Paprika

I first saw Paprika last summer when a good friend of mine strongly recommended the works of Satoshi Kon to me and after gazing at the anime titles he made, Paprika grabbed my eyes the quickest given its trippy imagery and description, so I bought it on Amazon and am extremely glad to have seen it because it's one of the most enriching and creative titles I've ever seen in the medium.STORYIn the near future, a huge advance in psychotherapy is created in the form of a device called the DC Mini, which is capable of recording people's dreams. However, the DC Mini is stolen and Dr. Chiba's science team and detective Konakawa join forces to get it back before it falls into the wrong hands. In their pursuit, follows one of the craziest mind trips ever put on celluloid.CHARACTERSWhat's a movie without good characters? Thankfully, Satoshi Kon kept this in mind and fleshed out very believable and interesting characters when creating this animated feast for the eyes and brain. What I also like is that while there's protagonists and antagonists in Paprika, they don't really fit any stereotypes and aren't one-sided morally speaking. Atsuko Chiba (At-Chan, as Kosaku Tokita calls her) has the alter ego in the form of a red-headed and energetic lady named Paprika but unlike most alter egos, Paprika exists entirely in the dream universe. Chiba tends to be serious and butts heads with Tokita. Detective Konakawa is one of the most interesting to me since he has repressed terrors and lives them out through dreams that play out like movies. Tokita is a more unique case since he's a kid trapped in a genius adult's body and given that personality, he acts just like that since all he cares about doing is "doing what he wants" instead of doing what he HAS to do. Even the more minor characters are better than mere plot devices because just like the leads, they feel very believable.PLOTTING AND APPEARANCENormally in my reviews, I separate the plotting and appearance, but in Paprika's case, I have to combine the two since they're dependent of each other and would be awkward reviewing the two individually. This is where most of the fun in Paprika lies in. Kon, being the excellent storyteller that he is, perfectly meshes the dream world with reality and unlike Christopher Nolan's vision of the dream world for Inception, Kon takes full advantage of the opportunities he has and creates a dream world where anything, and I mean ANYTHING, can happen (visually and plot-wise). The plotting is brilliant as to where it's complex but not overly so, in the sense that the plotting isn't a gimmicky puzzle movie where it's a convoluted mess that you're trying to put together (though it's best to pay attention), but rather blending both fantasy and reality within a character's dilemma and ultimately fits what they're going through as a consequence of the DC Mini's severe abuse. An example of this is when Konakawa is pursuing one of the main antagonists, he gets caught in his recurring nightmare and acts out according to the nightmare, and the consequences from his actions affect the antagonists in the real world. There's so much more to this, but I think you get the picture (and that I don't want to spoil the whole movie).Then there's the appearance of the movie. This is integral to the film since it's the imagery that breathes so much life into the dreamworld in Paprika. Kon took full advantage of this opportunity in the visual department and made a dreamworld like no other. In this dreamworld, toys, household appliances, and other devices coming to life and say complete gibberish. There's a scene where Paprika jumps into Dr. Shima's dream, she sinks into Shima's body and causes him to inflate like a giant balloon and explodes, causing him to wake up. When people dive into peoples' dreams, they can take the form of any object they merge with. The best example of this would be with Paprika since she takes a myriad of forms ranging from fairies to griffins in the film. Things get really interesting towards the end when reality and the dreamworld merge since you see businessmen gleefully jumping off a building in formation and Tokita running around as a toy robot firing missiles at a giant Japanese porcelain doll and rambling about fat content in coconut milk. In my first viewing of Paprika, I was left lying in a fetal position wondering what just happened mostly because of the dazzling imagery used to flesh out peoples' dreams.The animation and artwork is fantastic. The frame rate is rather smooth and the imagery is very colorful and detailed. Like Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Paprika is another anime that uses both 2D animation and 3D animation and much like said anime series, Paprika mixes the two in a very tasteful manner since the 3D imagery exists only to supplement the primary 2D animation instead of overpowering it. The characters have very distinctive looks and me being a male in his early 20's, especially enjoyed the way Dr. Chiba was drawn since she looks beautiful but at the same time, her looks actually match her personality since she looks mature (and acts as such). In the case of female characters, Kon has a very distinctive way of drawing them and I personally love how he draws them since they look like anime characters but don't really fit the cookie-cutter styles abused in the genre. Once again, Satoshi Kon and Madhouse Studio crank out a high-quality anime.THEMESTo supplement the well-done characters, surreal imagery, creative story, and excellent plotting, Kon threw in some themes to make an already brilliant anime even better. While subtle, there's themes about the sacredness of one's dreams and the intrusion of technology in said area elaborated by the Chairman (the main antagonist). I felt this was pretty insightful since according to the Chairman, a person's dreams in the movie's current setting are all that's left that's "personal" to someone, and the DC Mini will violate that sense of uniqueness since it'll record the subconscious and have it shared with the whole world. There's also a theme of someone dealing with hard guilt since Konakawa has a film-like recurring nightmare because of personal losses he had in the past relating to film. These themes add more life to an already vibrant animated picture.FINAL WORDIf you love anime that's intelligent, creative, has great characters, and chocked full of mind-blowing imagery, then Paprika needs to be in your collection RIGHT NOW if it's not. If you have the technology, I suggest you get the blu-ray version since the sharper picture and sound really enhances this great movie.RIP Satoshi Kon. Your body of animated work may be small, but it'll be remembered and lauded for eternity.

