Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
brae
Feb 2, 2006
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/
2006
Directed By: Satoshi Kon

I saw this at my local indie theatre this past weekend and enjoyed it. I've heard generally two reactions about it:

1. It was incredible
2. It was typical mindfuck anime philosophical nonsense

So I thought it'd be interesting to review.

Summary: The film's plot centers around a fairly standard topic in post-WW2 Japanese film: technology without control gets out of hand, and creates a catastrophe. In this case, scientists of a psychiatric research facility in near-future Japan invent a device, called the DC Mini, that can let them spectate and even participate in their patient's dreams. 3 of the prototype devices are stolen. One of the members of the project, a very restrained and humorless scientist named Dr. Chiba, has also been secretly using one of the devices outside of the facility as a form of psychotherapy. She appears in the dreams of her patients as Paprika, who is outgoing, sensual, and heroic. But whoever's behind the theft of the three prototypes doesn't have such benevolent goals in mind.



Visually, at least, the film was pretty awesome. The animation is lush and makes heavy use of vibrant primary colors, and the rendering of dreams and reality are detailed and almost always deliver on their intended effect, be it to make you feel creepy or amused or whatever.

However, while I found the plot interesting, the film did the typical anime thing of handing the details out to you very slowly, and usually via indirect references that later become meaningful. That is, you'll probably walk out of the movie still processing what exactly it was about, since the plot sort of coalesces from spongy goo near the end. It's there, but I felt like the film would've been better with a little more direct exposition.

Speaking of which, if you're an anime fan, it should interest you that this movie was done by Satoshi Kon, who did some pretty well-known stuff like Perfect Blue. It also features some famous voice talent, like Megumi Hayashibara as the title character and Dr. Chiba. If you hate anime, you'll probably want to skip this movie.

I'd give this movie a 3.5, but the soundtrack adds an extra 0.5, as it's memorable and catchy orchestral/electronic stuff, by Susumu Hirasawa, whom Wikipedia describes as a "Japanese electropop-artist".

Verdict: 4/5

brae fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Jun 18, 2007

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

FedEx Mercury
Jan 7, 2004

Me bad posting? That's unpossible!
Lipstick Apathy
I gotta say I was disappointed by this movie. Even if you like weird anime mindfuck movies, this one is just not that weird, and that's a shame because that's all it's really got going for it. I'd say skip this movie and see Mindgame instead.

2/5

Ville Valo
Sep 17, 2004

I'm waiting for your call
and I'm ready to take
your six six six
in my heart
Quick and simple - Visually stunning at times, but no substance whatsoever.

2 / 5

unhealthyman
Jan 27, 2007

OH GOD MAKE IT STOP...

notZaar posted:

I'd say skip this movie and see Mindgame instead.

It seems I liked Paprika more than you did, but I will certainly agree with this. Mindgame is in an absolute league of its own and I think is a truly remarkable film. It gets a lot less recognition than it deserves.

I was quite entertained by Paprika, I love Susumu Hirasawa and Satoshi Kon, and the film was very pretty. But the whole sci-fi elements of Paprika seemed clumsily handled to me and the story wasn't especially involving or clever. It was still a good spectacle to see in the cinema and I would like to watch it again to properly assess what I think of it. I preferred other Satoshi Kon films to this one though - it lacked a certain something.

A tentative 3/5?

Papercut
Aug 24, 2005

The quickest substitution in the history of the NBA
Visually unbelievable, and I'll concur with others that the soundtrack was great. I found the story more interesting than others. I thought the dualities between reality/dream and between different characters was interesting, the pacing was great, and for a cartoon I thought it definitely had enough there to be interesting. I probably don't hold anime to as high a standard as other genres in terms of plot (I'm there for the animation first and foremost), but I thought it was a great anime and a solid movie overall.

4.5/5

Jose Mengelez
Sep 11, 2001

by Azathoth
Definitely lighter in tone than 'perfect blue' and less emotive than 'tokyo godfathers', but every bit as enjoyable in my opinion and visually more stunning than either aforementioned movie. Again, The soundtrack was superb.

4/5

bobservo
Jul 24, 2003

This movie is exhibit #1,000,000 in why every country but America takes animation seriously. Before I sound like too much a hopeless nerd, I want to state that Japan produces its share of crap, too; Paprika was probably in Japanese theaters at the same time as Naruto Movie 14: Naruto Fights a Dinosaur's Butthole. But it's gems like Paprika that makes me wish that Pixar would take at least half of the risks Satoshi Kon is taking with his movie-making career.

Paprika is essentially the story of a dream detective, and I would be doing the story a major disservice by trying to describe it all in this review. Like all Satoshi Kon films, it has one leg in the real world, and the other in the surreal world. And through the creation of unique characters (which is hard in a medium that thrives on cliches), Kon makes the real parts of the movie just as involving as the surreal parts. Paprika is very similar in tone and storytelling as Kon's TV series, Paranoia Agent, so if you enjoyed that, there's no doubt that you'll love Paprika.

I didn't like Paprika as much as Kon's last film, Tokyo Godfathers, but that's not saying Paprika is bad by any means. Any kind of movie operating in dream logic - especially dream logic as loose as what exists in Paprika - can never have an ending that's as satisfying as a movie rooted in a somewhat-real world. The bag of solutions you have to draw from in a dream logic movie is just too large.

