In futuristic urban Japan, a team of scientists has created a device called the DC Mini which allows dreams to be viewed and entered, intended for use in psychiatric treatment (hi there, Freud...). While still in its development phase, the device is stolen and used to illegally manipulate people's dreams. Researcher Atsuko Chiba and her coworker - the DC Mini's childlike inventor - Kosaku Tokita are sent to track down the missing DC Minis and untangle the mess of merging dreams that is eating away at the minds of the people of the city, aided by the mysterious Paprika.
How would I describe Paprika...perhaps something like 'A mind-bending psychedelic thriller in a futuristic world where the subconscious can be entered and manipulated, blurring dream and reality.' Sound familiar? This is the exact description of what I expected from Inception, getting instead a rather straightforward action film (which, tangentially, fell apart for me on second viewing - too many plot holes). Paprika, however, delivers on this premise. It also came first, and considering there is a scene with shifting gravity in a hotel hallway, I imagine it may have been required viewing for the Inception production team. While at times a little too bizarre and grotesque for my tastes, Paprika is generally a gorgeous and captivating film. The animated medium allows for otherworldly visuals and expansive scenes without the gimmicky feeling of CG (or the budget of actual sets), and the fast pace while jarring at first quickly lends to a gripping and engrossing experience.
The character development and resolution of the film is at times out-of-nowhere and I think will take at least as long as the dream/reality division to unravel; I'll have to watch the film again to fully understand it. But I will say that I wasn't left completely bewildered, and I think Satoshi Kon allowed for enough exposition that this film is more responsive than staring at a brick wall. Well, staring at a brick wall while on acid, anyway. I would say it does a better job exploring the consequences of its premise than Inception, though it has much more of a fantastic feel. Definitely worth seeing, probably worth seeing again in a couple months so I can try and actually figure everything out.
Well, the time has come to say goodbye to this blog which has been occupying me for the last year. It is now 2011 and Paprika, which I viewed on December 30, will be the last movie I will review here. Wish the last entry could have been a little more coherent but I'm sleep deprived and jet-lagged and, well, it's this movie, so what can you do? It's been a fun year keeping track of my thoughts on movies; I don't think I will be doing this again but I enjoyed this chance to improve my nonfiction writing. See you all around...
(and what I thought about them)
About this Blog
This is here as much for my own benefit as anyone else's. I felt like it would be a good idea to keep track of the movies I see this year, and put down a little bit of review information, so I can remember which ones I might like to see again. I'm keeping it relatively spoiler-free so that it might also function as a guide for anyone who stumbles across this blog. However, I don't claim to be a seasoned movie reviewer, and a lot of the time my opinions differ from well known critics. Of course, maybe that's a good thing.
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