The movie itself is a phenomenal, psychedelic trip of a movie. However I have to subtract a star for the poor quality of the english subtitles. The only english subtitles on this disk are the DHH ones for the english audio track. This means they don't always line up with the Japanese audio, and they're also the ugly black box with white text rather than black outline around white letters. If you watch the movie dubbed or are capable of understanding Japanese this is a fine release, but as someone who watches subbed I can't give it 5 stars.

This review is extremely biased because I will forever be Satoshi Kon’s number one fangirl. Rest in peace, king. The late and great director, Satoshi Kon, made this absolute banger back in 2006 and of course the animation still holds up to this very day. This anime film does not appear dated in the slightest like most animation made during this time period, and dare I say it’s ahead of its time as well. You have not seen what can be done with animated transitions until you see this movie. It is littered with the most striking transitional scenes you will ever witness. I would actually consider this animation to be an exemplary case study on how to achieve the best transitional effects possible, live-action features included. Although the visuals itself could carry this film entirely, the plot does a fantastic job of capturing your attention and your imagination throughout the runtime. The story is something I have not seen done by anyone else and nothing else really comes close. I’ve heard others compare the storyline to the movie Inception, and while I don’t disagree that this live-action movie touches on similar concepts in regards to controlling dreamscapes, I find the two films handle this particular situation in a vastly different manner that leads to different thematic interpretations of each film. Inception seems more gloomy while Paprika seems like it is bursting at the seams with life in an array of color. Inception pales in comparison in every aspect in my opinion. I cannot stress this enough, but I highly recommend watching this absolute masterpiece if you like anime, any anime really. Oh, there is some warnings though: female nudity, smoking, drinking, slight body horror, depictions of suicide, and some suggestive content.

I loved this movie (at first, I wasn't sure). I love Satoshi Kon. The soundtrack, execution, chaotic bliss I find this movie so captivating. It's hard to be surreal, with a grip on reality, and to make sense all at once. It's very thought-provoking. Although I think the ending may be the weaker part of the film, it's become one of my annual rewatches. I notice something new every time I watch it.It's a spectacle for the eyes and mind. And if I find myself in a funk, or want to get myself into one, this movie works every time. It can resonate similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where its hard to tell what was real, and when.

Very interesting movie

An anime science fantasy which really entertains. The heroine of the story is a female neuroscientist who, with the aid of advanced technology is able to enter the dreams, in the guise of a character called Paprika, of troubled people and help them solve their difficulties. All goes well until one of the prototype machines is stolen and the patients dreams are filled with wild fantasies, driving them insane. It is up to Paprika to solve the mystery before the whole world is affected. One not just for Sci-Fi fans but for all anime devotees.

