Anime: Paprika

As much as I’m supposed to respect this film for being the swan song of the late Satoshi Kon, I just can’t do it. Despite following the anti-escapism message motif of all his works, it’s also the only one where the characters have no personal investment with what is going on. Yes, there are people who explore their psyche through dreams, but that is hardly a conflict. It’s something a Saturday morning cartoon villain would think of to mess with people a bit. The detective and the woman looking for the bad guy are just doing their jobs.

As a visual spectacle, it’s a marvel to look at, but it’s also impossible to take seriously. When dreams become a reality it’s comical and light hearted. You don’t feel the world is in serious peril because of it. You don’t actually see humanity suffering from its deepest desires, and instead look like random stuff moving on the screen. In fact, you hardly see anyone other than the main characters, and because they give you nothing to care for them, the movie is completely distant. It looks trippy, but it fails to feel trippy or to make a point.

Take Inception, a different movie that is said to be influenced by Paprika. I didn’t like much either, but notice how they are trying to make the main character relatable by giving him a personal conflict. It’s a dumb conflict, but it also something for him to be worried about on a personal level. Paprika doesn’t even do that, all I remember is a chick who is too shy to reveal she’s in love, and some cartoony villain who wants to become a god with the power of imagination. Stupid!

What I am trying to say is that it’s only whimsical. Weird for the sake of being weird, way too light hearted, and as such doesn’t delve or explore the themes as was the case in previous movies. It’s dumb fun which leaves you with nothing more than pretty colors that don’t mean anything. It makes the entire thing hollow, not to mention impossible to appeal to any major age group. Kids won’t get it, grownups will find it shallow, nobody wins. I guess sakugafags could find it interesting, but even then, how many do you know who are talking about it? How many gifs from this film do you see being used nowadays?

Furthermore, as if it deliberately wants to leave you with the worst possible impressions, the very last scene shows a cinema full of posters from Satoshi’s earlier works. It’s like they were reminding you of all the better shit this man has produced in the past. Also, it’s a reference. Screw references, they break immersion. Not that there was much to begin with, but screw references nonetheless.

SPOILERS ALERT! All my reviews have spoilers!

