Paprika was one of the first movies I watched as a teenager. Then I didn't pay attention to the message that the director had mortgaged, and that was a waste. Only after watching the film again after more than ten years, the picture became clear to me.
This film I would advise not everyone who would like to get acquainted with the world of anime films and TV series. Since the narrative can be complex and very strange for the newcomer viewer, which can push him away from further acquaintance.
Revisiting the film in modern times, I was glad to see that the film has a reference to “Roman Holiday” with Audrey Hepburn, not only in the form of a poster, but also a scene re-drawn with the characters of “Paprika”. At the time, I didn’t understand the reference, for I found such things boring. Plus, there are posters of paintings by Satoshi Kohn, which were created before that.
Paprika herself is very nice. What is worth in one of the scenes her look from the bottom up into the camera, at the viewer. But her appearance and how she flirts is not the main thing here. The director shows us how she interacts with the real world. It looks very original. It merges with shadows, reflections, light. It appears from dolls and billboards, clouds. Cracks and creases. It is as if there is a list of all possibilities that is exhausted.
The film is quite good, both animation and musical accompaniment. The picture is difficult to describe, the best way to learn about it is just to see it.
The film is recommended for mandatory viewing.
Paprika always seemed to me to be some very complex work with philosophical images, which made me postpone this anime for better times. At some point I wanted something unusual that makes your gyrus work, which resulted in watching Paprika.
The gyrus really had to strain, because the plot of the anime is a rather confused detective, in which it is very easy to get confused and not notice the details that reveal the whole meaning. At the same time, I would not say that this is perceived as difficult because of some references to world culture or philosophical allegories, this is far from being ' Ulysses' Joyce, it's more difficult to understand because there's not enough explanation of how Paprika's world works, how a device works that allows you to enter other people's dreams. The characters are not disclosed enough, which personally led me to a complete misunderstanding of the storyline with the detective and the movie, everything was revealed only after watching the explaining video, the spoiler: everything is obvious, just the story of the detective was told very crumpled and quickly, not allowing me to penetrate the character and understand who he is and what he lives, and without this his personal problem, resolved in the final scene, remains unnoticed. I can also note the disgusting Russian dubbing, Russian speech is barely audible against the background of Japanese, and all Russian voices are absolutely emotionless. English dubbing is made many times better.
Globally, the anime develops two storylines: one with Paprika herself (the same girl from the poster) and Atsuki, a researcher and one of the creators of “Dreamy” & 39; the device, the other with a detective who investigates an extremely strange murder with an unknown victim. Both talk essentially about the same thing, but the line with Paprika is more global, although they intersect at some point in one epic scene of confrontation with evil. To the latter, I must say, everything comes with an ever-increasing emotional tension. It will not be possible to relax for a second, because the further the characters move in solving the case of the disappearance of a device that allows them to penetrate into other people's dreams, the more global and serious the events become. Stress contribute to the constant games over the audience with guessing whether the dream in front of you or reality. Enough creepy footage is also enough, but the horror does not reach, there is no cruelty and blood pouring into the screen, just the atmosphere of mystery and some absurdity of everything that is happening pushes you to the very limit.
Separately, it is worth noting how chicly made and animated dreams. I hope that Paprika will never think of filming, because it is possible to show the flight of fantasy in a dream only with the help of a drawing and in no other way. Dreams in Papric look like real dreams, very strange, without the existence of time, space and the laws of physics, in short, all the limitations in our real life. At times, some scenes have been revisited over and over because they simply break your brain, breaking all sorts of rules of the real world; the dream image gives writers and artists unlimited freedom, which they have taken full advantage of. In short, Paprika is a complete flight of fantasy.
Before summing up any result, Paprice decided to highlight some points for future viewers that can help not to be stupid in the plot: first, do not take everything that happens in the anime seriously. Sometimes nonsense and absurdity is just nonsense and absurdity, and not some hidden meaning. Secondly, always keep in mind the comparison of Atsuki and Paprika, the two main characters, and keep an eye on where each of them ends up. Thirdly, keep in mind the attitude to the movie detective in the beginning and in the final scene, fourthly, remember that the dream is not some abstract and distant world of dreams, but the work of the brain to analyze the real world, real us.
I definitely liked Paprika and remembered, I recommend watching. And do not be afraid of the apparent complexity of this work, everything is simpler than it seems at first glance, and this is primarily an entertaining film, not a lecture on psychology or philosophy!
Dreams are a profound adaptation of reality. Dreams are what we really are. It is said that it is in a dream that God visits a person. For no flesh can see God alive, for it will burn.
Movies are like dreams. Movies can reflect adapted reality. The matrix of desires, the matrix of the embodiment of secret desires. In dreams, a person can do anything, even the unthinkable.
The unthinkable takes place in this cartoon, traveling through the secret corners of our collective consciousness. Reality is just a collection of human thoughts. The world of the cartoon, akin to a computer in GTA, weighs nothing, in fact, it costs nothing, it is weightless, light, easily draws into itself. It is so compact, but almost limitless and very capacious in immaterial form.
In the post-Millennium era, the first Matrixes and all that ... in the era of the start of the global Internet and its omnipotence, there was a lot of new things, new movies, new animation. Cinema quickly armed with new, adapted to the fact that people are used to seeing the world on the screen of monitors. They don’t have to travel so much anymore. Today, you can literally visit dozens of countries without leaving home, while you can see much more than if you yourself tried in the physical world to visit different cities and wonderful corners of nature. You can see more without leaving home.
Our dreams help us to visit unknown worlds that are unique, that have not yet been visited by anyone and will not be visited by any of us in the future. These dream worlds exist only here and now, and only for you. Enjoy the dream of your life. Sleep, sleep, baby.
Dreams frighten the hell out of us, they excite us, they make us detectives, big and formidable, small and funny. All this is in this cartoon of dreams, cartoon someone's dreams and nightmares.
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What if we broke the boundaries and let dreams come true? Turning dreams into reality.
_
And if ... and if short, the film is some kind of bullshit.
_
Or dreams are a way, a way of telling ourselves about ourselves, and the narrator is not us, but us. We look at ourselves from the third side and evaluate ourselves, so it’s easier. Here we can safely and stealthily judge ourselves, pass a sentence, put it into effect.
_
As for Paprika, I do not mind that every time a beautiful girl is immersed in my dream. As in the cartoon, she will fight with varying success with my own delusions - monsters, turning now into an elegant circus, then into a fairy tale, then into some Greek creature (half animal, half human), then into a mermaid ... fantasies - they are.
_
And then... then we will get together with the KP (she is Paprika), drink some Belarusian Coke (there is no other one) and shoot all the crazy movies about it, like our... we will shoot our movie. We’ll watch it, we’ll walk out of the theater with a suspicious feeling that the dream isn’t over yet... the dream isn’t over yet, and everything that’s going on outside the window, in the window of Windows and Linux, is just a dream with all of NATO, the EU and everything. Sleep, then no ... wake up, baby. ..
