Satoshi Kon R.I.P

Master animator Satoshi Kon died earlier this week at the age of 47 due to complication with pancreatic cancer. The world has lost a great artist singular in imagination and creativity. His most recent feature film, Paprika, played at MSPIFF a few years ago and there was a line of avid fans, myself included, running down the block to get in. But it is really his animated series Paranoia Agent that has resonated the most with me. Wildly complex and and incredible heartfelt, Kon delves into the recesses of our subconscious with vivid imagination.

Here's just a teaser of the first episode of Paranoia Agent. I look forward to watching again soon! Satoshi-san, we will miss you!

All of Kon's feature films and Paranoia Agent are available on DVD in the US.

Kei Sato - R.I.P.

Veteran Japanese actor Kei Sato died on Thursday last week at the age of 81. Sato-san may not be a household name, but he has a face you can not forget with a hook nose and a curl to his full lips. He got his first role in 1959 as Shinjo, the sympathetic friend to Kaji, in Part 2 of Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition and continued a steady stream of memorable supporting roles including parts in recent films like Azumi (2003) and The Whispering of the Gods (2005). He also played the unfortunate neighbor who got caught in the web of the seducing, murdering duo in the classic horror film Onibaba. Kei Sato is probably best known, however, for the roles he played in Nagisa Oshima's films from the late 60s. Oshima put Sato in a variety of roles that ranged from the hapless (Death by Hanging) to abstract (Japanese Summer: Double Suicide) to the sinister (Violence at Noon.)

It was this last film, Violence at Noon, where Kei Sato gives one of his most powerful performances as the sweaty, leering serial rapist. Violence at Noon feels like a collaboration between Oshima's visual audacity and Sato's unrelenting guile.

Kei Sato stars in four of the five films included in Eclipse's Oshima's Outlaw Sixties, to be released later this month.

We are Generation X: John Hughes - RIP

Forget Douglas Coupland, for better of for worse it was John Hughes who defined our generation. Slackers, preppies, jocks, geeks, punks and even the undefinable outsider had a place in Hughes' world. Before my world of film ballooned into a something much larger, and admittedly much more ostentatious, Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) were perfect films due to their perfect moment. And like all movies of a generation, that perfect moment is completely age subjective. For me, it was the heart of my high school years with those films spanning ages 14 - 17.

It never struck me at the time that an adult, 20 years my senior, was drawing such thoughtful sketches of characters my age. It was less about 'liking' these movies, and more about accepting their situations and individuals as a small step away from my own. I ignored that they were Hughes' creation by hating Clair for turning Allison into a Barbie Doll, or longing for Watts and Amanda to have their magical moment instead of Watts and Keith. For many of the actors in these films, this was their time to shine. Although they have popped up in surprising places over the past 20 years—Anthony Michael Hall in Six Degrees of Separation, Ally Sheedy in High Art, Molly Ringwald in Office Killer—I could never see any of these actors outside of the 'Hughes context.'

Because all interesting clips of Hughes' films seem to have been taken off Youtube, here is something that will always be connected to John Hughes and my high school years:

Yasmin Ahmad RIP

One of the best filmmakers in Malaysia has sadly passed away at the age of 51. She collapsed while giving a presentation on private television TV3 in Kuala Lumpur. She reportedly suffered a stroke and a brain hemorrhage, and although she underwent surgery, never recovered.

Yasmin Ahmad is well-known in Malaysia for her television commercials and is known internationally for her award winning films: Rabun (2003), Sepet (20o4), Gubra (2006), Mukhsin (2007), Muallaf (2008) and Talentime (2009). On her own blog The Storyteller she describes herself: "I am optimistic and sentimental to the point of being annoying, especially to people who think that being cynical and cold is cool. Everyday, I thank Allah for everyday things like the ability to breathe, the ability to love, the ability to laugh, and the ability to eat and drink." Her creative career was led by her heart.

The news is sudden and shocking. She was an artist in her prime.