Tokyo’s First Animated Competition Title ‘Magic Atlas’ Was Sun Xun’s ‘All-In Moment’
Sun Xun’s “Magic Atlas” has become the first animated feature selected for competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Made over a decade, it combines animation with woodblock prints, ink painting and vivid colour to explore memory, history and divisions between people.
Set in an empire where flying is forbidden and a festival erases memories of the previous era every 60 years, the film follows an orphan boy who receives an atlas from a jailed magician. Sun says he invested his savings and took out loans to complete the project after the pandemic halted gallery sales. Influenced by global events, Buddhism and diverse artistic traditions, he describes the film as his defining “all-in” work. He has started a related feature, “All or Nothing”, about individual memory loss.
In short
- “Magic Atlas” is the first animated feature in TIFF’s competition.
- Sun Xun spent a decade making the film and took out loans to finish it.
- His next feature will explore personal memory loss.
Explained simply
Sun Xun is a Chinese artist and filmmaker whose work draws on several visual traditions, including printmaking and ink painting. “Magic Atlas” is his first feature film and took more than ten years to make, bringing these forms together in an animated story about memory, history and social divisions.
The film imagines an empire where people are forbidden to fly and a festival wipes memories of the previous era every 60 years. Its central character is an orphan boy given an atlas by a magician in prison. These invented rules give the film a way to explore how people remember the past and how power can shape what is remembered.
The project was a major personal and financial commitment for Sun, who used savings and loans to finish it after the pandemic disrupted gallery sales. Its selection for competition at Tokyo is notable because it is the festival’s first animated feature in that section, bringing an artist-led animation project into a prominent international film competition.
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