In my animated picture of the world everything is as follows:
1. Russia - pancakes, Cheburashka.
2. West - burger, jeans and Disney.
3. Japan is manga and anime, namely Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon. Today we will talk about the last director and his cartoon “Paprika”. Why are there only two directors in the anime? Because, first of all, to me, these two titans stand at the top of the Hit Parade of that very “mind capture technique.” Secondly, I don't know anyone better. Of course, there is also a director like Akira Kurosawa, but he is only about cinema, and today I repeat, we will talk about the anime Paprika. This super intricate story is about the near future of Japan, where psychotherapists have learned to treat people’s mental difficulties by seeing their dreams. An experimental device called the DC Mini allows you to immerse yourself in other people’s dreams. Everything would be fine, but 3 of the same devices were stolen and there was a danger that, in addition to doctors, enemies would be able to penetrate into dreams, therefore, in a similar way to manipulate people. In this surreal picture, the viewer will see the crazy world of the director’s fantasies, and dreams mixed with reality, even psychiatrists will have something to think about. The main and one of the bright advantages of the cartoon, I consider its specificity and bright artistic means. Such as the grotesque, the dynamic transformation of reality, changing in the rapid temporality of history. Also a mixture of genres, i.e. for an hour and a half the viewer will see on the screen fiction, comedy, thriller and detective. Also, I can not help but pay attention to another advantage of Paprika: exaggerated drawing of characters and painstaking elaboration of their characters, a sense of humor in particular expressed in the form of illogical remarks, movements in scenes, unexpected transitions or bizarre images, an ideal soundtrack that gives the right mood during viewing, versatility and texture in which everything listed is heaped, oddly enough, but everything is harmoniously combined.
Paprika deals with philosophical and psychological issues such as the illusory nature of our reality and the significance of sleep in human life. Returning to the beginning of his review that Miyazaki and Kohn are at the top of “the technique of capturing and influencing minds,” it should be noted that the meaning of history emphasizes the actual problems of reality. For example, the great impact of advanced technology on society seems to have lost the line between reality and the virtual world. Technologies not only invade the space of our everyday life, but also subordinate themselves unwittingly forcing them to depend on them. Perhaps that is why the cartoon is difficult to perceive, since Satoshi Kon did not resort to sophisticated special effects, and made such a complex, intricate story, or rather drew with the least processing of video material and storyboarding.
In 2006, “Paprika” became the pinnacle of the work of the Japanese director, based on the novel of the same name by Yasataka Tsutsui, whom Kohn adored. Indeed, the picture adopted the trajectories of imagination, stylistics, plot jumps and psychological dislocations of modern Japan, traumatized by political, economic and historical circumstances. Anime participated in the competition of the Venice Film Festival, and at this time Cohn conceived the next project - "Dream Machine", which did not have time to complete. Since part of the work has already been completed, it is hoped that Masao Maruyama, a friend of the master and director of the Madhouse studio, will finish the project on the exact storyboards of Satoshi Kona.
The world of Japanese feature-length animated films is something completely unique. Not so popular with us genre in fact is an extremely diverse range of paintings - from children's cartoons to complex adult and philosophical stories. Paprika is just their last.
The picture touches on the theme of the subconscious and dreams. The plot tells about scientists who have invented a device that sees and affects other people's dreams, who are faced with theft and use of this device for evil purposes. Somehow to tell the details of the narrative in more detail and explain the plot does not make sense - there is not enough review volume and patience of the reader. It is only necessary to say that the film is extremely confusing, does not tolerate inattentive viewing and it is not so easy to understand. You can’t put the film in the negative – that’s what it was designed to be. The director wanted to visualize dreams, show how they are intertwined with reality and how this world of the subconscious person is connected with his personality in the real world. Heroes move from sleep to wakefulness and vice versa, deceiving the viewer and playing with him and his expectations - it is done simply masterfully. Do not be offended by the film if it seems incomprehensible and the plot is difficult to follow - how can you follow the dream?
A more obvious advantage of anime is its visual. Animations of this quality, combined with the director’s work with the frame and production, as well as the originality of style and colors, create just a storm of emotions. In combination with a beautiful soundtrack, this is all firmly imprinted in the mind and gives unforgettable emotions. The film can be recommended even to those who are suspicious of Japanese animation - this movie can impress even such.
Paprika is a complex, intelligent and philosophical film and psychology, consciousness and subconscious. Everything is wrapped in a beautiful visual style and original solutions that in themselves can bring pleasure to those who do not particularly understand the plot. So I highly recommend seeing this masterpiece and then thinking and analyzing it – it’s worth it.
10 out of 10
A group of scientists is developing a device with which it is possible to immerse yourself in a person’s dreams. At some point, someone steals three of these devices and strange things start to happen. . .
I have to admit, this anime was too much for me. Crazy pace, crazy visual series, a few storylines, a bunch of references, philosophical dialogues. It all pulled me in different directions. If aesthetically I had great pleasure, then to capture the morality and the main idea (thoughts) did not work. The only character whose line is clear is police officer Konakawa. It's easy and readable. And here's the rest of the confusion. Maybe it's because of the brightest picture and the general chaos that's going on. There's a lot to see. The author's fantasy knows no limits. Images change each other at the speed of light, colors are layered one on one, each frame you want to pause and consider to infinity, looking for details and enjoying the flight of thought. And all this accompanied by amazing music. Maybe such a visual and played a bad joke with me, overshadowing all the other virtues. I can't say that. But the fact remains that there are many questions, few answers. Even if you discard the metaphorical message, the film does not become clearer. The characters’ motives and behaviors remain a mystery to me. This can be corrected with a second look, perhaps. I just don't want to be in the middle of all this bacchanalia again. In the meantime, the acquaintance with Satoshi Kohn can not be called successful. I have heard a lot about this anime, met in all sorts of tops, read rave reviews. Including the director himself. It’s a shame I didn’t understand anything.
If you read this before watching, STOP! watch the picture, shape your time, learn something new and unusual, and then come back.
If you have already looked, then ' red curtains move apart, you see in front of you a circus arena and an unconscious stream of thoughts of one person with different faces and people with one face'
'Paprika' - Surrealism in its purest form.
Thought:
Within each of us there are many personalities (not to be confused with stratification / split personality). We may or may not be aware of it. But only if we have peace and balance with them, our existence is progressive.
I came to this idea after seeing this picture.
The link between thought and film:
Imagine that you want ice cream, but for some reason you can’t. If you say to yourself 'No' and just walk away, then the desire for ice cream may not leave you and even become even more intrusive. You will eat it, and then there will be trouble. (You did not have it)
And if you explain to yourself why it is impossible and agree with yourself that for this you will be a bonus of some kind or you then eat 2 ice creams (but already it will be possible), then the desire may not leave you, but the bitterness will become less, or maybe completely go away.
That's it in 'Paprika'... Desire can prevail over wisdom and common sense, and an instrument invented for good can become a weapon of mass psychosis. It can save a person by breaking the boundaries between the past and the future, help to rethink decisions made earlier and improve the relationship with yourself.
Feelings of the movie:
Or maybe it is not for others, maybe it is easier and more unconscious, because in a dream everything is unconscious and conscious at the same time. We know we're asleep and we don't know we're asleep. We are conscious of sleep and not conscious of sleep.
What is Paprika? What is a parade?
A parade is a desire, an impulsive desire for something that embraces us so strongly that it drives us to go forward and not look back. So much in it!!! There are so many obvious and implicit desires!! Eat ice cream and cake, and skip work, and score everything.
'Even 5 court ladies danced in beat to the flutes and drums of frogs.'
