User Reviews

Just back from the New York Film Festival Screening of Satoshi Kon's Paprika.

Kon's new film is not the dark mind warps of Perfect Blue or Paranoia Agent, this is closer to blending of real and unreal of Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers light and airy touches. Its got its darkness but its mostly a light thriller.

(I'm not going to go into a discussion of specifics concerning the plot, since I was told things by reviews I read prior to seeing the film which, while they didn't reveal a great deal, spoiled just enough to take the wonder off some of the story and images) The plot concerns a device called a DC Mini which allows people to enter other peoples dreams. It also allows your dreams to be recorded for play back. Three of the revolutionary devices are stolen before they could be encoded with a software that will prevent total access to anyone at anytime, which means that anyone with the devices can not only enter anyone's dreams at anytime, but also enter there mind and put them into a dream of their choosing. Unfortunately the head of the project suddenly begins spouting nonsense (the result of being dropped in the dream of a mental patient) and before anyone can stop him he leaps from a high window. The race is on, with our heroes getting the help of a mysterious girl named Paprika, who seems to be able to move with in dreams in ways that are completely unnatural.

I liked this movie. It takes a while to get going but once it does its really good (it has a gangbusters last third). Kon blends the real and the dream in ways that can only be done through animation (see his earlier films for how good he is at it). Its wonderfully done, so much so that you can never be sure whats real and whats not, as one character says late in the film, "is this real or is it a dream?" In the end you can not tell, especially as the worlds begin to overlap. I know for some, myself included, the plot line may seem a bit of been there and done that (ie Dreamscape) but Kon's visual sense pushes the film from a run of the mill retread into something worth going out and seeing.(As I said I'm not going to go into some of the wild things that Kon has cooked up for his dream world since somethings should remain a surprise.) For those looking for some of the darkness of Kon's Perfect Blue or Paranoia Agent, its not really here, actually the movie is frequently very funny. Certainly some of the dream imagery can be frightening and disturbing in a not normal (dream)) sort of way, but other than one moment where a villain shows how he can control anything in the dream world, there isn't anything thats mind twistingly scary. (Though that one moment is sure to send shivers up and down most peoples backs) This is just a good little fantastical thriller.

At this point I have to make a confession. This movie reduced to tears a couple of times. There are a couple of moments when this movie is like a shot of pure joy. The title sequence with its J-Pop ear worm of a song had the tears rolling down my face. Later when Paprika dives into a dream and rides a cloud the marriage of music and image, however fleeting had me blissed out. Best of all the films exploration of who we are underneath it all will make everyone grin from ear to ear.

See this movie. Its a good little thriller. Its not the best thing that director Satoshi Kon has done, but its a good time in the movies (which it celebrates).

There have been other movies which explored the subject of dreams to varying degrees...Akira Kurosawa's "Yume" (Dreams),"Dreamscape", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Wizard of OZ" come to mind, but none have quite did it in such a surreal, fascinating and inventive way as Satoshi Kon's recent anime feature "Paprika".

Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1993 novel, "Paprika" is part mystery/detective story and part "Alice In Wonderland" with a bit of a sci-fi element thrown in for good measure.

The title character of Paprika is a "dream detective" who is able to enter peoples' dreams to correct or resolve psychological/personal trauma by directly interacting with the dream. She is the alter-ego of Dr. Atsuko Chiba, a brilliant psychologist/scientist who helped create the "DC Mini", a device that is able to control, manipulate and record an individual's dream. Chiba has secretly appropriated the technology to aid her in her secret dream adventures as Paprika.

The bulk of the story revolves around the "DC Mini" technology being stolen and used to assault key researchers who worked on the "DC Mini" project. Detective Kogawa Toshimi (who bears a humorous resemblance to J.K. Simmon's "J. Jonah Jameson" character in the "Spider-Man" movies) assists Chiba/Paprika in her efforts to find the stolen technology.

Kon continues his exploration of the themes of reality vs. fantasy that were covered in his previous works "Sennen No Jyoyu/Millennium Actress" and "Perfect Blue" but also adds the element of "fusion" or the merging of reality with fantasy. This opens up the opportunity for Kon to create truly bizarre scenes where the dream world invades the real world (people morphing into cell phones and other objects, inanimate objects taking on human human characteristics, etc.)

