Introduction
Paprika (external link -- Beware! Plot Spoilers!) is an anime feature film directed by Satoshi Kon (external link). If you're a big time anime geek like me, that pretty much tells you all you need to know right there. Kon, who directed films like "Perfect Blue" and "Millennium Actress" and created the series "Paranoia Agent" and "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure", has a reputation as being the anime version of Alfred Hitchcock and a master of the anime "mind screw". If you see one of his works you'll know that:
- You're in for some nicely animated inventive stuff.
- You're watching a show intended for grown ups.
- Weird, unexplained, and possibly confusing things are going to happen.
If the second and third points do not appeal to you, then you probably should avoid all of Satoshi Kon's works.
In the movie, "Paprika", the main plot surrounds a device, called the "DC Mini", that allows one person to travel inside another person's dreams. The intention of this device is to be therapeutic and the title character, Paprika, uses it for just this purpose. Paprika is the dream alter ego for one of the researchers who helped develop the machine, Dr. Atsuko Chiba and she's using the DC Mini without the knowledge or consent of her employers.
The inevitable conflict comes into play when a rogue faction of the company begins to use the DC Mini to control other people, rather than help them. The plot continues on from there.
My Review
I really liked "Paprika". However, I knew going into it that it was going to be a Satoshi Kon film with all the plot twists and weirdness that that implies. With something like a Miyazaki film, such as "Spirited Away", you get a pretty straightforward plot: characters are introduced, they go on some kind of adventure, and return home having grown a little as people. With a Satoshi Kon film, such as "Paprika", the plot is secondary, almost an afterthought. That is, the plot only serves to knit together the weird and cool stuff animated on the screen. Therefore, any plot description of a Satoshi Kon film makes it sound kind of humdrum or boring, while in reality, nothing is further from the truth.
That being said, the film completely delivers on this promise. The animated dream sequences are exquisite and just plain cool. The plot is a mystery and it is revealed deliberately at a good pace. However, this is not a mystery that can be discerned by the viewer before it's revealed, so it's not a typical detective story.
I only have a couple of minor complaints. First, the trippy animation kind of got old after a while. I felt kind of overloaded, like wanting to eat a piece of pie but inadvertently entering a pie eating contest. At times I wanted to shout, "OK your animation is very good and very trippy. Thank you. Now let's get on with the threadbare plot, please."
Second, the nudity. Like any other red-blooded American protestant, female nudity makes me uncomfortable; especially in a public movie theater surrounded by other guys. Yep, I've got that particular "hang up", thanks. The only thing that makes me MORE uncomfortable is MALE nudity, of which there is thankfully none in "Paprika". At one point, a very nude Paprika grows to over 100 feet in height in the streets of Tokyo. It was as if Godzilla turned into a hot naked chick. I wouldn't know whether to run away or run toward that. I suppose it was acceptable and within the bounds of the plot, being a dream, but aren't the dreams in which you're naked in public usually nightmares? Maybe it's different in Japan. For this reason alone, you should probably avoid showing it to young kids, as the giggling would drown out the movie. You should probably avoid showing it to teenage boys also for entirely different reasons.
Neither of these issues is enough to detract significantly from the movie, though. I enjoyed it. You will also, just as long as you know what you're getting into.
I give it 8 out of 10 giant robots.
