Hideo Kojima - Connecting Worlds (2023) Review
You Know What’s Cool? Watching A Movie When Its Subject Is Sitting A Couple Feet In Front of You
Going into this, you basically want it to be “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness,” the documentary about Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, but for Hideo Kojima and his studio. In that you want a look into the process and life of this master artist.
Instead, what you get is a very surface-level look at Kojima and his work. It’s mostly about his many famous friends saying he’s brilliant, which, they’re not wrong. Kojima is kind of brilliant in what he does. But that’s also not a documentary, nor is it a narrative, which documentaries should have.
You don’t learn anything new about Kojima from this documentary. You don’t really learn about his process. The name Konami is never even mentioned, so you don’t know his history. There’s a couple flashbacks and recalled memories, shown to us in anime form, which is cool, but they’re a very minor part of this relatively short documentary, which I believe clocks in at about an hour.
Honestly, the Geoff Keighley-hosted Q&A session with the documentary’s director and Kojima, were much more insightful into his mind. As Grimes (Elon’s ex) says in the documentary, Kojima kind of exists in this uncanny valley of ridiculousness and earnestness, and she’s accurate in her assessment. The documentary however just tells us that, while actually hearing Kojima talk afterwards, is an example of it.
Kojima said he wants to go to space and make video games you can play in space. I think he said at some point he wants AI to be a gamer? He’s also openly reaching an age where he wonders how many projects he has left in him. I think he said the studio is working on two projects, one of which is “Death Stranding 2,” and then he’s got a third idea that’s just in his head right now.
Listen, the guy is weird, and that’s why we love him. His ideas and such may sound insane, but he’s also got a pretty good track record on making his unique imagination into a reality. He must be a pretty likable guy too, because he seriously has so many famous friends.
George Miller is talking about him in the documentary, along with Guillermo del Toro, and many other people. Nicolas Winding Refn is also interviewed for the documentary, and was there tonight to introduce the film. Apparently Ari Aster and Sofia Lillis were there supporting Kojima too, as friends.
Overall, the documentary is perfectly fine at doing what it wants to do, and it’s impossible to be mad at the relatively short running time. I just wish it captured more of what makes Kojima Kojima, in the actual film. As is, it’s fine for watching on the PlayStation store, or wherever it ends up in the future. I don’t think it’ll convince the non-Kojima faithful, though.
2.5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️✨
I will also say, I’ll probably forget about this documentary pretty quickly, but I will always remember that I watched a movie with Hideo Kojima, Geoff Keighley, and Nicolas Winding Refn a mere couple feet away from me, at the world premiere of a film at the Tribeca Film Festival. So that’s pretty fucking awesome.
A Few Other Notes:
The funniest moment of the evening was before the movie, when an NFT company’s commercial played, because they sponsored the event, and everybody in the theater loudly booed.
People also laughed whenever Grimes showed up in the documentary
At the beginning of the film, it states that Kojima is considered to be the first video game auteur, which, nope, that doesn’t sound right.
For the end credits of the film, an acoustic version of Chvrches’ “Death Stranding” played, which I enjoyed because that song is super underrated.