Paprika is our unconscious consciousness. Our desire, but controlled by us, is temporary. Because if we really want ice cream, sooner or later we'll get to it. Paprika is flirting with strangers, and the desire to ride ' a hare in a tram' and an extra drink in a club, and the desire to be in the place of an actor, Tarzan or a detective.
'Whirlwind of waste paper was a remarkable sight like computer graphics'
We get off track when we begin to diverge from our inner self ' I' in our opinion of what we want and what is good for us.
Only by coming to the one, only by answering ourselves sincerely to questions about our problems and problems, and only by accepting our answers will we find peace, harmony and can overcome the oppressive feeling of loss or inability to have something. We can breathe full and smile again.
On the implementation of the project:
A beautiful painting that immerses us in a new world. Not for a moment distracted by reality, because the dream is ' delirium' and a mixture of everything you can think of.
Excellent study of both the surrounding world and the internal!
All this is accompanied by the wildest, but most interesting music of master Susumu Hirasawa, who included the voice of the first vocaloid in the composition!
This is a perfect demonstration of the case when cinema is more interesting and deeper than a book (imho).
And this is a great story after which you can not think about the depth of the human world and the power of desires, but you can just enjoy the events inside!
Perhaps this text will not give you anything, or maybe you will see echoes of your thoughts in it.
Paper endures everything, and manuscripts do not burn.
7.5 out of 10
Oneurology as a continuation and development of psychoanalysis
In 'Paprika' an amazing world of fantasies unfolds before the viewer. The world in which the dream of any psychoanalyst is realized is the opportunity to directly incorporate one’s consciousness into the patient’s sleep, to study the unconscious aspects of his psyche. For such penetration, DC mini devices invented by the genius Dr. Tokita are used. The disappearance of three samples of innovative technology and the subsequent cases of oneiroid hallucinations in a number of laboratory employees are the plot. Also first show the dream of detective Toshimi Konakawa, in which, with the therapeutic purpose of curing the disturbing neurosis of Konakawa, caused by repressed emotions and memories, Paprika - alter ego of Dr. Atsuko Chiba (head of the group of scientists involved in the development of the project). In this dream, there is a dynamic series of transgressive transitions from some oneiroid locations (as it later turns out, constituted by Konakawa’s repressed passion for various genres of cinema and the horror of suppressed psychotrauma) to others. This episode sets a vivid and dynamic rhythm of the surreal action that occurs later on the screen.
In the course of the narrative, the extravaganza of images of the carnival procession alternates with desert mysterious landscapes or grotesque phantasmagoria of coded images. With the development of the plot, the line between dream and reality becomes increasingly shaky. The collective form of sleep, controlled by the protagonist, invades the real world. There is a transformation, as a result of which reality and sleep merge into a single stream of surreality.
Alter Ego
Dr. Atsuko Chiba is rational and reserved. It personifies the Ego (according to Freud), the Mask archetype (according to Jung), or the Adult ego state (according to Byrne). Atsuko tries to constantly control her alter ego: the playful, emotionally direct Paprika expressing her unconscious (according to Freud), the Shadow archetype (according to Jung), or the Child ego state (according to Byrne).
In order to stop the villain’s insidious plan, Atsuko must work through her own intrapersonal conflict. Only by integrating her conscious side of personality and Paprika’s alter-ego is she able to acquire a wholeness or self that allows her to confront the antagonist on an equal footing.
Specifics of paprika
The indisputable advantage of this anime is the use of vivid artistic means: grotesque, dynamic transformations of unreality, repeated false awakenings, mixing of genres (fiction, thriller, detective, comedy). Also, it is impossible not to mention other outstanding advantages of Paprika, such as: a funny exaggerated drawing of characters, the elaboration of their characters; a great sense of humor (in particular, expressed in the form of illogical replicas, unexpected transitions or bizarre images); a perfectly selected soundtrack that provides the right mood.
Catchers in the dream
Paprika comprehends classical philosophical and psychological problems: the illusory nature of our reality and the meaning of sleep in human life. This anime can be attributed to the genre of postmodernism, it contains many cultural reminiscences: Zhuang Tzu butterflies (pinned butterflies are trapped dreamers); the myth of Oedipus and other semantic elements of psychoanalysis (projections, psychotraumas, the unconscious, etc.); fairy tales (kisss awakening a sleeping beauty); allusions and quotes (“desperate times require desperate measures”, “the truth always comes next to fiction”); traditional antithes, dreams, love and life.
The content of the semantic field of Paprika accentuates current problems and our quite obvious reality. For example, the increasing influence of advanced technologies on society, leveling the line between reality and virtuality of cyberspace. Thus, technologies not only invade the space of our experience and attention, but also subordinate them to themselves, constituting their forms and needs. Under external influence, the system of values and priorities of the ordinary user of virtuality undergoes quite tangible transformations organized by the rulers of the doom, that is, those who own the technology.
There is also the topic of disorientation in the modern world. By being permanently torn between the two realities, people eventually lose a clear criterion of difference. This leads to the loss of the ability to navigate, and therefore to either loss of mind or death of the individual (for example, the scene with Atsuko on the balcony).
The general anti-scientist sentiment and message 'Papriki' is expressed in the character's specific phrase: "Science is garbage compared to deep sleep." Dr. Seijiro Inui (head of the institute) is an exponent of technophobic and destructive ideology.
The psychological aspect. Characters and relationships of characters are explicated in sleep and reality, in personal experiences and social interactions. The role of the subconscious in the organization of human mental life is considered. The importance of gaining psychological maturity, awareness and release of repressed experiences and gaining the integrity of the personality is affirmed. The archetype of the self is presented as a creative life-affirming principle capable of overcoming the destructive energy of chaos.
In the artistic space of Paprika, two worlds - reality and fantasy - are intertwined in a single canvas of hyperreality. "Paprika" reminds us that we have long lived in a hyperreal world, where our secret fantasies are realized in reality, and where our wakefulness is indistinguishable from the ephemeral nature of sleep.
10 out of 10
Verily, the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.
I stopped watching anime in 2010 (' I'm an adult uncle, I'm busy with work and family, I'm not up to it', blah blah blah'). And suddenly... In 2019, I came across this film, read the description and realized that it is simply impossible to miss.
I watched it with my wife. Yes, it went hard (his wife was so disconnected in the middle), but in general I will not say that it caused rejection.
On the contrary, I seemed to come to life, those parts of me that had been sleeping for a long time abruptly awakened. And I got back into my life the colors I needed so much.
Then I watched the movie again. It became much clearer.
So, the movie. Oh, yeah. Calling it a cartoon is just blasphemous. This is the level of Lynch, Tarkovsky. Satoshi Kona. I'm kidding, I know it's him. This is the best of his films.
A vivid, furious, passionate canvas of images, associations and dreams will penetrate deep inside and remain there forever, in the depths of the soul. You won’t understand all the images right away. Should I? Some ideas and images will reveal themselves in a week - a month - six months.
Some events and small details can also slip past your attention. Is that bad? Not at all. It's academic work, and we're just people. There are so many details in Gioconda that some people study it all their lives.
Like any serious masterpiece, this picture has an extremely high degree of re-sightability. Once a year or two, you can safely review, finding new faces for yourself.