Paprika is a 2006 animated movie directed by Satoshi Kon and co-written with Seishi Minakami.
The story is based in Yasutaka Tsuitui’s novel (also known for "The Girl Who Leapt through Time") and, unfortunately, this was the last movie release by Kon, since his death in 2010 with a pancreatic cancer, leaving his fifth movie incomplete on the hands of the Madhouse founder, Masao Muryama, and let’s hope that within this or the next year we’ll get the chance to see “Dreaming Machine”!
The story of Paprika is about a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment that invades the patient’s dreams in an attempt to reach/treat the problems of the patient. The whole story is passed in a near future where a device called DC Mini allows the user to enter in the other people’s dreams. Dr. Atsuko Chiba started to use this device (illegally) to test and help psychiatric patients outside the research facility, using an alter-ego called Paprika. One of her patients is Detective Konakawa, which suffers from an anxiety since an incomplete case that keeps tormenting his mind, and, of course, they do these sessions in secret since the DC Mini is still not authorized.
The creator of this device is Dr. Tokita, and since the DC Mini is new and unofficial it lacks access restrictions, which allows anyone to enter the other person’s dream.
Dr. Shima, chief of the department, finds himself caught in someone else’s dream that reached his mind, making him jump from a window, almost killing himself. This obviously meant that someone stole the device!
The department decides to examine his dream and finds a parade of cultural items and icons, with stuffed animals, toys, refrigerators and instrumental-playing. In the confusion Dr. Tokita recognizes his assistant and friend, Kei Himuro, hidden in a body of a doll and this implies that possibly he might be the thief.
After some more incidents, the Chairman of the company bans the use of the device completely. Unfortunately, by this time, Dr. Tokita had already lost himself in the parade dream when searching for answers.
Paprika starts to dig deep in this dream and find out that Himuro was just a decoy – this was actually a plan made by the Chairman and his assistant/researcher Dr. Osanai.
There’s a point where dreams are so merged with the reality that you don’t even know which one is it! And this connection between the two worlds will also allow Paprika to separate from Chiba.
In the climax of the movie Dr. Chiba will reconciliate with her repressed feelings and the Chairman’s nightmare dream will be consumed by Paprika.
At the very last moment Paprika gives a card to Konakawa to visit a site where she’ll say that Dr. Chiba is going to marry Tokita, and the Detective should watch a movie called “Dreaming Kids” (while the other Kon’s movies pass by) and he purchases a ticket for the movie that him, and us, are waiting to see for 8 years….
So, this film won 4 international awards and was nominated for 2 including the Golden Lion for the Best Film. But a lot of people didn’t liked this movie because it was messy for them… well this is a result that you often see from the westerns that think this is just eye-candy without plot. First people need to understand that the Japanese love anime and manga because the animation allows a freedom of imagination that you don’t get with live-action movies! And if you like Hollywood movies so much you should know that the 2010 "Inception" was actually based in Paprika's premise!
This movie is a fantasy puzzle that dazzles you, is a work of imagination – “Life is but a dream!” When you go to a gallery of art you don’t look at the paintings to understand them! You go there to experience the emotions/dreams/feelings that only that symbolic and impressive moment gives you!
And Kon was a master with the abstract in animation! When you see Paprika being split in half, like a cicada husk, you see a butterfly Chiba coming out of it! She’s now free! No more masks! No more coldness! And I’ll miss Kon forever for this! He was genius!
Let’s talk about characters: Paprika is the cute, extroverted, agent of freedom and imagination, while on the other side we have Chiba, representative of science, very cold and introverted. It is still a mystery to us why Paprika appear so different from her when the other’s avatar are all alike to their owners; Dr. Tokita is the obese genius, with a kids heart, he treats Chiba with affection when he calls her At-chan; we have the friendly and cheerful Dr. Shima; the researcher Osanai who’s obsessed by Chiba; and finally the Chairman.
The villains have their reasons here: for the Chairman, dreams are a sanctuary that needs protection and the DC Mini steals people’s dreams, poisoning their heads with technology, and that’s why he acts like a villain, he’s in fact protecting dreams to not fall in the duality of reality/virtuality.
And forgive me Miyazaki fans but I truly think that Kon can be much better than him! Putting children in an imaginative atmosphere may not be easy, but imagination is within children! Putting female adults in an imaginative dream fused with reality that’s something amazing that only Kon could do it!
The production values are impressive too. For the first time in a movie you have a vocaloid (Lola) in many songs! The ending theme “The Girl in Byakkoya” has some lines in Vietnamese, which has something implied there, that I’m not going to explain! (Like a lot of other things in the movie…)
The artwork merges very well the reality with the surreal world of the subconscious, and the characters may be simple drawn but the Tokyo backgrounds are like pure paintings, and you don’t have the slightest idea of the amount of allegories that run in that parade!
There are some issues too: we’ll never understand very well how Konakawa got involved in the parade dream; other issue is that we’ll never get if Paprika is suppose to be a split personality of Chiba or just a fantasy of hers, because it gets awkward when the two are talking together having different arguments; and it’s true that if you only enjoy coherent movies this will feel like a brain disconnection, mostly because you don’t have the baggage to understand some underline themes here, and that’s not your fault!
Without getting into the symbolism I must state that this is a journey to the subconscious mind, very well made, and a piece of art!

Art & Animation

Fantastic! Character designs are really pointed towards how real humans look, instead of the usual anime appearance. Animation, effects, motion and change of scenes was awesome. Really well done, it really does its job for this movie.

Sound

Opening theme was good, ending theme so-so.

Soundtrack is pretty decent, it can often really portray the gravity of situations, as well as psychedelic motives. Although I do think that it could have been better, to leave more impact on the viewers.

Voice acting was really solid.

Story

A really good, surreal, psychedelic story. Dreams and reality.... the portrayal of their relation and especially the portrayal of dreams was awesome. It created anxiety when watching the movie, since it's that convincing. The villain(s) was/were set really good, mysteriously.

However, I must say that I am somewhat disappointed with the ending of the movie. We never found out what happened with villain(s) and certain other character(s). After the conclusion of the movie's psychedelic theme, things were somewhat sped up and some parts of conclusion were omitted. I understand that this kind of movies probably relies on such half-cliffhanger endings, but it left me confused.

