interviewed abroad, I always get many questions asking things like, “Where did that image come from?” or “Where did that idea come from?” It sounds strange to me. For example, when somebody finds a piece of clothing that he likes and goes to buy it, do you usually ask him “Where did that idea come from?” I don’t think so. So, I can only imagine that maybe this way of thinking is a general cultural difference, but speaking for myself I have never thought this way. So if you ask me the source of something, it really causes me problems. If you like to know how each time I decide the movie’s topic and materials… I’d say “I myself don’t know.” But let me try to express it. Suppose there is a black box inside of me. It’s possible to physiologically or logically deal with what is being outputted from this box, but I can’t mess with what is going on inside. I think if I forced myself to open the box, perhaps the creativity would disperse like mist. Therefore, I think a more correct direction to take is to say that for some reason there is an idea or image that concerns me and this comes first. Then, I want to find why it concerns me and this is why I make movies.
So recently what has concerned you?
How to get rid of this belly [laughs]! Just joking. I don’t know if this relates directly to movies, but I am really concerned about people who murder indiscriminately and their composition, as typified by the mass stabbing incident that took place in Akihabara*. To put it briefly, this was not the first incident of its kind; there were others like it before. The perpetrators were all people with pretty much the same profile, and moreover they all said the same thing in regard to their victims when arrested: “It could’ve been anyone.” But the truth is I now have a hypothesis that anyone could have done as the perpetrator as anyone could have been a victim. I don’t particularly think that society or their parents or education are to be blamed. For the perpetrators of all the incidents my basic stance is that it was their own faults, but in saying “You are to blame” I don’t have a clear sense of who that “you” is. When looking at profiles of the perpetrators who are more like symbols than human, I come to think that they lack individuality to such an extent that it could have been anyone.
I think that double structures make up many of your works. Do you prefer this kind of concept or is it just via this mode of expression that you are better able to communicate what you are trying to say?
Primarily, it is simply that this world is composed of multiple structures and I think that I bring that construct in to express that. Also, rather than thinking of intentionally incorporate multiple structures, it is more a feeling of reconfirmation while in the midst of making something I find interesting and thinking, “Oh, this is how the world is after all!” If logic takes over here the vital energy of the movie becomes easily lost, so I try to help the idea go in the direction it wants as much as possible. It’s like I’m taking care of the idea’s vital energy while trying not to get in the way of its potential power. From start to finish, the most important stance for me as a director is to continuously keep asking of the ideas, “So where do you want to go?” I don’t have any intention to push. But it was me who thought of the ideas so when someone says to me, “That was your idea, right?”, I might think so but that’s not the case. In English the word “creator” is commonly used, but I am not. I do not create, but more correctly I generate. “It turned out this way” is a more natural way of expressing it than “I made it this way.” It is not a matter of my will making something a certain way but rather me catching how an idea or the issue before my eyes wants to play out. As a result, my basic stance is to facilitate this process.
In a live-action film, there is room for the actors’ individuality to be infused in the characters, but an animation director controls all aspects. So you can play god over the film, but how do you view this role?
There is a danger in that. Therefore, I firmly abide by the stance of listening to the work’s voice. If I took over, it would probably be the end of things.
Computer graphics have really developed and now it is easier than ever before to express things in a gorgeous way. Are you one to skillfully incorporate CG or are you a skeptic?
That doesn’t depend on me but on the film’s budget. No matter what there are always budgetary, time and human resource limitations. It’s a matter of analogy. No matter how big the budget and the production size are, constraints on them are always there. As soon as you begin to look at constraints as obstacles, the project would be torture for you. On the other hand, if in this kind of work there are no obstacles, you would probably get lost. In this interview, there is the obstacle called “questions,” which is a constraint I can put within myself, and that is why the answers somehow float to the surface. In the same way, if I am told that I can make whatever I like out of a completely blank space, I become unable to work. It is because of constraints that I am able to generate. However, I cause problems in regard to most of them [laughs].
Really?
Yes. To give a concrete example, causing the schedule to be delayed [laughs].
I heard that you are also very particular about sound.
I don’t have a way of thinking like, “This time I want to use this kind of sound.” As I am making frame after frame, I constantly ask the animation that I’m working on, “What kind of sound do you make?”. As part of my basic stance, my way of thinking is to try as much as possible to hold back from attitudes like “I am this way” or “I want to do this.” However, the one thing I am firm about is using Susumu Hirasawa for music. I am very strict about using no one else’s music but his.
It fits perfectly?
Yes. It’s not that I’m choosing Mr. Hirasawa’s music, but that I begin from the image of his music. If I give in on this, I lose the image of the music as a whole. As expected, I always listen to his music regularly so it becomes the default music for my movies.
One last question but do you have a place in Japan or a certain Japanese experience that you recommend for Chopsticks NY readers?
Be careful in Akihabara [laughs]! I guess that’s not very witty. Ok, if Chopsticks NY readers go to Japan I would recommends that they enjoy our izakayas (pubs). It’s a culture that we can boast to the world about. There is no rule for enjoying food and drink there. You don’t have to worry about the order in which you eat, and there are so many types of food that you can choose from! An izakaya is a down-to-earth, unspecialized restaurant with something for everyone. It’s a place where you can enjoy the aspect of Japanese culture which embraces everything. Definitely try the edamame (boiled soybeans). Edamame with beer is a divine combination. Anyway, to summarize, check out an izakaya in Akihabara!
——– Interview by Noriko Komura
*Akihabara indiscriminate attack : On June 8, 2008 a 25-year old man drove a rented truck into a pedestrian area and began randomly stabbing people with a knife in Akihabara, a popular commercial area in Tokyo famous for electric products. Seven were killed, and ten injured.
Satoshi Kon’s past films and videos
Perfect Blue (1998)
Millennium Actress (2001)
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Paranoia Agent (TV series) (2004)
Paprika (2006)
