Film Review: Paprika


Fig 1. Paprika (2006)

Based on the book of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui the film Paprika (2006) is an example of the type of films that have been coming out of Japan over the years, along with showing the ways that animation can be used to tell a story much more clearly than if it was live action. As shown in the film you can do anything in animation just like you can do anything in your dreams.

The core premise of the film is people being able to interact and go into other peoples’ dreams as a form therapy with the help of a device called the DC Mini. When one of the DC Minis goes missing the doctors who use it start to think that someone is using it to take control of people with a crazy dream filled complete nonsense while they still awake. With the help of Detective Toshimi Konakawa the doctors might find out who stole the device before the dream world and the real world start merging together, likely they have Paprika on their side.

The film was directed by Satoshi Kon and was done in the Japanese animation style known as anime which has become very popular over the years in the west. As the film is animated and not made with live action like most science fiction stories, the dream sequences can become seamless and the characters can move in the ever changing physics of the world with easy something that might be difficult if it was being done by a real actor with a green screen. “The animation medium lends itself so perfectly to dream capers that it's no wonder Kon's final film is regarded a perfect marriage of form and subject.” (Clark, 2017) It seems that Kon is showing that, just like with dream, animation has no limitations to what can be achieved.

The film received a lot of positive reviews and was praised for its use of animation and the way that it made the viewer explore its world. However, the western audient might have a problem getting settled into the film or keeping up with the story as it follows the Japanese style of storytelling that is not that common with films that come up of Hollywood. “….an outright challenge to American viewers, who may, in the face of its whirligig complexity, feel almost pea-brained.” (Denby, 2007) On the other hand as more and more people in the west become more familiar with this type of storytelling because of the popularly of anime then the story structure we see in Paprika might start to make its way into big blockbusters in the coming years.

Paprika not only left its mark on the world of cinema but it also seems to comment on it drawing comparisons with films to dreams. References are made to other films in the dream world and dreams are a liken to playing out like movies as if the viewer is flicking through the different movie channels, we travel through a number of different worlds at once. “The sense of an impending collapse of reality is further highlighted by Kon's post-modern allusions to the mechanisms and history of cinema.” (Jackson, 2008)

Some people watching the Paprika might get the feeling that they have seen this type of film before, a story about going deep into another’s dream world to find answers, and they have. The 2010 film Inception follows a similar storyline but one thing to keep in mind is that Paprika came out 4 years before hand.

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