The true draw for this film is the fantastic and wondrous imagery complements of the Madhouse Animation Studio and character designer Ando Masashi who create elaborately detailed images, drawing from a variety of sources (traditional Japanese dolls, Buddhist statutes, European ceramic figurines, plastic toys).

It's amazing how Kon was able to incorporate and explore a lot of the common dream themes in the film (flying, falling, childhood toys, mirrored reflections, metamorphosis, running) as well as some of the Jungian archetypes (shadow, Anima, Animus). The medium of animation is the perfect vehicle suited to bring this imagery to film.

Hirasawa Susumu's musical score adds to the fantasy with its fusion of various musical styles and influences.

The voice work is also quite stellar, bringing together a host of veteran "seiyuu" talents like Hayashibara Megumi, Otsuka Akio, Yamadera Koichi, Furuya Toru, and Emori Toru.

While "Perfect Blue" still remains my favorite Kon project, "Paprika" was a pleasantly enjoyable and wonderful surprise and further solidifies Kon's growing reputation as a truly innovative animation director in the same vain as Miyazaki Hayao, John Lasseter and Oshii Mamoru.

Adapted from a science fiction novel by Yatsutaka Tsutsui, Paprika is probably my favourite film from this year's Animation Nation. The closing film (technically, since it's the last film to be screened tomorrow), it is one heck of a thrill ride, and will definitely engage an audience at different levels.

In contrast to the dark doom and gloom hanging over Paris 2054 in Renaissance, Paprika at first glance is surprisingly light hearted and colourful, though it has its fare share of gloom and probably has darker themes which unfold as the story progresses. It's central plot revolves around a futuristic method of psychotherapy with the aid of a newly created invention known as the "DC Mini", which is a device that probes into the annals of your brainwaves, and allows the doctor to analyze and diagnose problems which surface in your subconscious.

Until the device is stolen that is, and it's up to our key project team members to try and contain the situation, prevent the device from falling into the wrong hands and get abused, and in essence, investigate the loss, with the help of fellow patient detective Kogawa Toshimi. In some ways, the movie's storyline resembles a bit like the Matrix movies (which of course, borrows from Japanese anime), in having the hero the champion of both worlds - the real one, and inside the artificially created one. surviving in both with the adoption of different personas. Here, our heroine is Dr Chiba Atsuko, who in her alter ego as Paprika, is able to traverse through the dreamworld with great ease.

There are plenty of stuff happening in almost every scene, and some might deem it a little "noisy" with so much to see, but so little time on screen. However, never for a moment does it feel very cluttered, and I am still pleasantly pleased at how so much story can be compacted into a nifty 90 minutes, without compromising on quality. Despite the dark themes in the movie, there are a number of light hearted moments which seem to punctuate the movie at the right places, no doubt most coming from the characters of Tokita the DC Mini creator, and Detective Kogawa in his (in)ability and slow enlightenment to the entire scheme of things, nevermind a dark subplot solely focused on his character alone.

At another level, it explores much about our dreams, and how within them, we can be who we want to be, but yet all comes to naught once we wake up from it. What if we're given the ability to merge both the real world and the dream world. Then what would become of life as we know? Will it be utter chaos when dreams and desire start to run amok?

Full of vibrant colours and energy, Paprika is just about everything that you would expect from an excellent piece of animation. A story that makes your brain work at figuring out what's happening on screen, yet doesn't allow such mysteries presented to stifle your concentration on what's going on next. A hauntingly mesmerizing soundtrack. Beautiful art pieces from background sets to character design so detailed. And with so much on screen at any one time, it definitely seeks a second viewing to truly appreciate and take in everything.

Director Satoshi Kon has made a fan out of me with this movie, and I think, if time and money permits, I'll be hunting down some of the earlier works, if this is any indication whether I'll enjoy them to bits.

Paprika will be shown tomorrow during the Animation Nation festival's closing, but I hear that tickets are already sold out (I bought mine on the first day when the tickets were out on sale). I do think there should be a general release, so keep your fingers crossed!