10 out of 10
This is the first anime by the famous director Satoshi Kon that I have watched. A person, during his short life (died 46 from cancer), created very few works (mostly full meters), but all of them, thanks to his personality, are remembered for a long time. And 'Paprika' is the most famous anime.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Christopher Nolan took some moments from this anime for his film 'Beginning'. These are two works in my memory that speak so much about sleep and reality.
The anime is based on the book by Yasutaki Tsutsui. I haven’t read the original, so I can’t say anything. And here's the movie.
So this anime is very amateurish. You have to be prepared for him. It is both very strange and very interesting. Definitely for more adult people. The story of how a corporation created a device that helps to enter dreams, change them, treat people with this. And then some devices are stolen. That's the kind of thing.
Unlike Nolan's film, dreams are more correct. They are surreal, unrealistic, hypertrophied. The way we see them. And in some moments, anime becomes even scary. The movie has something to intimidate. For all an hour and a half of viewing, you do not fully understand what is reality and what is a dream.
It's just a great picture in the movie. The beauty of the colors is sky-high. The dreams are beautiful.
Music is divine. This is the case when it won’t sound apart from the movie at all, but with it something incredible is created.
There are, of course, downsides. Many characters are weakly revealed, a little clichéd, and their lines are too simple. The love line comes out of nowhere. And the duration of the anime. Very few. Not enough here very little to more healthy to reveal the idea and the dreams themselves.
And yet this anime is great. Now we need to see the other works of this director.
None of the people who saw it really understood this anime.
'A third-class person using a mobile phone camera'.
It's nonsense generated on the Internet by people, a collective dream that anyone can watch. They mix and influence the perception of the world.
'Creations of light have no place under the tree where the shadow, in it waiting for the creation of darkness'.
Do not get stuck in films and other people's dreams, you are waiting for those who introduce their consciousness into your consciousness. It mixes dreams. Sometimes specifically to sell. Like one place ' Vote for me I'm from God' - ' I didn't choose you'.
Moment 'Are you the village girl I saved?'
He recognized in the girl fragments of his dream.
That is, the dream influenced the perception of the world.
And sleep is the idea of anime - any interaction with information except experience.
At the end of the purchase of a ticket for children's sleep, ' one adult please'
It's about the dreams he left behind.
The one he killed was his own dream.
In the film, two types constantly flash next to each other, the consciousness and the subconscious.
So too does death.
In general, this is about criticizing smartphones and computers as devices that can interfere with our perception of reality.
The perception of reality is an illusion in itself, but at least acquired by our experience, with the help of the Internet and smartphones, we gain pseudo-experience.
And we can, figuratively, like a girl in one place of the film, jump off the balcony, seeing the ground there. Seeing the world is not what it is.
These are some of the main themes covered in the film.
I revisited it years later and rated it worse than before. Controversial tape. Very much in graphic, visual terms, in fact, mainly this and takes. "Live" animation, attention to detail, facial expressions, micromovements, object design, frame composition. In this regard, it is very similar to another work of the director – “Perfect Blue”. But there's a problem with the script here. The idea seems interesting, but the narrative is too nonlinear and fantasy. Many dreams, symbolism, psychology of characters (for some - without a clear denouement). And at the same time, there is little actual development of the plot outside of fantasies. It’s like there’s something going on on the screen, but you realize that 70% of the time it’s just a dream in the character’s head, a psychological exercise. And if you try to briefly explain the plot (everything that happened without dreams), it turns out to be quite boring and without much twisting. And if you understand IT, then one fundamental point may seem so delusional that the plot will crumble at the very beginning. Still, with a very detailed chewing of the psychology of the main characters - well, very poorly spelled villains, without charisma and clear motivation. The main villain is so caricatured that he recognizes almost immediately (the detective failed). In general, Paprika can be seen only for the sake of animation. “Perfect Blue” has a lot of psychology too, but watching it (even a few times!) was a lot more fun.
I looked at it, so it was Paprika.
All the same Satoshi, damn it, Kohn with this carnival of colors put a fat point at the end of his career. Maybe it was not a magnum opus, but definitely a bright and unforgettable departure from the director's chair.
The question is, why watch Nolan’s Inception in 2010 when Cohn shot almost the same thing four years before? In fact, Cohn must once again be credited for being the Hollywood anime director himself and for inspiring Nolan to one of his most famous works.
Making a film about dreams, it is necessary to realize and embody in form all their fabulous nature, all their illogicality, improbability and limitlessness. Nothing can do this better than animation. Satoshi knew this and definitely tried his best with the stream of consciousness of the waking mind to mimic the stream of consciousness of the sleeping mind. Of course, he did better than anyone else.
As a result, it turned out quite a thriller, a drama, and a thriller about how scientists invented a tool that allows you to view people’s dreams and record them. In the film there is a thriller mystery, and a warning of the action movie, and thoughts that in dreams there are answers to questions torturing people, that dreams are a reflection of a person’s experiences.
Paprika is magnificent in appearance: the incredibly complex and detailed picture embodies the abstract reality of dreams in visual form immaculately, and the music from Susumu Hirasawa ... oh, what he did with his orchestral sound.
Paprika is magnificent internally: it is not a blanket behind a beautiful shell, it is a serious, candid film about the need to be careful in scientific progress and about how the true nature of man lives in his dreams, about how difficult it is to survive some events from the past and accept yourself.
If Akira once opened Japanese animation to the West, Satoshi Kon continued this glorious work only by increasing his momentum.
9 out of 10
I can't accept all of Satoshi Kon's works. "Perfect Blue" - out of my taste, "Paranoia Agent" - not looked, out of my taste. "Tokyo Godfathers" - out of my taste. Magnetic Rose is an interesting work, but there he participated as a screenwriter. "Millennium Actress" - completely coincided with their preferences. Ohayo - similar.
Paprika is somewhere in the middle. It has something that I don't welcome, some savagery, but not the standard Japanese savagery, full of absurdity, but more Westernized. But there are also interesting findings about dreams. Which vigilant Hollywood couldn't help but embody in "Inception." Making the positive character Paprik a negative character Maul (Mal Cobb).
Paprika is able to penetrate into other people's dreams and find hidden answers there. Not to hurt, but to heal.
If you discard the game that I do not accept, you can see an interesting solution when other people's dreams pour into the real world, filling it. People are not able to process information during sleep, and try to throw the unconscious into the real world. Acting out your fears and complexes on other people.
And here you need Paprika, able to draw the line that separates dreams from reality. Unconsciousness of some people from others. It’s important to understand that some people’s values don’t have to be your values, their paths of achievement aren’t your paths of achievement, their fears aren’t your fears, their future isn’t your future, their time isn’t yours.
With the help of the DC Mini, people can penetrate into other people's dreams, but the development was stolen before full production. A very colorful anime, where the psychological subconscious motives of dreams crawl out. Heroes are very different when night falls, dreams create a different reality.
The main character, Paprika, is also a difficult girl, but it is interesting to watch her. The story surprises and fascinates at the same time. Which is not surprising, because the anime is based on the book by Japanese writer Yasutaki Tsutsui.
I really liked the music and the characters. So, for lovers of anime (and not only) I recommend watching. I got a good impression, time flew by quickly. The end is unexpected but intriguing.
DC Mini is a unique device that can give anyone the opportunity to look into your dreams. It helps to open the door behind the scenes of consciousness, where gray everyday life ends and the triumph of fantasy begins.
