Paprika - RePost

Paprika is a Satoshi Kon directed, Madhouse produced, sci-fi thriller from 2006. It was released in American theaters, on DVD and is based off of a story by famed sci-fi author Yasutaka Tsutsui, who also wrote the original story for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

    This near future story deals with an experimental device that allows psychologist's to visually study their patient's dreams to help them diagnose and treat their problems. A number of the devices wind up missing and the head of the research team becomes the first victim of terrorism through the stolen devices. The culprit taps into the subconscious of the chief and forces a bizarre and deadly dream upon him. The rest of the team rushes to discover who the terrorist is while trying to save the chief and their projects integrity. At the same time they must face their own pasts and personal problems, before they get trapped in the dangerous dream world.

    Aside form the fact that it is a beautifully drawn movie I was not really impressed with it. The story is pretty bland, predictable and the characters really aren't fleshed out. The entire thing seemed rushed and might have worked better as an OAV set. Yet, with a big production like this the OAV would not have brought in the amount of money they were looking for. I'm a little disappointed in Kon, I usually enjoy his work, Perfect Blue is one of my favorite movies, but this story seems pretty bland and flat. The idea behind it is quite interesting but it plays out like a shoddy Ghost in the Shell rip off where all of the characters are about as flat as paper. The twists and turns are pretty typical and easily predictable. Watch closely in the background because this is were the majority of the characters identities are explained, like them showing a shot of a gay porno magazine in one of the researchers apartments to let us know he was gay.

    The art is beautiful and does remind me of a touched up Stand Alone Complex with nice CG effects, but I don't enjoy a movie by looks alone. Watch it but don't expect anything out of it. I'm just glad I never went through any trouble trying to see it in the theater when it was in my town. I think the worst part of the movie it’s self was the ending. It was a jumbled, genre jumping mess of sudden morality. They quickly and somewhat too easily discovered the answer to their problems after running around for most of the story completely lost. The fact that the climactic scene looked like a direct rip off of when Tetsuo’s body grows out of control in Akira made it even worse. The resolution moved too quickly and in the end the characters didn’t seem to really grow much. I don’t recommend this film, but if anything it looks really good.

P.S. There is a pretty shameless plug for Tokyo Godfathers at the end of the movie…way to go Kon.