Paprika - A Belated Review of a Movie I Missed Out On

Despite my love of Paranoia Agent, and general love of the themes of any of Satoshi Kon's work, for some reason his movies have never really struck a chord with me. This is all despite my view that the world of anime was better with someone like him in it because no one else created works quite like Satoshis. So while I took a long time to get around to it, I finally sat down to watch Paprika. This was in part because I really enjoyed the movie Inception, whose inspiration came from Paprika.

After viewing it, I can say this is the first of Satoshi Kon's movies that I not only appreciated for it's themes and style, but the first time I've actively enjoyed it. Paprika is a story that involves a team of researchers responsible for creating a device that allows one to enter another's dream, the goal behind it being to help treat people with mental hang-ups of some kind. The device is stolen, and they try to find out who did it to prevent whatever possible horrors could be unleashed by someone able to connect to other peoples dreams.

To describe what happens in the scenes is weird because they don't follow any kind of real world logic. It wouldn't make sense for them to given they are all taking place in dreams. There are plenty of scenes that take place in reality, but those are largely just people talking with each other. Those scenes are fantastic as they not only move the story along but give you a lot of insight into the characters in the film. You have the genius behind the device, who is accurately described as a child trapped in the body of a genius, a very straight-laced researcher, and the bubbly and quick Paprika. The movie does an amazing job at keeping every plot thread focused, the characters interactions are fantastic and believable, and it's interesting to see how the two plot lines end up converging by the shows end. There is the focus on a dream that is essentially invading other peoples dreams through this device and essentially taking away their consciousness, and a patient that Paprika is working on in order to help him get over his own hang-ups.

The story does have a tendency to feel like it's spoon feeding you the exposition though. There are quite a few times where you see characters explaining things to each other that don’t' really feel natural since they should already know these things. I get why they do it, it's not so easy to have an audience proxy in a show like this, but it does pull you out at times. There is also a twist involving the culprit that is a bit too obvious, and something I guessed within minutes of watching the movie. It's to the show's credit that the focus isn't on a 'Who did it?' type of mystery story, because if they did the movie would have fallen flat on its face.

The big draw, as it usually is with Satoshi Kon is how seamlessly he gets his ideas across. There is always a big theme to anything the guy touches, and it's something I don't really want to get into too many details on since it's best experienced for yourself. But I will say the show, in part, touches on the ramifications of both the good and bad things technology can bring. That is one of a few themes, but an interesting one at that. I like how Kon never quite gives you an answer to that question either and leaves it up to the viewer to decide.

Another thing is the shows visuals are amazing. So long as you don't mind how jumpy it can be, it really does feel like you are starting to watch a dream, and without spoiling too much there are times you do feel like dream is slipping into reality with the visual design. Even if the story was bad, which it isn't, the visuals alone are worth watching this movie for.

I'm glad I finally got to enjoy a Satoshi Kon movie. He is a director that made a mark in the industry with a myriad of titles that no one has been able to replicate the feel of. There really isn't a whole lot to complain about in this movie, and the good things about it are outstanding. Definitely give it a watch, I doubt many people will regret it. So it may be a bit belated, but R.I.P. Satoshi Kon, the industry as a little less without you.