The story itself can also be confusing at many times, but that's probably because the idea is to confuse the minds of the viewers.

I also feel that the culmination of the movie was somewhat rushed. It definitely could have used more time.

Characters

Characters were portrayed good for this kind of movie, but I feel like more drama should have been given to them. The villain(s) is/are really scary in the psychological sense, but there is a lack of conclusion for this/these character(s).

Value

This movie shows how animation can awesomely portray and interpret dreams, especially on psycho-frightening level. I think that it is pretty significant for animation in the world.

Enjoyment

I don't think that I have other choice but letting myself be subjective regarding "enjoyment". I certainly admire how frightening motives were well portrayed in this movie. However, the movie is admittedly scary and surreal, and I couldn't truly enjoy it due to its level of surrealness and psychodelity. I just miss the good old introductory-development-culimination-conclusion composition of movies.

I probably will never watch this movie again, since I couldn't enjoy it truly, but I definitely think it's a good watch.

Paprika -- Because right about now, I really needed a little pepper.

So, this week I went through my DVD collection and noticed, on my anime shelf, that I actually had a few films still wrapped in their plastic wrap they came in. More to my surprise, I discovered that Satoshi Kon’s 2006 film Paprika, his last work prior to his all-too-early death in 2010, was one of them. I had ordered the film for a watch upon learning of said death and just never gotten around to it, which I took steps to rectify. And, having now seen it thoroughly (or at least once), I feel it’s in my place to say a few words about this film.

Paprika is really one of those things I wish I’d discovered earlier; especially in a theatre had it been running in my local area. It’s a film for adults, which is rare enough in this current anime climate aimed mainly at young boys and overgrown boys in mens’ bodies, concerning a rampant dream causing havoc in a near-future Tokyo and a psychologist’s attempt at finding out who let it loose without resorting to vague superpowers, ham-fisted drama, nonsensical technobabble or underaged schoolgirls as plot devices. A breath of fresh air (albeit a five year old one) to me, in other words.

Animation and Visuals: 10/10 –- Shiny, pretty, imaginative, colourful… Take your pick of praise. Or take all of them; they all fit.

For a film about dreams, one would expect Paprika to be a study in contrast; vibrancy, heavy use of strong, primary colours, wild, imaginative character designs, shifting and varied environs and unusual use of camera and other wild visual effects in contrast with a more subdued, drab and ‘normal’ everyday world the characters occupy when they’re not in dreamland… And what do you know, that is exactly what the film gives you, and in spades.

The visuals are extremely crisp and sharp, the animation is top-notch (but given this is a full-on film, this is almost to be expected as a minimum compared to normal episodic anime, which is commonly made on a lower budget), the colours are incredible, and the demented imagination involved in creating some of the dreamscape scenes is beyond my feeble mind to try to visualize. Especially the dream parade scenes, which cannot be adequately described by my words alone and defy any explanation I could try to give it here. The real world scenes are perfectly functional and, while not as well-made as the dream sequences, contain small interesting background events and similar (especially when they start crossing over into the dream-world without your notice).

The character designs are distinctive and well-done, and almost fit their characters’ personalities too well for comfort (really, there will be no surprises in dissonance between how the characters look and act). There are some minor hiccups that are noticeable if you’re especially nitpicky (the lip-sync is done the standard Japanese way; animate before you record the lines, making mouth and words go slightly out of sync), but nothing I would say is major.

Sound and Music: 9/10 – This film can currently be blamed for an Ear Worm war being fought inside my head for ultimate dominance of my brain patterns. The composer should be proud/ashamed.

The soundtrack of Paprika was composed by Susumu Hirasawa, who is mainly known for his work on other Satoshi Kon projects as well as the Berserk anime. Anyone who has heard the Berserk soundtrack, and especially its crowning track “Forces”, will immediately recognize this as his handiwork: A mixture of catchy techno, dissonant sounds, and the use of marching and choirs (especially men’s choir) to support under it. In just under 90 minutes, Hirasawa manages to put in a truly impressive array of music into the film. Of special note is the show’s opening titles (“Meditation Field”), its vocalized ending equivalent (“The Girl in Byakkyua”), and of course the theme of the rampant dream (“Parade”). The remaining tracks, while not quite as memorable, are each more or less hand-tailored to their individual scenes as well and work very well at mood-setting and emotional reinforcement.

