Paprika
A lesson I really need to learn about blogging with WordPress is, if you leave an open post sitting for a long time (i.e. several hours or a day), and then you add more to it before hitting save, it will eat whatever you wrote. I haven’t learned this yet, although it has happened multiple times, so I just lost the entire text of my post on Paprika. Frustrating to say the least.
I got Paprika in from Netflix over the weekend and watched it twice: once on Saturday night, then again on Sunday afternoon. I rarely do that with movies, but I really enjoyed Paprika. And, just as importantly, I didn’t feel I had gotten everything I could have out of the first viewing. Anyway, if I can watch it twice, surely I can also write about it twice (if only in a slightly abbreviated form the second time).
In a nutshell, the plot of Paprika involves a device called the DC Mini, invented by scientists working at the Institute for Psychiatric Research. The Mini straps onto a subject like a headset and reads their dreams as they sleep, transmitting the sounds and images to a computer for study, and allowing others equipped with the headset to enter the subject’s dreams and interact with them there. However, the device has applications that the scientists are only beginning to understand.
Soon, one of the Minis is stolen and a shadowy figure begins tapping into the minds of everyone that has ever used the device. With the stolen Mini, this person can cause his targets to enter a dreamstate while awake, posing a threat to others and themselves. As Dr. Chiba Atsuko and the powerful, mysterious dream adventurer Paprika investigate these occurrences, something far more sinister emerges. A very creepy dream is beginning to crop up all over the place, and seems to be moving towards dominance of the entire dreamworld. What does this mean, and can it be stopped?
The movie is exciting and suspenseful, but also quite exhilarating. The animation pops with a fluid and imaginative style that really brings the bizarre sights of the dreamworld to life and is just plain fun to watch. The music, sampled in the clips above and below, is fantastic as well. On top of that, the movie questions how much we really understand our world, even something as close to us as our own subconscious minds, and probes the sometimes blurry lines between dreams and reality in a very unique way.
If you were as intrigued by the trailer as I was, have a look at the opening credits sequence below (one of the coolest I’ve ever seen), and then go find yourself a copy of this movie! It’s a great ride.
Moviegoings 