For man, sleep has always been an individual journey—every image, idea, or phrase remained in the mind of only one person. Using the DC Mini, you can cross this line and experience the joy of collective sleep. Moreover, the entire dream can be recorded on a removable medium and reproduced by conventional equipment. Satoshi shows the beauty of the idea of such a dream, but does not forget about the flip side.
The beautiful dream of waking dreams became a reality only thanks to the hands of Tokita, the brilliant scientist who created the DC Mini. Tokita’s goal was to serve humanity as a whole—a device that would help therapists get into patients’ dreams and help them recover. But an outsider intervenes in the case - a mysterious kidnapper who stole 3 devices from Tokita's office. It is here that the reverse side of the coin shows itself – “Where a beautiful dream develops, there is always danger.” Tokita did not complete the device completely and there is no access control function on it, which means that the kidnapper will be able to penetrate into the sleep of absolutely any person.
Here comes the main character – Paprika. A girl with mischievous dark orange hair and a charming smile. It serves as a guide to the world of dreams for people who dare to comprehend the limitlessness of their own mind. Each time you appear in a new guise, Paprika forces you to look at your own dreams in a different way until you know what you are looking for. In the upcoming battle, she is assigned the role of a war defending the human right to non-interference in his mind. Walking through the wreckage of Himuro’s dream, Paprika must find the kidnapper and find out his motives.
In real life, Paprika is complemented by Dr. Chiba Atsuko. And I liked that image the most. Strict and restrained on the outside, she looks like a teenager inside. From the beginning of the film, we see Chiba trying to keep Paprika inside. But with each immersion in someone else’s consciousness, it becomes more and more convinced that it is an integral part of it. This internal conflict will reach its climax at the end of the film, when Chiba will stop deceiving himself and understand what Paprika tried to show her.
To all the above I can add that a separate masterpiece I consider the soundtrack in this tape. Calm and measured rhythms for gray everyday life intersect with a riot of sounds inherent in fantasy sleep. A rich sound range welcomes us in the introductory video, which, perhaps, can be considered as a separate work. So unusual and artistic look the first minutes of this film.
At the same time, not only musical compositions, but also background sounds in general have been worked out. Sound accents are placed exactly as the case requires. For example, my favorite place is when Chiba and Tokita go to the theme park in search of Himuro. The scene begins with a background sound aperitif and intensifies with the approach to the final, where it ceases to restrain itself. From the first steps, it becomes clear that something exciting is hiding inside the park and the opening moment is already near. The sound follows each step of the characters and perfectly conveys their mood, complementing the overall emotional picture.
A philosophical idea, interesting characters, high-quality drawing in combination with an exciting sound make up a spectacle from which it is difficult to break away. At first glance, the cacophony of images and the riot of rhythms inherent in sleep can alienate the viewer, but believe me, you will lose a lot if you pass by. It is up to you to open the door to the World of Dreams!
10 out of 10
“I dream. Sometimes I think it's the only right thing to do in the world.
Haruki Murakami
Future Dreams
The story tells the story of Paprick - a girl who is able to move from the dream of one person to another, simultaneously exploring them.
The action takes place in our alternate universe, where a DC mini-device was created that allows you to penetrate into other people's dreams and study unconscious thoughts, and based on the action of this very device - a new revolutionary method of treating mental disorders. But the DC mini is still in the experimental stage, so there are only a few samples, three of which were stolen, allegedly by a terrorist organization. Realizing that a device that allows you to penetrate the mind, opening the way to people’s fantasies and, as a result, the ability to change them, our heroes – Atsuko Chibo, Kosaka Tokita and Toshima Konakawa – begin the search for three stolen devices. But as it turns out, everything is far from so simple, and things are gradually getting worse: the world of one big dream, consisting of the dreams of millions of people, begins to merge with reality.
At first glance, the plot may seem complete nonsense, but this is not at all true. Just to tell in more detail means to spoiler if not the whole anime, then most of it, and the plot here is quite interesting, and many small elements are able to create a picture that changes the essence of what is happening.
In an unusual way, we decided to introduce the viewer: we do not start from the very beginning, as is customary in most modern films, but as if we were late to the beginning of the story (as if we were late to the beginning of the film in the theater), that is, we see that something is happening, but do not understand what. We do not know what is happening immediately, but gradually. Similarly with the characters: we do not immediately understand the nature of their relationships, their fears, views and desires, but gradually solve this puzzle, in short, we come to the realization of what is happening gradually, having done work on collecting, comparing various information and come to certain conclusions (I personally like this approach).
Separately, it is worth noting the characters: one is an infantile, but brilliant scientist suffering from obesity, the other is a detective with her fears, the third is an attractive but always frowning psychiatrist. Of course, we can say that such characters are a pond, but in the context of what is happening, they fit perfectly. In addition, a detailed drawing of each of them shows an individualized approach, which only emphasizes their characteristic features. But this is important here, since most of the semantic load follows from the character of the characters.
The picture is amazing. It is clear that dreams can be different: surreal or shaky, dark and bright, in a word - different. Same here: different styles are used.
As for the soundtrack, it can be expressed in one word - beautiful. And the opening (introductory screensaver) is simply amazing.
Madness in genius
Anime, cartoon - can be called whatever you want, but the fact is that this is not a child, but quite an adult work, talking about important aspects of sleep and raising important questions, for example, about the acceptability, necessity and ethics of sleep control and the treatment of psychological diseases by penetrating and investigating the patient's sleep.
Here is a dream movie, consisting of boring and gray details of reality, which you yourself remake to the desired way, from genres, directed by you. Here, the dream borders on reality.
However, it should be remembered that this is a Japanese anime, and the culture of the Japanese is very specific. Much here will be incomprehensible to an unprepared viewer, and something even seems wild.
Paprika is a beautiful, incredibly fascinating anime with an excellent plot, presented in an unusual and interesting way and giving a sea of positive emotions; with a magnificent soundtrack and characters whose characters are spelled out in extreme detail, and the motives of certain actions are always clear to the ordinary person. A unique work that carries, if you drip deeper, not a weak semantic load.
It can only scare away that this is a Japanese work with its own quirks that not everyone can accept and understand.
7.5 out of 10
I learned about this work completely by accident, but it captivated me from the first frames, even though I am not a fan of anime. But Paprika is one of the most interesting and non-standard cartoons in principle. Satoshi Kon simply expresses his thoughts on the connection between reality and dreams, giving them an interesting pseudo-scientific explanation.
The work is extremely surreal, grotesque images, deliberately unrealistic characters and constantly changing video sequence create an atmosphere of real madness. But this madness is far from unusual, because in fact it is strictly ordered, simply obeys not the law of our material world, but the so-called logic of sleep. After all, in a dream, almost everything that can be imagined is real.
But at the same time, certain patterns still exist. This is especially true for the places of action, they can be completely different from each other and intersect arbitrarily. But their appearance will remain constant throughout the tape, as well as the sequence of these transitions.
In the anime incredibly detailed drawing made in an excellent and unlike anything style. But even this is not the most striking. Satoshi Kon created a whole system of transitions from frame to frame. Scenes do not just replace each other, they follow the next from the previous one, and in the most unpredictable way.