Paprika was, as I expected, just as amazing as Kon's previous work. I was lucky enough to watch this on the big screen, and seeing the flawless visuals expanded in front of me - along with hearing a fabulous soundtrack by Kon's longtime collaborator, Susumu Hirasawa - gave me an amazing feeling. I suspect Kon had the same feeling when he was making it.

5/5

HondaCivet
Oct 16, 2005

And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know


It's beautiful and visually interesting at times, of course, but the story and characterization were almost complete garbage and will keep this one from becoming a classic. Also, while the parade is a cool visual, they absolutely ran it into the ground to the point where it stopped being interesting. The majority of the soundtrack is pretty forgettable but there were some great tunes as well.

2.5/5

Tai-Pan
Feb 10, 2001
Visually interesting, fun soundtrack, but completely hamfisted characterization.
The plot is typically Japanese in that they do not bother to expound on much of anything and resolution is a stylized Deus Ex-Machina pretending to be othewise.


I think for the look and feel alone, it is worth watching, but not in theaters, go rent Tokyo Godfathers instead.

3/5

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Spacedad
Sep 11, 2001

We go play orbital catch around the curvature of the earth, son.
OH MY GOD THIS FILM IS AWESOME.

Let me just preface my weighing of pro/cons by stating that personally I think that this film may not click with everyone as well as it did with me. But for those that it DOES click well with, it's an instant classic. In other words, if you give this film a chance, you might find yourself one of the lucky people whose sensibility is geared exactly towards this kind of film, and find it speaking very well to you. If you are a very visual person who also has a good sense of dream-logic, chances are you'll get sucked into this movie, with a parade of frogs, refrigerators, giant toys, toaster-ovens and signing buddah statues spilling down the theater aisles.

Also let me preface it by stating the following important bit: If you are unfamiliar with Japanese culture, this film will appear on the surface to be all style no substance, when the reality is that the film is a rather complex and intricate commentary about Japanese culture. There are themes and things that occur in the film as well as various symbols which tend to make more sense to asian audiences and are alien to westerners. A place to start would be finding out more about the philosophy behind the 'superflat' pop-art movement, for example. (As per the Superflat movement, a lot of what appears on the surface in this film to be rehashing anime/manga cliche is actually a very self-conscious subversion and criticism of those cliches.)


Pros:

-A visually arresting, intelligently written spiderweb of a movie that turns into a sea of madness and symbols, ending with love and connection between the characters. I also like the fact that connecting people on a personal level through sharing dreams is what saves the day in this film, fulfilling what Tokita invented his device for.

-Great and memorable characters. Paprika is a delightful protagonist who reminds me more than a little of Amelie and the various cheery free-spirited female leads on which Amelie was based. Her more humanized friends are nearly as delightful as she.

-Now in my top 10 all-time favorite animated films. (Along with Tokyo Godfathers, The girl who leapt through time, The Incredibles, and various miyazaki/disney/pixar films.)

-One of the most visually stunning animated films out there, and with a great story that thankfully holds it up.

-I have proudly seen this movie six times and noticed new things about it each time I did not see...it's like a novel you can read over and over again, noticing new threads and understanding new things. Reading some information on dream psychology also enhanced my understanding of what was going on at certain points.

-Clever play with the fourth wall throughout, with frequent play between the idea that dreams are movies, more than hinting to the audience that they're basically watching someone else's dream. (The movie even ends with someone buying a theater ticket.)

-Clever use of reverse psychology for visual cues...the most terrifying nightmarish scenes are almost all done in BROAD DAYLIGHT where you can see EVERYTHING, whereas Good seems to be more in control when the lights are down low, hinting at the idea of a safe bedroom or "Plato's cave" comfort zone.

-Amazingly great soundtrack.

-COOL DIRECTOR AND WRITER CAMEOS - Satoshi Kon and Yasutaka Tsutsui both appear as the radioclub bartenders in the movie, and actually have an interesting little impact on the story.

Cons:

-A lot of the symbols familiar to Japanese audiences may not be understood by western audiences, thus depriving them of completely enjoying or understanding the film. (Such as the keen reference to the nightmare-eating Tapirs of Japanese myth, certain visual references such as Japanese political cartoons, the fact that the big parade of kitsch and imported culture is essentially a collective 'nightmare' to traditionalist Japanese who follow the history of Japan trying to remain culturally pure, and the various character typologies used throughout.) For me, however, I have enough of a general knowledge of Japanese culture to pick up on most of them - though reading various discussion groups online also helped.

-Would've liked to see more dream-therapy with Paprika. (Maybe a TV series could be spawned from this for that?)

-Some people may be reminded of Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent - certain characters resembling those in the show both in typology and in character design. (The protagonist herself is like a lighthearted version of split personality girl for example.) However, this can be more of a 'pro' than a con if you enjoy the idea that this movie was essentially a remixing or 'alternate reality' version of various personas from Paranoia Agent - or even the vague idea that some of the same animated 'actors' from the show were cast into new roles.

-Not a movie you want to turn your brain off for, but one you want to "go with the flow" on, which may be tough for some people. In other words, this film can be confusing for anyone not in the right frame of mind - for the rest of us, the film makes perfect sense.

5/5

Spacedad fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Aug 18, 2007

  • Post
  • Reply