I'll give you my over all impression first because that's the crux of everything else I'm going to say: it feels as if they wanted to make this excellent, surreal series of animated dream sequences and just needed any old story to link it all together. It starts out slowly and a little misleadingly, but really gathers momentum and gets better and better as it goes along, faltering slightly in terms of pacing and direction at certain points in the latter half.The main plot, the only bit of the various narratives that the blurb touches, is remarkably basic and entirely unimpressive - and I don't think for a moment that anyone involved in making it would think otherwise. You see, what the blurb doesn't mention is that the REAL plot is actually each character's core psychological problem; the thing that stops them being the person they could be. Each of the characters have their own narrative about coming to terms with who they are (sounds cheesy, it's anything but in this movie) which they do by figuring out that one moment, or that one issue, that sort of derailed their smooth progress through life. Essentially, they get psychotherapy by living and reliving their dreams.Now that's what gives the film an emotional grounding and humanity, but despite the characters being handled as real people, rather than just devices for telling a story, I still can't shake the feeling that it's all just an excuse for some amazing - often stunning - dream sequences. I guess it's like a more artistic version of an action film, where every bit of plot exposition and dialogue is just a set-up for a shoot-out or an explosion. In short, no matter how believable (most of) the characters are, it all feels rather flat and somewhat on auto-pilot when it's not in a dream sequence. This is about 80% of the reason why this didn't get a 5/5 from me.The other reasons are that, like so many anime movies, it gets rather lost as it goes on and seems to lose its way and its pacing. It gets tied up in trying to deliver plot twists and in trying to be more complex than it need be. I'm not saying that it gets confusing, though some may find it does, but rather that as it goes on it sort of buckles under the weight of everything it's trying to say and do, and the drama, pacing and over all flow of the film suffer as a consequence. Then there's that while some of the characters are very well-developed and feel very human indeed, some others are criminally flat and clichéd. This would be OK if they were side-characters, but I'm referring to the bad guys of the piece.The reason you should watch this is because it's an often breathtaking display of imagination and animation, with some really believable characters with very human problems, all backed up by some incredibly original and fitting music. The whole "recover the dream devices" plot really takes a back seat to all those things.Some general notes: It contains elements of sci-fi, mystery, romance, action and fantasy. It appears to have received its 15 classification because there are a couple of breast shots and a scene in which a woman is held at the mercy of a man who wants to show his professed love to her by feeling her up and being a bit manic.

Beautifully drawn sort-of-thriller about the disappearance of the prototype of a machine which can monitor dreams. There are some inexplicable bits of plot (Why are we supposed not to know that A is merely B's virtual avatar, when it is so obvious? What on earth does B see in C? What's it all to D, anyway?) but it wouldn't be anime without them. The technique of manifesting oneself through the lens of a TV camera appears to be derived from Alice's method in 'Through the Looking Glass'. Thoroughly recommended to the connoisseur and collector, though perhaps not one for younger children susceptible to nightmares.

I got this film because it was a highly rated anime and because I'd seen Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue and really enjoyed it, seeing as this was about the dreams and altering reality I decided to give it a try.Firstly the animation was amazing, apparently they used some cgi in there- I couldn't even tell! The whole dream sequence is so extravagant all the movement and the colours it was brilliant.The music was something else as well, i had to get the soundtrack most of it is outstanding, it really works with the film and was apparently the first film soundtrack to use a vocaloid- a program/machine that mimics the human voice.As someone who immensely enjoyed Inception, I heard this was one of Christopher Nolan's inspirations for Inception I had to see it. The plot is really good, it keeps you guessing for most of the film and ends up with a huge fight in dreams/reality. The detective subplot was really inventive too, and I felt quite sorry for him when he was waiting for Paprika etc.Paprika is one of those films you can watch again and again and it all comes together even better, though it ends like Inception where you aren't overly sure what's been reality and a dream or if they're still in the dream.My only criticism is that the subtitles only match up with the Japanese, so watching in English with the subtitles - a little thing I do with every film- is annoying.Overall this film is great, and could fit in the same category as The Matrix - I just can't wait to read the book which was written in the 90's. It's a shame it took so long to make this film, and with a live action film being made soon this fantastic piece of cinema will reach more even people. 5*

Oh my. I love Satoshi Kon. I didn't think he could top Millennium Actress, but he did! Paprika is visually stunning, and the story is really interesting too. I haven't had the chance to read the original novel, but I'm sure the film did justice. It's very entertaining all the way through and makes you care about the characters. Another important aspect is the music...I'm a great admirer of Susumu Hirasawa, and he doesn't disappoint. The music fits the film so well, it's all perfect IMO. Would recommend it for fans of Satoshi and Christopher Nolan (especially if you loved Inception ;))