The voice-work contains several voice actors to whom the word “veteran” would in many ways be doing them a disservice: Megumi Hayashibara (Faye, Rei, Lina Inverse, Haruka… The list goes *on*) as Chiba, Akio Otsuka (Batou, Solid Snake, Black Jack, Rider… Another huge list) as Konakawa and Kouchi Yamadera (Spike, Kaji, Ryoga) as Osanai. The additional voices (of which there aren’t many, but includes the author of the original book as one of the bartenders) join the ones I named in being very well picked for their characters and also giving a good, if a little subdued, reading to the dialogue of the show. I have absolutely no complaints about the voices, which when combined with the masterful music makes for a very good audio impression indeed.

Story: 9/10 –- What… The?... And yet, why do I like that ‘what’ so much?

The story of Paprika, which is originally from a 1993 book, is apparently one mr. Kon had wanted to tell for some time. Given the subject matter, a story on the interactions between dreams and reality, it’s not hard to see why.

The story concerns a future where specialized machines allow psychiatrists to directly interact with their patients’ dreams. When three copies of an experimental mobile version that allows the wearer to potentially jack into and control any dream are stolen, and a rash of people are assaulted by having the dream of a delusional psychotic uploaded into their brains while in a waking state, the game is on. The inventors of the mobile version – psychiatrist and main character Chiba, childlike inventor Tokita, and their eccentric but kindly old boss Shima, together with police detective and client Konakawa – are forced to investigate what appears to be an inside job and track down the culprit.

Paprika’s story is somewhat obtuse and mixes mystery with confusion with outright mind screw as the barriers between what’s real and not due to the rogue dream-jackers starts making the whole thing fall apart. In addition, heavy use of symbolism (as befitting of a story concerning dreams) is heavily employed throughout; almost nothing is said or stated outright, leaving the viewer to having to figure much of it out yourself. Nonetheless, it is tightly directed and very nicely told; even at its most confusing and bewildering the progression is good, and the impact of being forced to consider what might be real and what is not this hard on this story as it is in, for example, Evangelion. The small pieces of satire/parody of cinema found in Konakawa’s dream and during the final parade also make for interesting one-note jokes.

One part of this is that the mind-screw is included from the very beginning, and when you’ve seen the rogue dream once, you’re more or less mentally prepared for this to get utterly bonkers. The climax brings this to a head, in a final confrontation which may or may not be entirely real or entirely symbolic. I still haven’t entirely figured out which. There may not be a ‘right’ answer to it, which I find to be uncharacteristically non-troublesome after what is now about half a decade of railing against anime who reach too heavily into the ‘symbolism’ box. Part of this is, I suspect, that the symbolism here actually *means* something.

Characters: 7/10 -– Possibly the weakest link in the film, but it’s still a fairly strong link at that.

The character gallery in Paprika is fairly compact; the film having probably recognized that 90 minutes is not the best time to introduce a vast, sprawling cast. Given the story-driven nature of the film and its focus on surrealism, the character exploration and development is fairly bare-boned stuff as well. The latter becomes less of a sore point given that the characters are all adults, and thus logically reached a point in life where terms like “coming-of-age” and “character development” becomes less logical to focus inordinately on.

The characters’ basic personalities and motivations shine through well enough: Although it’s a bit obtuse at times who is who at the beginning, but this initial confusion tones down a bit once you start getting a feel for what’s real and what’s not (or at least what you *think* is what). The individual characters are fairly made and work quite fine: There is time for a few talks that serve no storyline purpose beyond simply fleshing out characters, a few red herrings, and like in the story quite a bit of a “figure it out yourself” factor that in this case worked quite fine after having watched one too many shows where practically every aspect of a character is worn completely on the sleeve. It is also interesting to note how much of the characters get revealed in dreamland: Even as tight-lipped as they may be in real life, a lot of the set pieces and their dream avatars are interesting and relevant symbolism for their ‘true selves’.

