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Paprika
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| Genre | Anime |
| Format | Multiple Formats, Anamorphic, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen |
| Contributor | Satoshi Kon |
| Language | Japanese, English, French, Spanish |
| Runtime | 1 hour and 30 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Prepare to enter the realm of fantasy and imagination -- where reality and dreams collide in a kaleidoscopic mindscape of sheer visual genius. The magical tale centers on a revolutionary machine that allows scientists to enter and record a subject's dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device -- before it falls into the hands of a "dream terrorist" in this gripping anime thriller from acclaimed director Satoshi Kon.
Amazon.com
Based on a novel by the noted Japanese science fiction writer Yasutaka Tsutsui, the brilliant and unsettling feature Paprika continues director Satoshi Kon's exploration of the disturbingly permeable boundaries between dreams and reality. Techno-geek Kosaku Tokita invented the DC Mini to allow therapists to enter a patient's dreams and explore his unconscious, but an evil cabal uses the Mini to create a mass nightmare that causes multiple suicides. Psychotherapist Atsuko Chiba uses her alter-identity, "dream detective" Paprika, to intervene. Entering the nightmare, she witness a bizarre parade of appliances, toys, and kitsch objects: All of her intelligence and imagination are needed to escape this nightmare and its perpetrators. As he did in Millennium Actress and Paranoia Agent, Kon effortlessly carries the audience between reality and fantasy, confirming his reputation as one of the most talented and interesting directors working in animation today. (Rated R: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 7.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 2.56 Ounces
- Item model number : unknown
- Director : Satoshi Kon
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Anamorphic, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Run time : 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Release date : November 27, 2007
- Dubbed: : English, French, Spanish
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish, French
- Language : Japanese (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified
- Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- ASIN : B000VWYJ68
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #18,905 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #255 in Anime (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
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Paprika [Blu-ray]
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STORY
In 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.
CHARACTERS
What'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 APPEARANCE
Normally 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.
THEMES
To 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 WORD
If 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.
And then he wakes up.
As it turns out, he was involved in an experimental therapy session with a woman named Paprika. The device used is referred to as a DC Mini, which allows more than one person to share dreams for therapeutic purposes. The plot thickens when it turns out that a few of these devices have been stolen by dream terrorists, who can use the device to enter and insert dreams into other peoples minds, driving them mad by blurring the lines between the dream world and the real world. It gets worse when the very fabric of reality is called into question. Another film by the late Satoshi Kon (Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers), Paprika displays his fascination with dreams and the way they can be interpreted onscreen. There are various plot elements here (and some imagery) that can be seen in other more recent films like Inception, though unlike Inception, in which the world of dreams can be controlled and manipulated due to its rules, for Satoshi Kon, the world of dreams has neither rules nor logic. This can be seen clearly during the opening credits, which introduce the title character. She happily makes her way through the city jumping in an out of advertisements and altering the world around her as she skips from place to place. As a dream girl, she can do anything she wishes.
The dream sequences throughout the film are a clear highlight as it allows Satoshi Kon’s imagination to run free, much like the horrific parade dream that marches through other people’s dreams, collecting them and growing, all with the accompaniment of the wonderful music of Susumu Hirasawa, a frequent collaborator of Kon. The visuals in this film blend are simply stunning, and above all, maintain a genuine feeling of surrealism, much like a real dream. The people trapped in the parade spew nonsense sentences that likely only make sense to them alone; the environment can be changed and altered to the point where someone can press themselves through a wall like it was made out of plastic wrap. While there's a strong amount of emphasis on the dreams, this is also balanced out with the characters in the real world; Paprika is the dream alter ego of Doctor Chiba Atsuko (both voiced by Megumi Hayashibara), a doctor working at the company that developed the DC Mini. Unlike her free spirited alter ego, Chiba is very reserved and serious. She works alongside Doctor Tokita (Tôru Furuya), an enormously fat and immature scientist that developed the device, and Doctor Shima (Katsunosuke Hori), their chief. The chief is the first victim of a dream attack and he falls prey to it mid sentence. In this scene, as well as throughout the film, Kon shows that he prefers to let the audience see something before they are given an explanation of any kind. The last and a particular interesting character is Kogawa (Akio Ôtsuka), the detective. At first glance he seems like any tough older detective, but as his dreams develop we learn much more about his past and in particular, his connection to film. Because of this film connection, there's a plethora of movie references littered throughout the story; some are obvious while others are much more subtle visual cues.
I am fascinated by this film, much as I am by all of Kon’s previous work. It's a mature and serious story with mind bending and unforgettable imagery. Bending the line between reality and dreams has been a theme in many of his stories, and it’s no wonder that he chooses to visualize this through animation. With animation, just as in dreams, there are no limitations.
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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.
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*
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