Paprika
Title: Paprika
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Animé, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Starring: Megumi Hayashibara, Tôru Furuya, Kôichi Yamadera
Director: Satoshi Kon
Language: Japanese (dubbed)
Satoshi Kon has long since garnered my attention. I’m not sure how he managed to earn his rights as a director to create anything his mind could come up with but once again he’s found an avenue to vent his thoughts on human psychology, and where better to explore than on the intricate subject of dreams. With “Perfect Blue,” a mindfuck of a film about a pop idol descending into the depths of paranoiac madness and “Paranoia Agent,” already under his belt, you can be assured that this film will not let up his reputation, providing the perfect playground for his every whim. Continuing to secure his title as the Animé equivalent of “David Lynch;” he may be insane, but with ‘Paprika’ he’s proven that at least he’s the happy kind.At the heart of this story is the creation of the DC Mini; a device capable of recording dreams and allowing people to enter the dreams of others with the intention of assisting them with psychiatric problems, but such potentially lethal technology albeit with the best of intentions quickly becomes realised when terrorists seize the prototypes and use it for their own selfish desires. With the capability of entering a mind from afar and implanting a dream into their conscious self, the world becomes a toy to be played with and only Paprika can stop them. Make no mistake, this isn’t some cheese-laden reworking of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ a single man trying to kill you would be far too simple. Instead we rarely see the assailant but the effects of his tightening grip can be felt rippling through the film, constantly distorting the fine line between fantasy and reality.
Fascinatingly, despite the frequent apparent nonsensical scenes and situations, given the context of the story can make perfect sense, allowing an absolute freedom to do quite literally anything. The ramification this has on the entire piece is monumental; no longer are you questioning the logic of any given situation but rather questioning the artistic motivation behind the scene. Upon first viewing, I cant say that it felt as though everything was properly explained but that’s not to say there is no explanation, simply that I missed it. There’s so much symbolism and imagery packed into this that if anything they become convoluted, the genuine message I have yet to fully deduce colliding with notions of opposite sides juxtaposing and yet co-inhabiting with one another.
The pacing of the film is quick enough that by the time you’ve come to accept one situation its thrusting another upon you, giving it an extended shelf life as you uncover more underlying truths about this fascinating vision. Whilst it requires your keen attention throughout so as to follow the – at times – unnecessarily complicated script, the plot when it comes down to it is actually quite simple and not too dissimilar from your standard Hollywood thriller; a game of cat and mouse with a touch of mystery thrown in, but all distorted beyond comprehension behind layers and layers of mercilessly chaotic, psychotic and delusional fantasies. The images are bright and vibrant, begging for your attention and only slow down to stop distracting you from the important plot points before kicking off once more. Everything feels a step up from previous efforts – which were in themselves impressive – not only in the level of detail gone into his far from idyllic character designs and the many carefully drawn out backgrounds, but also his development of a unique style of blending the foreground with the background like I’ve not seen even attempted by another animé, allowing for his vivid creations to be given life; creatures can emerge from any location, scenes can be transformed in an instant and everything is given a tension-inducing level of insanity as a consequence.
The symbolism doesn’t end with the backdrops either, in fact one of the most integral themes that I touched upon earlier is this notion of double identity; two opposite sides that form a complete a character represented in the film by their prominent character and the invariably mysterious one lurking in the shadows. More than mere doppelgangers; this double represents their subconsciously unrealised limitations of their own personality, from the overweight genius with a child-like mentality failing to comprehend the gravity of the situation at hand, to the
entity of ‘Paprika’ herself; headstrong and energetic, she mirrors Atsuko’s cold and cautiously calculating personality perfectly and provides constant food for thought as we observe her differing responses. Despite this, there are still some small issues here; the dubbing on some of the characters is fairly awful, certainly to a lower standard than I would expect and so the subtitles come cautiously recommended (I am unsure how well some of the more complex dialogue will be translated), and the chaotic pace of a story which at its heart is such a simple one is no doubt going to deter those who are unable to accept the absurdity and extract the key points so as to keep up with the events, but even if you haven’t the faintest idea what’s happening, the beauty in the constantly shifting artwork warrants its watching by itself.
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