Sometimes a movie can leave you feelings so mixed that you have to wait for a day or two before you realize whether it was actually a masterpiece or only decent entertainment. In my opinion, this amine is pretty close to being a masterpiece. The pitch was not easy to handle, though : a group of scientists (who are protagonists, which is rare in japanime which tends to focus on youngsters or weirdos) has almost completed the design of a brand-new high-tech device called the "DC Mini", which has the ability to display the subject's dreams on a screen. Once recorded, it can be used by specialized psychiatrists for therapeutic use. But one of these happens to get stolen by some tortured megalomaniac mind who uses it to penetrate other people's dreams and destroy their consciousness to death. The fellow scientists will try to discover who is doing that, while getting assistance from a mysterious imaginary girl called Paprika, who is unrivaled at finding the cure to mental illness by penetrating inside dreams and guide the subject to healing.

Curiously enough, though not particularly violent, this anime reminded me of Akira : as a matter of fact, the dream-related part of the movie which uses many distortion effects and frantic music (excellent score from Susumu Hirasawa, by the way). One who knows a little bit of Japanese culture can also distinguish critical viewpoints towards nowadays's Japanese society as well, which is faithful to Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel.

It really made me want to learn more about Satoshi Kon's other movies such as "Perfect Blue" or "Tokyo Godfathers". I guess that's a good odd... Perhaps not the best-suited for children who perhaps won't understand a rather complex script, but a heck of a show for the other !

I had the pleasure of watching Paprika during its UK premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival.

I must start by saying that I am already a fan of Satoshi Kon's work. Films like Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfather are amongst my favourites in any medium, not just anime.

I sometimes feel that much of his work could just as easily have been performed in live action features as anime, but this isn't the case with Paprika. One of the main aspects of this story is the way in which the dream world intrudes on the real world, and how it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the two - until something totally bizarre appears. Many of the images just wouldn't work in any form except anime.

While the story itself follows an investigation into the theft of three devices that enable users to drop into people's dreams, the movie is also a homage to both films and television. In dreams we see everything from Tarzan to Monkey, and film posters to several previous Satoshi Kon films.

To summarise, the film was very well received and should appeal to both anime and non-anime fans. Chris Fell, the director of the film festival reported that after its first screening Paprika had achieved a higher audience score than any other film since he had been involved with the festival. You can't get much more of a recommendation than that.

I was most impressed by this film, the visuals are stunning and the plot interesting. It is a little hard to understand on first viewing as one isn't too sure what is a dream and what is reality.

The main plot concerns the efforts to find out who stole a device called the DC Mini which enables the user to enter another person's dreams, when misused it causes a persons dreams, and the dreams of others, to infect their reality.

Our heroine Dr Chiba Atsuko and her alter ego Paprika must search both dreams and reality to find the thief and stop them, as she does so things get stranger and stranger and the viewer is frequently unsure whether we are looking at reality, a dream or a mixture of the two.

This is a film worth watching more than once, the first time to enjoy the confusion, the second to make sense of it.

The atmosphere of the entire movie is so weird that the audiences may not have enough patience to finish viewing it. However, if you put some time in, you'd understand(at least partially) about the message the director would tell us.

Paprika is a mystical woman in dream world, who has the ability to enter people's dreams and investigate them in any form of being out of thousands of selections. Is she a real person, or an alternative personality of another female character Chiba? All these are in a dim until the climate of the movie. The director, who directed another masterpiece Millennium Actress is definitely amazing in creating weird environment and set decoration. This movie is made for grown-ups, not for children because of horrifying scenes and some explicit nudity ,which is unusual in main stream cartoons. Through all the strange lines and lyrics in the dreams, people may either be inspired or be horrified.

Honestly, I was so horrified that I cannot speak a word as I finished watching the movie. My interpretation is that, this movie is a fable about human race's future, a prophecy more specific and explicit than Matrix. In the last scene of the movie, the woman triumphed over man by eating him. And when the world is in peace again, the woman was the only one who dared to stand in the ruins. The whole idea just scared me.

But, for the reason that the movie is so stylized and beautiful, I give it a 7.