If I have to criticise the character gallery for one thing – and I will – it’s the antagonist and his Evil Plan. While it is quite clear that he was rather mad, which may explain while his plan didn’t exactly seem to make much sense, exactly what drove him and his role in the whole thing may have gotten slightly muddled in the utter brain screw that was the third act. He was also kind of overt, in a “do I ever look and act evil even if it’s supposed to be a secret” way. Maybe they didn’t want to waste the time on subtlety, but come on.

Value: 9/10 –- Eat your heart out, Ikuhara.

Taking away from the fact that Satoshi Kon was very fond of using ‘dream’ and its interplay with reality as a story seed, Paprika is a marvel of innovation and a very good piece of direction, mixing an interesting (if maybe not terribly thought-provoking or with a higher purpose-) story with excellent visuals and audio, and a strong sense of uniqueness and memorability (although the release of Inception, which Nolan admitted was inspired by this film, overshadows this film a wee bit, I imagine).

The main issue with Paprika’s ‘value’ would be that it’s not exactly the sort of film you’d introduce people to anime with, I think. In western cinema terms, Paprika is a sort of ‘arthaus’ film, albeit one pushed by a major film studio and with an A-level budget, and casual watchers or people not familiar to the medium will probably be slightly confused if they’re not used to analysis of films as they watch. I therefore don’t think it’s an entirely ‘universal’ appeal film (and I find its “this is your brain on anime” tagline to be somewhat unfortunate as a result), but speaking for myself I found this very appealing, indeed.

Enjoyment: 8/10 –- Probably the most enjoyable mind screw I’ve had since Evangelion.

I enjoyed Paprika a lot. Even if I couldn’t always understand the entire story, even if the characters at times were underdeveloped and the nature of the conflict may have seemed slightly obtuse (though I found it understandable enough in the end), it all came together splendidly in the end. I found, in retrospect and on a second viewing, that many of the “huh? What?” scenes first time around became more of a “huh. That suddenly makes sense, somewhat” the second time.

Unlike many other shows that I have seen, and belted on, for being overly surreal and bizarre, Paprika’s gleeful over-the-top outlandishness in the visuals and sound of the mind screw aspects allow for a charm that reminds me (fondly) almost of something parodying the use of bizarreness for bizarreness’ sake. There is a sort of child-like glee and playfulness in how silly the whole thing occasionally gets, akin to that you find in Ghibli childrens’ films. This is a sort of combination of energy, drive and thoughtfulness that I cherish greatly in how I enjoy films.

Total: 8.5/10 – “Yet if hope has flown away/In a night, or in a day/In a vision, or in none/Is it therefore the less gone?”

One thing that probably Paprika is going to be coloured by for as long as it is remembered is as its status as Magnum opus and final work released by a director who died before being able to make something else (at least until Madhouse gets a release of The Dream Machine). I would like to say that my own scores are entirely a reflection of the film’s (certainly very high) innate quality, unaffiliated with mr. Kon’s tragic death.

Really, on a conscious level, I do believe this film believes every accolade and numeric score I lavish upon it: Dead director or no. Paprika, while a little incomprehensible at times and under-characterised, is a very well-directed film. While mr. Kon’s focus on dreams in all his works may leave him remembered to the posterior as something of a one-trick pony in terms of story planning, I would like to see it as similar to the esteemed mr. Miyazaki in that regards: That the man had a passion for a certain story element, and that while this made the theme of the films constant and recognizable, what was done from said element (and its quality) was an unknown factor that would offer surprises.

As a summary, I can only say this: This film deserved my praise. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, it deserves you watching it. It’s possible you won’t like it, but I think you owe yourself the chance.

Hey AniDB, so months ago I ended my Perfect Blue review with "I look forward to seeing more works from Satoshi Kon." and behold, here we are with Paprika! So, how did it match up? Is it a winner? Here's my two cents.

