# Tokyo’s First Animated Competition Title ‘Magic Atlas’ Was Sun Xun’s ‘All-In Moment’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/tokyos-first-animated-competition-title-magic-atlas-was-sun-xuns-all-in-moment/
- Published: 2026-11-02T05:01:05+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-02T05:08:35+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/tokyos-first-animated-competition-title-magic-atlas-sun-xun-1236937195/
- Topics: Art, Culture, Entertainment, Film, Geopolitics, Music, Politics

## Key points

- “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.

## Summary

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.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.