Satoshi Kon's The Dreaming Machine

[Andrez]

Late last year I was lucky enough to interview essential Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon (he of the notoriety of Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, and the brilliant Millennium Actress), and that interview appeared in the January issue of Impact mag over in the UK.



In the meantime, however, Kon is gearing up for the release of his long-awaited next anime movie: Yume Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine) is coming up through Studio Madhouse and it has its own funky new website here. The movie features central characters called Ririco, Robin and King - and all of three are automated. Kon has dabbled quite extensively with technology (and its impact on people) before, but this time there's a different slant.

"This is my own original story - therefore different from my previous work," Kon told me during that recent interview we did; it was the first time we'd chatted and he was surprisingly open, humorous and verbose.

"While I was developing the script, I heard about a movie called WALL·E... and I got a little nervous that it might be similar to mine. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I learned that the two stories were totally different," he laughed.

"In The Dreaming Machine, only robots are there. I want the audience to enjoy the adventures of robots who survived even after their parents - human beings - had become extinct. After Paprika, I ended up taking a vacation for over a year, so we've just started development on this. You can see this movie in 2011."

Also on board is art director Nobutaka Ike, who performed the same role on Millennium Actress (2001) and Paprika (2006).

[Aaron H. Bynum]

Satoshi Kon is an incredible director, and certainly one of my personal favorites for years. Although he seems to resonate the same directorial or screenwriting strategies for developing his characters, the stories themselves are almost always unique unto themselves. This being an original story adds a little bit of mystery to the production, too.

[Andrez]

Totally agree with you, Aaron; I can't wait to see what he conjures up here.

[blake20]

Satoshi Kon is really well acclaimed! I saw just recently his film Tokyo Godfather, and it really took my breath away (literally, LOL). I also saw his movie Perfect Blue a few years ago nut I really did not get the story, I just loved the graphics.. Anyway, does Satoshi Kon have anime series? I'd really love to watch some..

[Andrez]

Yep - check out Paranoia Agent. Brilliant stuff.