Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a delightful, trippy animated fantasy, Paprika:
(Sorry for the ugly thumbnail!)
and next week’s film, Defamation:
Reviews of Paprika:
2DAniCritic says:
When I first started exploring anime seriously, I quickly came across the 2006 film “Paprika,” which at the time would be one of my personal favorite films of all time. I don’t think I’m alone. Much like how director Satoshi Kon’s first film “Pefect Blue” is rumored to be an inspiration to the live-action Hollywood film “Black Swan,” “Paprika” is considered a direct influence on the 2010 American blockbuster “Inception” (and most likely inspired the 2009 Swedish film “Pepperminta,” which an art teacher of mine liked to reference). Think about that. How many foreign films, much less animated films, could inspire other film makers so quickly? That is the power and appeal of anime, and specifically the respect Kon had already established for himself.
Anime Review says:
Paprika, directed by famed Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon, came out in 2006, four years before his death from pancreatic cancer; as a result, this wound up being his fourth and final feature film (his fifth production, Dreaming Machine, was never finished at the time of his passing; nor will it ever be released in the future). Inspired by Yasutaka Tsutsui’s eponymous 1993 novel, conceptually this film had been in the works for eight years, and faced production difficulties when Rex Entertainment, who financed Perfect Blue, went bankrupt – thus leading Kon to have famed studio Madhouse over the span of two years, releasing a month after the folks there brought Death Note out into the open.
With a heavy emphasis on the topic of illusions and reality, the film has received widespread fame and hailed as a perfect send-off to Satoshi Kon’s short, but illustrious career. Aside from winning three awards at several minor international film festivals, it is also known for having allegedly inspired the creation of Christopher Nolan’s 2010 mystery-thriller Inception on account of the shared themes, which, having watched both films I can definitely concur there’s something eerily familiar amongst them; though to its credit the latter is a lot more cleaner and less acid-trip inducing than Paprika.
My take: This is a splendid little film. It’s mind-bending, brilliantly drawn and colored, and great fun. The music is fantastic as well. The two story lines, one of the dream researchers’ travails and the other of the cop haunted by his past, are woven together skillfully. To the negative, the dubbing seems to have been less skillfully carried out but don’t let that slow you down. It pairs well with some good ganja and is definitely worth watching more than once if only to pick out all of the incredible details packed into it: ⭐⭐.
Director: Satoshi Kon
Writers: Seishi Minakami, Satoshi Kon
Plot (Spoilers!): Dr. Atsuko Chiba leads a double life. She is a dream researcher working on a fantastic new device, the DC Mini, which allows a person to view and interact with another’s dreams. She also uses the device to counsel patients on the sly. Aiding her in this is her dream personality, Paprika.
Then someone steals the DC Mini prototypes and chaos is unleashed. People’s dreams and their waking consciousnesses are being melted together with disastrous results. It turns out the thief is the director of Chiba’s institute, who sees himself as the savior of the dream world.
Insanity ensues, both in the waking world and in the dream world. The dreams spill over into reality, and the two dimensions begin to merge. People literally become their dreams. At the last minute, Chiba and Paprika combine to defeat the now monstrous director by consuming him. Normalcy is restored.
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Incredible movie. Beautiful cinematography, maybe the best magical realism ever captured on screen.
Probably one of the most insightful movies about Japan, Japanese women, and the split cultural roles played in the post-bubble modern world.
I should get around to reading the novel. I hear that Kon added the parade sequence whole cloth to the movie. I can’t imagine what the story would have been without it.
I love Paprika. I’ve seen it 2x on a big screen.
I also particularly like the opening song. If I ever did a podcast, I would want this to be my theme:
They did a showing for the recent 20th anniversary where I finally got to see it subbed on the big screen, and it blew me away. I was really struck at how the movie still feels stylistically fresh, that’s how ahead of it’s time/timeless it was artistically.
I agree on the theme. Just incredible work. I wish this genre could have bloomed on the world stage. It felt like it had a chance to lead EDM forward in the era. A real synthesis of joy, standing in real contrast to what was going on in London and Berlin in that era, which Mark Fisher documented so well.
Have you had a chance to dig into the rest of Kon’s filmography? Paprika’s not far behind for me, but I still think Perfect Blue was his masterpiece – you really can’t go wrong with any of the features though!
No, and I will! I don’t have time for DVDs now but I just added it to a shopping cart and will retrieve when in the US again.
Millennium Actress is my favorite.
Great choice.
Thanks.
An 8 min. YT on the few similiarities between PAPRIKA & INCEPTION mentioned above. It´s too long for what it wants to get across.
