An interview with producer Maruyama and Susumu Hirasawa about director Satoshi Kon's unfinished posthumous work 'The Dreaming Machine' is now available
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Exploring anime legend Satoshi Kon's unfinished final film | Dazed
http://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/39222/1/exploring-anime-legend-satoshi-kons-last-unfinished-film
Director Satoshi Kon was an anime director known for ' Perfect Blue ,' ' Tokyo Godfathers ,' and 'Millennium Actress,' and was also active as a manga artist, but passed away in 2010 due to pancreatic cancer. The film that Director Satoshi Kon was working on until his death was 'The Dreaming Machine,' and Maruyama Masao, who had been involved in producing and planning all of Director Kon's theatrical anime up to that point, was to serve as producer.
Maruyama's first direct involvement with Kon was in the 1998 film 'Perfect Blue,' but he said, 'I knew Kon was drawing manga before that. I immediately noticed that Kon's manga already contained elements of Satoshi Kon's vision, and that he gradually wove them into his anime works.' 'Perfect Blue' has been highly praised worldwide, and according to Dazed, it has been influenced by Darren Aronofsky , director of ' Black Swan ,' and Christopher Nolan, director of ' Inception ' and ' Dunkirk .' Although it never came to fruition, Aronofsky had purchased the live-action rights to 'Perfect Blue,' as revealed in Kon's blog .
Perfect Blue Trailer - YouTube
Maruyama said, 'Perfect Blue depicts Japanese pop culture in the style of Hitchcock and De Palma , Millennium Actress is a melancholic meditation on the life of an actress who lived through the film. Tokyo Godfathers is a comedy that touches on issues of family and homelessness, a Straight Story in the style of Kon Satoshi. And Paprika is Kon's most ambitious work to date, an ambitious science fiction piece that depicts the potential of the Internet to unleash the darkness inherent in the collective unconscious.'
Millennium Actress Special Report - YouTube
'The Dreaming Machine' was planned before the production of 'Paprika'. While all of Kon's previous works were aimed at adults, according to Maruyama, 'The Dreaming Machine' was a children's film about the adventures of three robots. At the initial planning stage, Maruyama told Kon, 'I don't care what the story is, but let's have a red robot, a blue robot, and a yellow robot.'
The image visual that was actually released looks like this. Just as Maruyama said, it depicts three different colored robots.
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However, just after production had begun, Director Satoshi Kon was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in May 2010, with only six months to live. When Kon consulted with Maruyama about the film, he was moved to tears when Maruyama told him, 'It's okay. I'll do whatever it takes, so don't worry,' according to his final blog post .
'I think people are finally starting to understand his work. What he was trying to do and his talent were ahead of his time. Twenty years ago, animation wasn't seen as entertainment or art, but that's no longer the case. Ima's work is by far the best anime compared to other works,' said Maruyama.
PAPRIKA [2007] - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube
Maruyama continued to work on the project even after Kon's death , but the project was halted in 2011 for financial reasons. However, 600 of the 1,500 cuts in the film have already been completed as animation. Maruyama said in 2012 that he intended to raise the funds to complete the film by 2017, but after that, rather than a financial problem, he faced the question of who could take over Satoshi Kon's talent. 'Director Kon left behind storyboards for 'The Dreaming Machine.' I thought about it for five years, but I finally realized that if someone else took over and directed what Director Kon had left behind, it would no longer be Director Kon's film,' he said.
In fact, in his final blog post, Director Kon wrote about his anguish, saying, 'After all, Satoshi Kon is responsible for the original work, the script, the character and world settings, storyboards, music images...all kinds of image sources. Of course, there are many things that he shares with many staff members, including the animation director and art director, but basically, there are many things that only Satoshi Kon could understand or create.'
When asked about the 'deeper message' that Kon has hidden in the story of 'Dreaming Machine,' Maruyama speculates that it may depict a theme related to nuclear power. Meanwhile, Hirasawa Susumu, who composed the theme songs and background music for Kon's films 'Millennium Actress' and 'Paprika,' said that he is not sure what the deeper theme of 'Dreaming Machine' is, saying, 'When asked what 'Dreaming Machine' represents, many people will assume that it refers to the robots that appear in the film. But we have lost the means to confirm whether that idea is right or wrong.'
In fact, the title of the film, 'Dreaming Machine,' comes from the song of the same name by Hirasawa, of whom the director was a big fan.
Susumu Hirasawa + EJIN - Dreaming Machine (FUJI ROCK 21) - YouTube
Hirasawa was also planning to compose the music for 'Dreaming Machine' at the request of Director Ima. For example, Hirasawa's song 'Sailboat 108' from his 2003 album ' BLUE LIMBO ' was planned to be used in a scene where the robot just dances without saying anything.
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When Kon asked Hirasawa Susumu, who was in charge of the film's music, to write the theme song and other music, he revealed very little about the message of his work. 'Director Kon never revealed to me the deep themes he had set as the background for the film. He trusted me, and I think he thought that as soon as he heard my idea for the film, I would be able to understand the roots of the film right away,' said Hirasawa.
At the time of writing, it is unclear what the status of the 'Dreaming Machine' project is, but separately, a project to turn Satoshi Kon's manga 'OPUS' into an anime is underway, and it has been announced on Twitter that Susumu Hirasawa will be in charge of the theme song and music.
I was asked to compose the theme song for Satoshi Kon's work 'OPUS' and had begun work on it, so I'd like to shout out that if there was any time to stop, now was the time.
— Susumu Hirasawa (@hirasawa) October 27, 2017
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