Animation
COLORFUL! Wow, is Paprika colorful... every conceivable color on the palette is featured here, so STEP 1 TO ENJOYING THIS MOVIE make sure you watch it on a monitor or tv that can display it right! This is a most colorful anime! And the attention to details drawn here, it is out of control! However... because the anime blends animated reality with non-reality, it's really just too hard to describe what you're going to see in a conventional means. Words to explain the sights within will simply do me no good. Paprika is visually that mind bending. A psychedelic bombardment on your eyes. Things will blend that shouldn't blend, and move, change, and warp, distorting suddenly as animated reality and the imaginary world of dreams collide. So throw everything you thought you knew about how things "should look", how shapes "should be", toss those preconceived notions right out the window, because this is a 90 minute color, shape, and line frenzy without the mind altering drugs you usually need to score to trip your balls out. To sum it up, Paprikas animation is artistic, creative, expressive, surreal, and above all colorful and a sight to behold.
• Looks/Visuals : 10/10

Sound
If you've only seen an episode of Paranoia Agent, you'll know instantly this movie is related. The score... it's best described as being "like" a carnival. Not that it's necessarily carnival music. It's more or less the sounds a rouge electronic sampling computer would come up with on its own. Energetic, chaotic, beyond genre. It has it's own personality. Very noticeable, very key to helping the story move along. Unfortunately, like the animation, it is difficult to describe. Just play it loud, it is instrumental to the twisting experience and enjoyable in it's own right.
• Score/Voice Acting : 9/10

Story
Well, enough flattery over Paprikas strengths and welcome to the debatable part of the review. The story... it is coherent and yet incoherent at the same time. That's right... a contradiction to itself. It's supposed to be that way. Story has to fit the animation and sound right? Or is it vice versa? Anyway, if you're the kind of person that likes deep social commentary and philosophical psychological hidden meanings and can live with the unexplainable and non-rational manner in which way this story will unfold, well then you will enjoy this movie. If your the type that needs to make sense out of things and expects a little silly something like "an explanation to what's going on", well... this is not going to be your cup of tea.

Myself? I followed with little difficulty, I've had some Satoshi Kon experience and accepted easily that not all things will make sense in a linear fashion and I let the story unfold completely before I tried to wrap my head around it. My viewing partner, my wife, tried to follow... and the confusion simply bored her out, lost her interest, and she fell asleep promptly. Paprika has something it's trying to say, it has an original idea, you can feel it. However I must admit, it doesn't seem fully baked in this feature. Maybe it'll inspire something better though, who knows. Clearly not for everyone.
• Story : 6/10

Character
Feature length anime movies I feel usual lack in this category... there's just not a lot of time to establish round characters, it's the nature of the ninety minute beast. Paprika is no exception and is in fact noticeably weak in this department. Characters have no explained pasts, reactions, motivations... there's just no depth and emotion to anyone at all. They almost act like it's all just a silly game. A bit of romance tries to mingle its way in unexpectedly to perhaps make you care for the characters, but it is unexplained and unseen prior to the moment a character confesses it. The cast simply fails entirely to make you care who they are or give much a damn about them. They're drawn well, they're all distinctive looking from one another, that's about it. If it wasn't for the fact that Paprika is fun to watch and her movements display a lot of potential energetic upbeat personality, this might rank lower. Just ouch, they're that forgettable.
• Characters : 4/10

Value
Well, back to saying something positive at last... for your eyes and ears, Paprika is a gem. It's gonna be hard to recommend a purchase though. It might not even be worth 90 minutes of your time if you think the hard to follow story telling and paper thin characters will bother you. If you can deal with it, and perhaps accept viewing it as a surreal artistic piece, well then certainly give it a go. The colors man, the colors are fun indeed. If you're new to Satoshi Kon however, I recommend you start somewhere else like Paranoia Agent as the slower moving series will give you more time to adjust to the reality/non-reality blending that takes place in his anime. Though a series is a longer investment than a movie, this anime is for the initiated psychedelic otaku only, while Paranoia might be enjoyable in other ways. That's my opinion anyway, and hell that's why this is my review right? It's up to you.
• Value : 5/10