Only Paprika/Atsuko connects reality with sleep, and even that alter ego does not have too many features in common. But it is their dissimilarity that makes this image so interesting. This is primarily their story, although the other heroes are also given a lot of time.
Paprika Incredibly fascinating and memorable anime. Anime that may not like, but will not be forgotten.
But I don’t want to go to the crazy, said Alice.
- Well, there's nothing you can do about it," said the Cat, "we're all crazy here. I'm crazy. You're crazy.
- What makes you think I'm crazy? asked Alice.
- It has to be, said the Cat, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.
The bad. It’s hard to find something original in this anime. Even without taking into account Cohn’s previous work, it is impossible not to notice that “all this has already happened.” Even the dream-constructing psychotherapeutic machine seems to have migrated from the pages of Roger Zelazny’s The Dream Master (and the issues raised overlap). But... And what, in fact, can you expect from postmodern, a bright representative of which anime is? New solutions? Original ideas? From postmodern Japanese? The query is clearly wrong. All that Japanese animation can offer is a little “spice” of national “specificity” in the usual transnational packaging. The world will chew and spit.
The rest. Probably one of the best anime I've seen. Bright picture, carnival music - despite the nightmarish dream shown, there is no painful impression after watching. The malevolent timidity of "Agent of Paranoia" turned into the hilarious irony of "Paprika." Floating meanings, the deconstruction of everything that comes to hand, the confusion of dream and reality, past and present - the Cheshire Postmodern Cat grins at full strength with its shining grin in Paprika. And who will reproach the Cheshire Cat that there is nothing else but a grin?
Only the last "idol" should fall victim to deconstruction - no, not sleep, but common sense. That is why Paprika is so beautiful – it does not pretend to be anything other than itself, namely, a beautiful mosaic of images, quotations and passages, of which everyone can add what he likes most. Some will remember Jung, Freud, and suppressed consciousness. Some will criticize the consumer society. Surely, again will get unhappy “destructive illusions” and “escape from debt and fears”. And for someone, “Paprika” will simply deliver aesthetic pleasure with its shining grin of postmodernism, behind which, perhaps, something is, or maybe only this grin exists.
“Illusions and reality exist side by side.” And to separate them from each other is to expose a person to the risk of “dividing” within himself. And extreme realism, as well as extreme idealism, is equally dangerous – flight from duty is no worse than thoughtless blind obedience to someone else’s will. The “honor” of service and protection turns out to be a lust for power and envy, the rejection of illusions is a betrayal of oneself and suicide, and cold realism can be a way to hide from reality. But...
Indeed, it is not serious to expect ready-made answers from the mocking postmodern. How does "Paprika" end there? Did Chiba and her alter-ego come together and the personality become whole? Has the feminine defeated the masculine? The girl absorbed illusions and grew up?
- Could you please tell me the way out of here?
- It depends mainly on where you want to go, said the cat.
- I don’t care where you are, Alice began.
- Then it doesn’t matter which way to go, said the cat.
“I just want to get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
- Well, you're sure to get there," said the Cat, "as long as you walk long enough.
One of the signs of falling asleep is a lack of thought control. That is, your thoughts, you created them yourself, but you can no longer turn them into the channel you need. This is where thoughts end and dreams begin.
The second time I watch the anime from Mr. Kona Satoshi and the second time it arouses my admiration. Sometimes, watching anime, I find myself thinking that maybe it would be a little better if it were a movie, but that doesn't apply to that picture. Kon Satoshi perfectly and fully uses the possibilities and features of the genre. As a film, Paprika would have had a budget of 100,000,000 and would have lost my much-loved R rating to recoup it.
Without him, it would not be possible to reveal the characters so well from the point of view of psychology. Yeah, it's actually a cartoon, but it's a fucking adult cartoon. And the plot to match is a stunningly worked out to the smallest detail detective with unexpected and impressive plot twists.
A lot of interesting fantastic ideas that in perfect proportion resonate with the gloomy authentic reality. And under the guise of a fantastic blockbuster we find ... noir detective. And most importantly - there is something to think about - which side will you choose in the author's proposed dilemma?
As in any other barrel of honey, there is also a spoonful of tar. And the bottom line is that such anim will not be removed - Mr. Kon Satoshi died in 2010. This is very sad, no other anime writer has been able to work out the psychological and moral side so well. He did not focus on the mass audience or international awards - his anime is for connoisseurs of the intricacies of human psychology. To make sure of that, just watch this anime and his other masterpiece, True Sadness. Rest in peace Kon Satoshi, thank you for what you have done for us.
The dream world has always fascinated people. After all, images torn from the subconscious, missed through a bizarre transformation of sensations, often became a source of inspiration for many creators of different professions. Therefore, it is not surprising that dreams have acquired a whole galaxy of adaptations. Moreover, the quality and content of the presented material is very diverse and varies widely. At one end of the improvised scale looms a serious Nolan, only for a few minutes allowed himself to flirt with the space-time continuum. On the other - methodically plunges into the abyss of a thrash swamp (well, he never crawled out of it) a famous fireman in a striped sweater and a crumpled hat. Somewhere between these extremes, a sweet Japanese girl with a very specific name, Paprika, is tossed in her epileptic dance. Its main task is to destroy your optic nerves in a relatively short period of time.
If you decide to watch one anime film in your lifetime, take Satoshi Kon’s Paprika. This work can rightfully be considered a reference, one hundred percent consistent with GOST on the anime, with the correction that all elements are elevated to the rank of absurdity. We break into the heart of the story, as if the viewer, who was late for the film show, hardly understand the intricacies of the relationship between the main characters of the play, and under the denouement we are left alone with many questions, to which answers will not give us. And all this action is accompanied by such an insanely bright and crazy picture that you involuntarily begin to go through the names of potent psychotropic drugs in your head, which you have used in the last twenty-four hours. Music that plays in the background only consolidates the effect. No wonder the main metaphor of "Paprika" is a crazy parade. It, like nothing else, reflects the mood of schizophrenia around the world. This is not a cartoon, this is a glitch, a trip, nonsense, call it whatever you want, but this is not how cartoons do. Of course, if we do not take into account the country of the rising sun.
The time of action is the near future, the place of action is our conditional reality. The fuss flares up around an invention that allows you to penetrate into other people's dreams. Such a device in unscrupulous hands can turn (read "will turn one hundred percent") into a weapon of mass psychosis, leading to the inevitable death of the subject. Naturally, these hands are almost immediately. To bring the dangerous toy back to the research center, young Dr. Atsuko Chiba and her Alter-ego Paprika (projection created to work in dreams), the developer of this device, a detective suffering from nightmares and other good people are included in the case. Meanwhile, the world around begins to go crazy, the dream flows into reality, threatening to turn everyday life into a single stream of madness, cheerfully marching on a phantasmogoric parade.
In "Paprika" it is difficult to take a step not to fall into some image, pretty mozzled our eyes in other anime films. Judge for yourself. There is a charming main character with an incomprehensible split personality, a harsh policeman with a mysterious past, poisoning the present, a brilliant but infantile scientist, and, of course, the main villain, powerful and vulnerable at the same time. At the same time, having so many stamps per unit of story text, Yasutaki Tsutsui, whose novel formed the basis of this cartoon, Seisi Minakami and Satoshi Kon weave such a filigree pattern that we have no way to break away from the screen to the final credits. The plot, which seemed like an ordinary piggy bank cliché, turns out to be much stronger than it originally looks. Don’t worry, they won’t share the secrets. And the explanations of the secondary lines that are presented to us under the curtain will be predictable and superfluous.