But fwiw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiJLgyn6tvI
(You can turn off the annoying sound it´s just Zimmer´s bombastic score.)
Naturally these things interrelate. The accomplishments or deficiencies in movies are however only in very little part seriously determined by such relations.
One major feat of PAPRIKA, it´s way more upbeat, humorous and lively than the ever-serious and emotionally hermetic and one-dimensional INCEPTION.
Like INCEPTION, PAPRIKA does have its exaggerated artistic moments where hats are put onto hats too but that seems to be an element of anime as such which is why I always found it difficult.
Zimmer’s bombastic score is the only thing about Inception that I like. BTW Ellen Page returns to the Nolan fold in The Odyssey but as, now, Elliot Page.
Will watch Paprika.
I actually do not dislike it. Merely the choice for this one video was unfit. But that says nothing about the score of course.
Unlike many I believe Zimmer-Nolan achieved something in their cooperation since the Batman franchise liberating Zimmer in a way from trite tried too often forms.
I have the full soundtrack album that Zimmer made for Interstellar–really more of a variations on a theme orchestral suite–and think it is remarkable. Whereas the movie itself is really a stretch. Here’s suggesting Nolan, who claims to even get scene ideas from Zimmer’s music, is the one riding on this collaboration.
Of course the prolific Zimmer is capable of knocking things out and has his critics and followers. He is bombastic but it can be a great bombastic when he is good. IMO.
Alas, age verification, and thus account and login, is required for us; not available in non us countries.
same here with YT
try (the Engl dub):
https://ok.ru/video/9322419325543
Well, I’m glad I watched this movie—its hallucinatory visual quality alone would have made it worth viewing and I suppose it has something to say about getting in touch with one’s true self and with dealing with “unfinished business.” Some things, like the recurring parade of shambling, jerky characters composed of toys, mechanized gizmos, various icons and who knows what else, with confetti coming down, worked particularly well in conveying a sort of menacing, insane delusion. It’s one of those movies that I put in the “experiencing,” as opposed to “understanding,” category, although at the end it does kind of tie together.
And, off-topic:
Months ago, in connection with the Sunday Morning Movie of The Confessions of Felix Krull, I mentioned the film classic Kind Hearts and Coronets but I couldn’t recommend a “legitimate” upload of it for viewing at the time.
It turns out that Tubi shows the film—you don’t even have to register to watch it (but signing up will let you “save progress”). I recommend it wholeheartedly. (Kind Hearts and Coronets might be one of my top five favorite films, not that I can readily name most of the other four.) Feel free to feature it as a future Sunday Morning Movie, semper loquitor (not an assignment, just a suggestion).
Thank you for the wonderful movie, semper loquitor. It was incredible from beginning to end.
Sharing dreams is a staple of science fiction, but one of the first to dive into the subject was a fantasy novel, Algernon Blackwood’s A Prisoner of Fairyland (1913), in which any number of people have a shared dream and engage with one another (while harvesting star light). The limiting factor for those folks was that no one could remember what they had dreamed.
When I first saw that the film of the week was going to be Paprika, for about one micromillisecond I thought it meant the 1991 Tinto Brass classic by that name, but then I realised … “nah”.
I listened to Yves’ favorite theme song (first time for me) and I have to ask: does anyone else hear traces of Enya here?
Speaking of animation, I’d like to make a request to the commenter community:
I’ve been looking online to find an upload of an animated series for adults called “Decameron” or “Dekameron”. It was made in the 80ies I believe, and it was done with shadow figures – I think this is called shadow animation.
It was European by origin, but Im not sure if it was Italian, or maybe Polish – and it was a bit suggestive but seemed very wise and fun. Does this ring a bell for anyone? I believe it was Western European. It was shown on Bulgarian TV in the late 80ies I believe, and possibly in other European countries. but so far I have not been able to turn up a trace of it online.
Would be very happy if anyone has a lead. I remember being very struck by it as a youngster and want to check the experience again.
Roger Woddis’s Tales from the Decameron
(Starts at the 5:35 mark after a LOT of commercials):
https://youtu.be/OBukxQEzE84?si=AnZ03I9CPnLGZqGW
Wow, thank you so much! I’m thrilled. That’s the one! I had lost all hope and this was a Hail Mary on a whim. Blessings to you my friend!
I shall now how have a chance to immerse myself in the story – and I can also say the commercials are not at all uninteresting, given the distance of time!
Thank you.
Thank you so much, that’s the one!
(a longer thank you seems to have been eaten by the comment filter)