It seems that Hollywood has been hiding secrets from the people by allegedly making movies and getting “inspired” by other directors from Asia and other continents. Satoshi Kon, a Japanese filmmaker, called out Natalie Portman’s 2010 masterpiece Black Swan as being copied and not just a homage to him.
The director also went on to pinpoint and namedrop several of the Hollywood movies that he believed were copied from his movies without giving the proper credit. The report also insinuated that Christopher Nolan’s 2010 masterpiece, Inception, was also Satoshi Kon’s idea!
Satoshi Kon Did Not Like Natalie Portman’s Black Swan Homage
Back in 1997, Satoshi Kon directed the animated movie titled Perfect Blue. The movie depicts a young Japanese singer who is encouraged to pursue a career in acting instead of singing with her first role in a murder mystery TV show.
She slowly goes insane when a fan starts obsessively stalking her and her life turns upside down. The plot inspired American director Darren Aronofsky to create his 2000 and 2010 masterpieces Requiem For a Dream and Black Swan. The 2000 film also featured several scenes that were strikingly similar to the 1997 movie and worked as a “homage” to the Japanese filmmaker. In an interview on Twitter, the director stated that they weren’t more of a homage but directing copying of ideas.
“It’s a pitiful tale when the person being paid homage to has less name recognition, less social credibility and less budget to spend”.
Alongside this, the director also talked about how visionary director Christopher Nolan was also inspired by Satoshi Kon’s 2006 movie titled Paprika.
Christopher Nolan Was Also Inspired By Satoshi Kon
Not just Black Swan, but Satoshi Kon also created the 2006 animated movie titled Paprika. The premise of the movie is an agent by the name of Paprika who works as a dream detective at night. The 2006 movie received great ratings and in 2010, Christopher Nolan directed Inception.
Reports of the iconic hallway scene in Inception bear a striking resemblance to Satoshi Kon’s own movie Paprika but as usual, there have been no credits given to the Japanese filmmaker. Although Nolan had stated that he had been working for 10 years on the screenplay for Inception, it could be that Nolan didn’t really steal any ideas. Satoshi Kon’s Paprika received a rating of 7.7/10 on IMDB and 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and is available to rent on Apple TV+.
Source: Twitter
