Paprika

"Paprika"
Satoshi Kon, 2007

In "Paprika," an engrossing science fiction tale that uses a combination of computer-generated effects and hand-drawn animation, a team of researchers, led by a steely woman named Atsuko, creates a device that allows them to enter people's dreams. The potential for effective therapy notwithstanding, these researchers don't have any idea about the dangers of this new technology, which become all too apparent when they, while hooked up to the device, become trapped within their own dreams.

Atsuko, who works under the guise of "Paprika," a charismatic, red-haired superhero, while she is in the dreamworld, is confident that she can save the team, and her product. But naturally, complications arise. "Paprika," with its vivid colors and often disturbing visuals, works beautifully as an exploration of whether it is healthier to let our lives be ruled by reality or by our more fantastical dreams. One of the characters, Detective Kogawa, abandoned his true passion, making movies - a common motif, and an interesting one given the film's focus on reality vs. illusion - and he uses the dream machine for constructive purposes, to figure out how he can incorporate his lifelong aspirations into his everyday life. One of the researcher's assistants, Himuro, on the other hand, uses the device for more destructive purposes. Having a banal career, he wants to remain within the illusion created by the confines of his own dreams, at the expense of his physical well-being.

As Himuro and other researchers become trapped within their own dreams, the dreamworld begins to have a will of its own, and many people's dreams meld into one consolidated nightmare that extends into the real world. This dream has a veneer of happiness, as the trapped researchers march with a rambunctious, confetti-strewn parade of toys; but underneath is a sinister side, the darkness of people's sub-conscious, I suppose, which is purely surreal and brilliantly realized. Atsuko, unwilling to delve into her own culpability, suspects that there is someone behind this, and indeed, in the film's climax, we discover that the researchers' chairman, a cadaverous man trapped in a wheelchair, is the villain. "Paprika" does suffer from making a villain responsible for the mess, and it doesn't help that his reasons for taking over the dreamworld are disappointingly conventional. Dreams, we discover during this experience, are much more compelling and much more terrifying when there's no rhyme or reason to them.

First Viewed: 7/31/08, on Blu-ray Disc
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