Enjoyment
The high ratings in Animation and Sound should tell you what I enjoyed most right? Without question it looked and sounded better than Perfect Blue, the anime that got me interested in Satoshi Kon. However, Paprika was disappointing by comparison. I really enjoyed Perfect Blue. It was well rounded in all categories. Here, the lack of character depth and difficult story just hurt this offering too much to bounce back despite such a knock out punch with the visuals. I mean really, you notice the different run styles of Paprika and Chiba, the slight differences in body style and movement... the lengths the animators went to, it's just really cool to look at. The freakin' boobs have correct weight and movement in one scene ya know? That's awesome detail, you can't miss it. But I guess that's where all the big budget went to and they had no funds left to get proper writers to flesh this potentially deep anime out into the masterpiece it could have been. I still look forward to seeing Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, the films between Perfect Blue and this, and I hope Satoshi Kon steers the ship back on course with his next offering (the Dream Machine?) and Paprika isn't a sign that he has no gas left in the creative tank. Whatever, we'll see. As for Paprika, enjoy the sights, absorb the colors. Paprika can't disappoint you there.
• Enjoyment : 7/10

• Overall : 7
Thanks

The general lack of cohesiveness in Paprika's story is usually enough to ruin most movies; make them disaffecting. The premise alone, a scientific breakthrough that threatens humanity in a practical and spiritual way is kind of tired. Who hasn't seen terminator or the matrix? The disappointingly nonsensical climax and the general lack of inspiration in the plot, evidenced by its contrived and predictable plot twist, doesn't help its case.

Paprika makes a few social observations, but calling it insightful would be a bit of an exaggeration. There are a couple of nods to the ills of society, from shut ins to greedy politicians. There are a couple of one liners that hypothesize about the nature of dreams, all of which you can easily dismiss with a wiki search on the subject or a psych 101 book. To be fair, the social commentary is a small part of the movie, and you're never bogged down with long, faux-science/philosophy discussions on dreams or the flaws of humanity. Thankfully, they're short.

The soundtrack is most simply described by the word "hectic". The opening piece sounds a bit like techno, but there are all kinds of instruments and chants in the background. It's reminiscent of the opening theme from Paranoia Agent (and I believe they're done by the same artist). Lively pieces like this are sparsely scattered about, along with equally hectic tracks that seem to be inspired by circus music. You know, with cymbals and percussions blasting all over the place. There's also liberal usage of nonsense sounds like ringing, or a fuzzy, static-y noise, which add a little creepiness to the scenes. The soundtrack of Paprika is certainly noticeable, and it fits with the vibrant and beautiful animation in such a way that every scene the soundtrack touches, it elevates.

While a satisfying and engrossing story is usually what makes a film memorable, in Paprika's case, it doesn't need to be more than the sum of its parts. Paprika is filled with several memorable scenes that evoke a wide range of emotions. The protagonist's travels through the dreams of others is filled with innocent and whimsical charm. The childlike imagination pervades the whole movie, but while it is cute in some instances, the same seemingly innocent themes and images can be chilling in others.

The negatives with Paprika start with its story. There is a romantic element and a mystery surrounding a side character's past that function as subplots. The problem is, both of these subplots are never worked into the movie smoothly because they have very little relation to the central story. It's jarring and awkward whenever the movie seemingly comes to a halt in order to develop either of these elements. I can't say that they aren't interesting though. It's a sad fact, but the central plot is just so devoid of creativity that these subplots happen to be the most interesting parts of the story. Paprika's story is not only simple, in a very "been there, done that" sort of way, but it fumbles the climax as well. Beyond the fact that the climactic events are a bit nonsensical, there's just never any urgency, or tension conveyed.

My criticism of Paprika finishes with its characters. The only vaguely nuanced character is the main character, Chiba, and her alter ego after whom the movie is named. The other characters are there for little reason other than spouting supposedly thought provoking dialogue and monologues. This is especially bothersome because the main villain is also just a lecture machine. Supporting characters are usually simple in any movie, but they are particularly disaffecting here because their relationships with each other have very little depth. This means there's very little tension of any sort between characters. Even the romance feels slapped on because throughout the movie, there was no romantic tension to speak of between the two characters involved.

As much as I'm complaining about it, I was still touched by the one romantic scene. This is exactly why all the flaws of Paprika can be overlooked. Despite the lack of tension built up by the plot or characters, the scenes themselves, given that most of the movie takes place within dreams, are limited only by the imagination of the creators. There is all kinds of creativity in the scene direction and plenty of details to pique so many different emotions; from a skincrawling kind of discomfort to the warm and fuzzies of romance. Ultimately, this makes Paprika enjoyable, perhaps even memorable.