Japanese director of playful animation combining realistic drama with fantasy
Satoshi Kon, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 46, was one of the boldest and most distinctive film-makers to specialise in animation. His main body of work – four completed feature films and an acclaimed television mini-series – was playful, sophisticated and adult. Tired of the cliches of mass-produced Japanese animation – "robots and beautiful little girls," as he once put it – Kon sought to make animation that used ambitious and often disorientating editing, intercutting and scene-shifting.
"In animation, only what is intended to be communicated is there," he once said. "If I had a chance to edit live-action, it would be too fast for audiences to follow." Kon made only sparing use of CGI in his mostly drawn films, relying on such superb animators as Shinji Otsuka and Toshiyuki Inoue.
Much of Kon's animation combines realistic drama (usually set in present-day Tokyo) with dreams and fantasy.
Satoshi Kon, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 46, was one of the boldest and most distinctive film-makers to specialise in animation. His main body of work – four completed feature films and an acclaimed television mini-series – was playful, sophisticated and adult. Tired of the cliches of mass-produced Japanese animation – "robots and beautiful little girls," as he once put it – Kon sought to make animation that used ambitious and often disorientating editing, intercutting and scene-shifting.
"In animation, only what is intended to be communicated is there," he once said. "If I had a chance to edit live-action, it would be too fast for audiences to follow." Kon made only sparing use of CGI in his mostly drawn films, relying on such superb animators as Shinji Otsuka and Toshiyuki Inoue.
Much of Kon's animation combines realistic drama (usually set in present-day Tokyo) with dreams and fantasy.
- 8/26/2010
- by Andrew Osmond
- The Guardian - Film News
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