Paprika (2006)
So this was my recommendation, but the truth is I haven't sat down and watched this in about 10 years, since I was fortunate enough to see it for the second or third time at a theater screening. I can honestly say that while I remembered being blown away by this film, I didn't remember what it felt like to be so blown away. What I mean is: wow. This is pure cinematic vision and artistry at a level that was decades ahead of its time in 2010 and remains so today. A colossal achievement in only Satoshi Kon's fourth film, and a constant reminder of all we lost when he passed so terribly young at only 46(!) of cancer.
My journey with Satoshi Kon began when my wife, a fan of anime, showed me Perfect Blue. Previously, she had shown me several films from her favorite anime director, the peerless Hayao Miyazaki. I enjoyed them of course - the visuals, fun, and sheer imagination always impressed me. But these were still kids movies - even my favorite to this day, [b]Spirited Away[b] doesn't age up more than to about 13. So I still had this cultural idea in my head that animation was fundamentally a kid's genre - a very common idea in the West. Boy, was I wrong.
Perfect Blue blew me away. Here was a suspense thriller every bit as exciting and adult as a Hitchcock or DePalma film. Here were reality-twisting visuals that rivaled Lynch. How was this possible?
Well, of course, animation is just a medium like anything else. And, as it turns out, the complete creative control it affords a director and its liquid, shimmery quality, makes animation the perfect artform to depict dreams (see also Waking Life (2003)). Kon takes this point to its logical conclusion here – in a huge way. Nearly every frame of this film is bursting with ideas and vision. From the opening dream – a nightmarish circus phantasmagoria of clowns and angry mobs all with the dreamer’s face – to the iconic “parade of everything under the sun,” as Kon put it, to the identity-merging/splitting/consuming off the clock, to the Paprika/Chiba doppelganger madness, describing this film in words is a fool’s errand.
The basic plot is simple. In the near future, a device called the DC Mini allows the user to view people's dreams. The head of the psychatric team working on this treatment, Doctor Atsuko Chiba, begins using the machine illegally to help patients on by assuming her dream world alter-ego "Paprika". Chiba's closest allies are Doctor Toratarō Shima, the chief of the department, and Doctor Kōsaku Tokita, inventor of the DC Mini. The latter, a massive man, genius, and consumer of all things, becomes Chiba’s love interest. The plot is driven by the theft of the DC Mini and its illicit use to force dreams upon the innocent. Police Detective Konakawa, the subject of Paprika’s dream counseling, becomes involved in the investigation. As others have noted, the plot gets convoluted at times and confusing. This never bothered me as the entire movie is essentially dreams-within-dreams-within-dreams-within Satoshi Kon’s and author of the novel upon which the film is based, Yasutaka Tsutsui’s dreams.
Kon’s talent is so prodigious, it’s staggering to think that we lost such a genius when his career was barely getting started. Indeed, the end of the film features Konakawa going to see a film recommended by Paprika – “Dreaming Kids,” which was intended as Kon’s next film. Kon begged his friend, a produce, to see it ultimately made, but despite some efforts, this never happened and it does not appear likely it ever will. Sad.
At least we have Kon’s four films, culminating in this, his masterpiece.
When you get right down to it, this is a film that must be experienced, which is exactly why I recommended it. 10/10.
Last edited by rbrayer; 05-18-21 at 07:40 PM.