Paprika gives us one wording after another of the concept of dreaming, each of which, despite its fantasticity, has the right to life. Sleep is cinema. It’s a non-stop genre whose main director is yourself. Noir is replaced by comedy, horrors flow into dizzying adventures, and it depends only on you when the credits crawl on the screen. Sleep is a circus. Here, the rooms range from your imagination, going through all the hypostases from harmless clowning to deadly unique rides. Sleep is a parade. In this parade, frogs play trumpets, giant robots give fireworks, and a refrigerator and toaster play chess. Sleep is reality. A reality woven from the dull gray faces of clerks, a reality so lacking in bright colors. At the same time, the line between the real and the dreamed in this film is so thin that by the middle, no matter how carefully you look, the logical component of what is happening will wave a pen to goodbye to you. And if Paprika’s life-saving beacon can guarantee you the right coordinates at first, then over time you realize that it would be crazy to navigate it. Humble, before you one long dream and it is pointless to look for its boundaries.
There is everything to make the dream really bright and memorable. Paprika suffers neither from Nolan’s seriousness nor from Freddy Kruger’s tortured jokes. It leaves behind a slight bewilderment, a strange aftertaste, as if you had just woken up and were trying to remember the dream bright and crazy at the same time. No wonder this animation won many prizes at prestigious competitions. So, if you decide to watch one single anime film in your lifetime, then take Satoshi Kohn’s Paprika, you will not lose.
Satoshi Kon broke into the world of animation at an already mature age and immediately managed to amaze viewers and specialists with his talent as a storyteller, the brightest visual style and the ability to masterfully interweave reality and illusion. Satoshi Kon’s latest (in every sense) film, Paprika, formed, along with the debut True Sadness and the subsequent Millennium Actress, a kind of trilogy about the fate of a woman in Japan. At first, there was a pop singer who broke the usual way of life for the sake of a career on television, then became a legend of national cinema because of the unhappy love of her life, and finally, a modest, beautiful and leading psychoanalyst of the country, defending the right to professional and personal happiness. Connoisseur of women's souls Satoshi Kon in all the above cases around the deep image of the heroine built rich in original visual and plot solutions action.
The script of “Paprika” is an adaptation of the eponymous science fiction novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, whose pen belongs to such famous subjects as “The Girl Who Conquered Time” and “The Flooding of the World Except Japan”. Prose Tsutsui, who is called the Japanese Philip Dick, action-packed and whiplashy, psychological portraits of the characters are carefully drawn, and the author’s attention to detail is striking. The main character, Atsuko Chiba, heads the department of advanced technologies of the scientific institute for research of the human psyche, seriously claiming the Nobel Prize. She also has an alter-ego – a teenage girl Paprika, who is sometimes forced to penetrate other people’s dreams with the help of progressive (and not always legal) methods in order to secretly treat important state cones from the public. In her native institution, there are enough internal strife that interfere with research activities and increase significantly after the disappearance of a secret experimental apparatus that allows anyone to enter the dream without his consent. The incident becomes the beginning of a chain of strange events in which almost the entire environment of the woman is involved.
Given the impressive volume of the novel and the number of storylines, the director went on the optimal path in this case, trying to convey not the letter, but the spirit of the novel. And although inevitable changes and simplifications were made to the complex work, the structure of the anime based on its motives was hardly less complex, because the original directorial decisions greatly enriched the universe of Paprika. If the genre of the novel could be defined as a psychological thriller, the anime version more resembles an endless surreal maze of unexpected visual images, Freudian symbols, moral and ethical dilemmas, references to world culture, plot twists, films in the film, stories in the story and dreams in a dream.
Satoshi Konu is clearly interested in a part of human life called dreams, which, according to many experts, are the key to the best understanding of human problems and needs, as well as for the treatment of most mental disorders. This interest can be traced not only in the inventive drawing of the worlds of dreams, reality and dreams in reality, but also in the formulation of complex and rare for modern cinema issues. After all, sooner or later, psychiatric institutions will invent devices for fixing dreams and introducing them (the main idea of Nolanov’s “Beginnings” is taken from here), and with them there will be the acute problem of the responsibility of otaku scientists who will receive weapons stronger than the atomic bomb and international terrorism. Cohn presents two diametric points of view on this issue, but he is not in a hurry to make an unequivocal choice, although idealistic ideas are carried by the protagonists, and among skeptics there are only villains.
Back in 1997, the Japanese director became one of the first film authors in the world to speak about the influence of the Internet on a person. Nine years after True Sadness, he revisits the issue from a rather unexpected perspective. The World Wide Web, in his understanding, is an ersatz of collective sleep that serves as an outlet for the tired human mind. And through his study, you can get to know the Man and get to the true causes of his troubles much better than using traditional proven methods. But if computers around the world have long been connected into a single whole and more or less effectively deal with all kinds of threats, then even the slightest mistake in the collective dream, which the director fantasizes about, can one night turn the world into a mad parade over smoking ashes, which in the morning there will be no one to clean up.
At the beginning there were the words: Zhuangtze once dreamed that he was a butterfly fluttering a moth. He enjoyed himself from the heart and did not realize that he was Zhuangzi. But suddenly he woke up and was very surprised that he was Zhuangtze and could not understand: did Zhuangtze dream that he was a butterfly, or does the butterfly dream that she was Zhuangtze?
Later, there will be paintings by Bosch, Dali and Miro, books by Carroll and Vian, Gaiman comics. But everything begins, as always in this world, with the words in which ideas are the essence.
“Paprika” in a series of these works is not new, does not open new horizons, but the mechanism of engaging the viewer, following the rules of the genre is flawless: at no moment can we determine the dream we see or the real reality. In the story about the invention and use for bad purposes of a device that allows you to invade and change the dreams of other people, reality is mixed with dreams so that the viewer does not feel the transition of the characters from one state to another.
And do we even see the reality here: too unlike real people, neither the short director, nor the assistant Himuro, nor the fat Takita. Maybe all this is just a dream of the last one who invented a story with puppet villains (you can guess too easily who is behind the theft of devices)? There are too many logical inconsistencies and coincidences in this anime. There are many options.
Although "Paprika" can hardly be called a masterpiece that opens new horizons of the genre, exploring the boundaries of dreams and reality, the anime from Satoshi Kohn turned out great: magnificent drawing, memorable characters, not too complex, but fascinating intrigue.
8 out of 10
A much-vaunted and controversial film with as many good moments as bad ones. Strongly reminiscent of Nolan’s “Inception” (more precisely, this “Inception”, shot 4 years later, resembles “Paprika”) and gives the impression of a draft for him.
Plot, script, content
The idea that dreams are a reflection of a person’s real thoughts (even those in which he himself is not aware) is not new, but interesting. In the plot, it is embodied in a solid five, and this is its main advantage!
Forever kicking fat man Takita, Dr. Chiba will deal with himself only in his sleep. A detective in a dream will get to his guilt and in a dream will get rid of him. The chairwoman in his dream will finally get up from his wheelchair (reminds him of Will Stanton in A Nightmare on Elm Street) – this seems to have been the real purpose of his game. And so on.
