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INTEREST: Paprika Director Satoshi Kon Listed 100 Notable Films


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Jozoiscute



Joined: 25 Oct 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:35 pm Reply with quote
He certainly had an interesting taste in cinema!
Very Happy
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Redlinks



Joined: 14 Feb 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:43 pm Reply with quote
Great tastes Mr.Kon! Is there a complete list of his notable films?
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doctordoom85



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:45 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, definitely some notable films, but one I respectfully disagree with. I think only the original '89 film is the only non-Nolan Batman film that still merits rewatchs nowadays.

And American Beauty is a film that impressed me when it came out, but when I rewatched it, I realized, "the only good part of this is the ending, and even the ending is only incredible if you ignore the entire rest of the movie. Virtually the entire cast is selfish, immature, and/or psychotic, even the few characters we're meant to sympathize with come across as childish or just plain stupid, and yet the film assures us life can be beautiful and amazing? WTH?!" It's as if the film suddenly realized it should end on an "upbeat" note despite it contradicting everything that came before it. I'm fine with movies where the entire cast is incredibly flawed or horrible, but I don't want some BS happy message at the end where it doesn't make sense. For example, Requiem for a Dream had the entire cast either very flawed or misguided, and they all had depressing endings (with no random suggestion that "their lives were happy in the long run") as that was the logical conclusion. I can't see it as anything but Oscar bait nowadays. Of course, it is one that will inevitably generate discussion, so I can accept it being on this sort of list.

Besides that, a solid list of examples, I've seen all of them except Lawrence of Arabia and Brazil.

BTW, Batman Returns should be 1992, not 1982.
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:52 pm Reply with quote
Practically a who's who of historically significant American cinema post-1950. Not all of them great (or even good) films, but some real classics in there.

At the end are a handful of Japanese films. Good to see Kurosawa play into that list significantly, but I wanted to point out the last entry, Family Game. Geneon released this, but sold few copies. It's truly a fascenating little dark comedy about a broken family, and the bizarre tutor that sort of takes delight in yanking out that last Jenga piece. It's also the PG-rated film that inspired Takashi Miike's rejected-outright-by-a-horrified-MPAA-ratings-board Visitor Q. Very Happy
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LondinCalling



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:52 pm Reply with quote
American Beauty is most noted for its production design. Not everything should be noted for its narrative. Take A New Hope for example.
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Dargonxtc



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:16 am Reply with quote
With the exception of Batman Returns, it's a pretty solid list. Particularity Lawrence of Arabia, A Clockwork Orange, Gone with the Wind and depending what kind of mood I am in, Pulp Fiction.

Still pretty upset over his passing, haven't even really been willing to comment too much on the tribute sections that ANN has done.

Thank you again ANN for doing those BTW.

LondinCalling wrote:
Not everything should be noted for its narrative. Take A New Hope for example.


To be perfectly honest, though not deep by any stretch, it was the narrative and its ability to allow most people to relate to, that allowed that movie to withstand the test of time and not merge into the forgotten realm.

Yes it is very black an white, and very simple. But that is not a degradation of the narrative per se.
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JLightstar



Joined: 06 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:46 am Reply with quote
I am so happy that Mr. Kon listed "The World According to Garp" on the list. That is one of my favorite all time films... It has great performances by Glenn Close, Robin Williams, and John Lithgow.
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bemused Bohemian



Joined: 09 Jun 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:52 am Reply with quote
Happy to see Terry Gilliam movie BRAZIL in his review. It's slow in places but I thought the production did a terrific tongue in cheek parody about patriarchy in bureaucratic life as seen by an intelligent minion.

Twenty plus years ago I mistakenly chose a white collar career path that emulated climbing the ladder in corporate where the real or perceived aspect about office life and position manuevering matched the movie script almost perfectly. Luckily I came to my senses in time and moved on before suffering significant damage to my psyche.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:03 am Reply with quote
doctor: You want an anti-American Beauty, Netflix Happiness or my personal favorite, Very Bad Things. Viewer discretion advised, though.

jsevakis: I thought Visitor Q is Miike's take on American Beauty and a spoof of Japanese porn films.

Dargon: Um, Batman Returns rocked. TDK would be nothing without it. The last time Burton was that cool was Sweeney Todd.

And the thing about the original Star Wars trilogy is that it's a generational series. So if you don't think they're special now, you probably were too young to appreciate them. [Hell, I was born after the first SW, and Indiana Jones was a better series for me, in spite of George doing everything to get me to reconsider.] That's why the prequels blow, because Lucas tried too hard to "update" them, rather than go for a different take on 'em.

bemused: Yeah, Kon said he was a Gilliam fan in an Akadot interview.

Anyway, the staff is not afraid to admit TDK might influence Dream Machine, so why is Nolan still stalling on name-dropping Kon? Or Aronofsky, for that matter?

Correction: Pulp Fiction is from '94. On a related note, I wonder if my linking that list helped "encourage" the New Beverly to screen his stuff this weekend, since QT currently runs the place. I know I've been trying to convince the AFI Fest to get him an honorary award by bringing up the Lynch films, since Lynch is running the fest this year.


Last edited by GATSU on Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:26 am; edited 4 times in total
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CountZeroOR
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:09 am Reply with quote
I fairly pleased to say I've seen most of the Western films. There are still some gaps (Gone with the Wind, Sunset Boulevard, etc.), but it was nice to see that whatever discussions they had about these films, I might have been able to follow them, even the more obscure ones (like My Life As A Dog).

Now, it would be really nice to know what discussions these films provoked and what, if any, influence they had on Kon's body of work.
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doctordoom85



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:49 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
doctor: You want an anti-American Beauty, Netflix Happiness or my personal favorite, Very Bad Things. Viewer discretion advised, though.


Interesting, I'll look into them, thanks.
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Dargonxtc



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:54 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
Dargon: Um, Batman Returns rocked. TDK would be nothing without it.

I didn't say it sucked, but I certainly don't think is should be in the same league as most of those films.


With what you said about SW, I pretty much agree. edit: Though I think it is (not you) wrong to look at films like that. though they did for the most part get progressively better. (they could have been so much more though)(the prequels that is)(I still prefer the originals).

edit:
doctordoom85 wrote:
Interesting, I'll look into them, thanks.
Very Bad Things is actually pretty good. It is graphic and rather rash though so beware.
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RTL3



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:04 am Reply with quote
good list, all over the place. haven't seen all of them but are any of those animated?
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:58 am Reply with quote
Redlinks wrote:
Great tastes Mr.Kon! Is there a complete list of his notable films?


In the article there are links to both halves of the list and they're listed in their original language so no need to translate.

Knowing this list came from Kon even some of the more unusual choices make sense knowing the types of stories and characters he himself liked to write and direct.

Emerje
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:18 am Reply with quote
It's weird to see an animator thank me for letting him see pirated content on the Internets, but Kon was a fan of Ultraman, and there's a banned episode of the predecessor of that franchise which is not even available on R2 DVD over there [He had a pic of the box-set, which he had purchased.], and someone briefly Youtubed it. He apparently had missed it when he was a child, and so he literally was seeing it for the first time. Furthermore, I was really hoping this divergence between his childhood perspective vs. his adult perspective on entertainment meant for children which he didn't entirely "grok" until he became an adult, would play out in Dream Machine. But it's very possible, maybe even likely, that it was a non-factor in his approach to the material. Personally, I'm hoping that sort of insight made it in anyway. Oh, well. Maybe Anno will lend the staff a bootleg of that episode so they can "get" what Kon was feeling. Laughing
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