Watch the transitions in Millennium Actress (2001): a scene ends inside a film and the next shot is real life, with no cut you can feel. Paprika (2006) does the same with dreams.
Kon directed only four feature films and still changed how animators think about editing.
Tokyo Godfathers is the warm one of the four: a Christmas movie about three unhoused friends who find a baby. Save it for December.
Paranoia Agent too. 13 episodes, and Lil' Slugger is scarier than most horror villains.
Kon also wrote the screenplay for Magnetic Rose, the first part of the anthology film Memories (1995). His reality-versus-memory obsession is already there.
@Ronin Magnetic Rose is the perfect early look. That opera-house spaceship is unforgettable.
Perfect Blue or Millennium Actress first for a newcomer?
Millennium Actress. It shows off the editing tricks without the horror. Perfect Blue second, with the lights on.
Paprika's parade scene is a pure fever dream, and Susumu Hirasawa's music makes it ten times stranger.
Did Kon leave anything unfinished?
Yes, Dreaming Machine. He was working on it when he died in 2010, and it has never been completed.
Four films and one TV series, and people are still learning from them.
Sign up to reply. Sensei Ink asked a question and wants your take.
Sign up and replyLog in