The theme of the alter-ego is never new (and from Jekyll and Hyde to Forbidden Reception has been exploited many times), but it is presented in a very simple and natural way. Nicely done! Especially since the alter ego is not someone, but a charming Paprika.
A separate plus for the film - for the implementation of the idea of the mask.
A mask is needed to do what is not possible with your own face (for example, only in a masquerade can a commoner be equal to a nobleman).
So Tiba involuntarily, then deliberately puts on a mask for the world of dreams - Paprika (more precisely, this mask itself appears to her when necessary). But in the end, when Chiba has dealt with Takita and is apparently in a state of harmony with himself, the true face and the mask will finally separate. And then the mask you created will have a chance at your own destiny! Good ending.
The idea of science vs. natural sacraments is neither new nor interesting. In addition, it is presented here in a monoplane (all bulls are against the development of science, and all nurses are scientists). Kon-san, would review at least Mononoke, or what?
And it was in vain that the world cataclysm , almost arranged by the Chairman, and the breakthrough of dreams into general reality were woven into this plot.
We can say that it was a breakthrough of dreams into reality only the heroes of the film. But they said the whole world was under threat. Who are we not to believe the main characters?
Personally, I didn't like it at all. After all, the film already had a beautiful interweaving of several personal storylines - Chiba with Takita, Chairman with Professor, Detective with Phantom Paprika, and each of them was presented very succinctly, vividly and meaningfully. And there was an excellent mystic-detective story about the shaky intersection of dreams and reality “on the material” of the characters of the film. It was all beautiful and interesting.
So we all quit and started to save the world from a mega-villain. What happened at that moment? I don't understand. How did you save the world? I don't understand. What idea is important in this and without excessive pathos? I can't see any. At least how did Paprika and Detective feel? It's completely overboard. Or maybe there was an epic battle – even a quarter as bright as Aska’s in EoE? There was nothing like that...
So we didn't buy anything. But threw all the started personal lines, hyperaccelerated events (so that to understand or feel at least something became simply unrealistic – the thread of the narrative would follow) and as a result received a completely meaningless segment of screen time.
Oh, it would be "empty" screen time at the beginning, not dessert! The impression of the film would have been much better. . .
However, the plot is slightly rehabilitated due to the cute hairpins (“I’m here!”). - And why are you a monkey?!) and quotes (insanely pleased “Roman Holiday” and “Ghostbusters”, and also a fierce doll Chucky, whose laugh went to the doll from “Paprika”).
Drawing
She's gorgeous! Dreams can be both terribly shaky and surreally vivid, right?
Music
The best thing in the movie! Honestly. The composition Byakkoya no musume of Hirasawa Susumu is beautiful and unusual in itself, and listening to how her leitmotifs are refracted in other tracks is a pleasure.
A opening... Oh, my God, no words! He is wonderful, light, not at all pretentious, cheerful. To watch Paprika gracefully flutter through the sleeping city to the music of Hirasawa, as a jump crosses the road that dared to slow down this light wind - a real magic.
What's the result?
So, great drawing. That's great. Not without flaws in the plot. So what's the bottom line?
Nothing. Nothing at all. This is a good and interesting film, but it is intended solely for entertainment.To feel something was possible only in the opening.
After the same “Beginning”, although it is Hollywood, I kept a long thoughtfulness – I tried to reopen its mysterious connections of sleep and reality, to move away from the adrenaline that filled its end. After the full-length anime, The Graves of Fireflies, or Totoro, or The Girl Who Conquered Time, he recalled again and again the notes of feelings and sensations they gave him the chance to try.
And then everything turned out to be quite clear (if something suddenly remained a mystery, after a couple of minutes it became clear that it does not matter much, and just not interesting). There were no strong feelings for the whole hour and a half, except for opening.
This solid but very ordinary film pulls a maximum of 6 out of 10.
...but here is a really brilliant opening!
Such a strange name - Paprika, is a young and cheerful girl who, through the efforts of the Japanese, rediscovers some truths. And, frankly, about eighty percent of the movie looks like crazy. So the viewer will have to try to fully grasp the meaning - and this, by the way, is not at all surprising, given that "everything is simple" in Japan does not happen. So, "Paprika."
In this reality, people did reveal the secret of dreams and were able to invent a device (DiC Mini), which allowed to penetrate into the dreams of any person and - moreover - after a dream, this dream could be watched by anyone who wanted. It is clear that this device is quite dangerous and has a lot of its features, which some either forget, or just close their eyes to them. I will also mention that DC Mini is in the final stage, so it has not yet found mass use, and only employees of the company and those close to them (friends, etc.) use it. The developer is a brilliant and good-natured huge size Tokita Kosaku, who, as it turns out, is perhaps the most important character in the whole story. It's looking ahead.
In general, three devices DC Mini kidnapped and the employees of the development company has no choice but to find a thief, because, in the end, this unpleasant circumstance can lead to irreparable consequences – the device gives almost limitless opportunities to manipulate not only people’s dreams, but also almost completely change their reasonable ideas, creating something like madness at their discretion. And this will affect not only those who in one way or another contact with DC Mini, but the whole world. Our heroes have to learn the name of this sinister genius, capable of subjugating humanity with the help of dreams, as well as prevent chaos with various fantastic things, and in the process, at the same time, deal with their own “demons” who did not allow them to live quietly.
I treat anime very respectfully, so pay attention when watching any little things. And here it is difficult not to notice how well the picture was executed - it seemed that I was watching a film in which people were just transferred to paper: drawing, performance, colors - in general, my eyes were pleased. I cannot fail to mention the story itself and the subtext it carries. It is understandable that the subject of dreams is quite dangerous and in fact will be either a masterpiece or a complete failure (implausibility has always accompanied such paintings), but now, after watching, I confidently declare that “Paprika” unequivocally refers to the first. And that's great. Because wherever we are, we will think about such things and finally understand that there are many reasons why we should not touch certain areas of humanity, because it can be very dangerous. There is always another way for personal peace.
Just figure it out. You don’t have to go into your dreams that much, do you?
And Paprika... probably just an amazing girl, which, by the way, quite explains the behavior of all the characters in the anime. Yes, only she was still a personal “demon”, which turns out to be a free addition to everything I have already written.
Verdict: "Paprika", in my opinion, is an anime about what happens when you succumb to temptation and try to subjugate something that will never belong to anyone. Dreams are a dangerous thing, and jokes are bad, and while scientists are puzzled over what dreams are and how they affect a person’s fate, we will simply see them as fragments of our personal movie and be able to build our lives in them the way we would like. That's a great idea. Excellent implementation. Wonderful anime.
10 out of 10
Nice viewing!
P.S. Thank you strawberry with ice for recommending to see this creation.
It will now enter my three favorite anime, along with Gone Ghosts and The Wandering Castle. Bright, juicy, but unpretentious animation. A surreal, psychedelic atmosphere. Colorful characters. Unusual story. Unfortunately, there were no downsides. The sound set leaves much to be desired. Twitching, cut animation, although perhaps this is the corporate style of any anime cartoons. But this did not spoil the effect of watching. In the atmosphere of a fairy tale, the cartoon immerses with its head. I looked in one breath. The future is Japanese animation! Original