Paprika

This past Friday, Satoshi Kon’s latest creation, Paprika, graced St. Louis at the Tivoli theater. We gathered our crew and headed out to a 7:10 showing Saturday night. Since we were expecting it to be crowded, we showed up and parked our butts in the seats 30 minutes before the show. Sitting in the the theater and feeling smug about our excellent seats, I began to wonder where everyone was. The Riverfront Times did write a review of Paprika and gave it high marks. Cowboy Bebop was nigh sold out when it came to the Tivoli some five years ago. Why wasn’t Paprika? One of our companions chalked up the absences of Paprika fans to our choice of an “early” show (am I that old that I don’t think 7:10 is early?) Did all the anime fans in St. Louis already see the movie?

After mulling over the possibility that St. Louis might not have as many anime fans as I first imagined, the movie began and I didn’t have the time or inclination to mope.

Plot Summary

Paprika opened with The Greatest Show On Earth; part of a dream collage centered around one of the movie’s main characters; Detective Konakawa. Along with the circus were a scene from a spy thriller, a cut from Tarzan, and a dramatic moment from the detective’s waking life. This dreamer’s melange was actually a nightmare cooked up in the good detective’s head and tormenting him in his waking hours.

Accompanying Konakawa throughout the dream and giving him a hand when the going got too rough is an effervescent redhead by the name of Paprika. Paprika is the titular heroine of the tale and although her outward appearance is one of a bubbly young woman, she’s actually a new breed of psychotherapist.

Paprika makes house calls, or more apropos, headcalls. Using a strange device dubbed the DC mini, Paprika can dive into people’s dreams and help them confront deep seated fears and anxieties they might never even know they had.

The DC mini, however is not the invention of Paprika; a group of research scientists have concocted the device in order to better facilitate psychotherapy in hard to reach patients. Delving into dreams may yet help people that normal means have not, or so is the hope of lead scientist, Dr. Atsuko Chiba. Supporting Atsuko in her research are the actual inventor and manufacturer of the DC mini, Dr. Tokita Kosaku, and chief of staff, Dr, Shima.

The research group is pushing hard to have their invention openly available for everyone to benefit from but before that happens, three of the DC minis are stolen from the research facility. Paprika, a kind of covert and unsanctioned psychiatrist, is the first person to come to mind involving the DC minis disappearance, according to the Chairman of the project.

The team now scrambles like mad to find the DC minis before the info that they’ve been stolen is leaked to the public. The ramifications of the stolen minis are harsh; whoever stole the devices can enter the dreams of anyone who uses the dreaming machines that are located in the research facility. Scientists who have recently used the dreaming machines are the first victims of the DC mini terrorists (because it is terrorism to enter people’s dreams without permission).

As the team tries to do damage control, more and more acts of dream-terrorism follow, undermining all the hard work and team efforts that were pored into the DC mini project. Threatened with consequences much more dire than the disbandment of the research project, the remaining team members rally together with Paprika and Detective Konkawa to unravel this disturbing mystery.

Paprika started out with bubbling effervesce and kept the energy level steady throughout. The opening credits were aglow with the joyful colors and unbridled energy Satoshi Kon has brought to previous titles: Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. And though the colors became subdued in darker moments of the anime, though it was in the guise of tension, the energy was still pervasive.

Kon has written a story in Paprika that has many layers to it; some subtle (true love, universal balance), some not so subtle (the ills and responsibilities of modern technology and whether or not the purvey of man should include dreams). This multi-layered approach to the storytelling gave the movie a deeper feel and although it was a bit esoteric at times, it wasn’t a bit presumptuous.

Fans of Satoshi’s work will recognize some familiar elements from previous films. One that stood out to me is something I’ve dubbed “The Chase Scene”. The Chase Scene plays an important visual role in Kon’s movies and are quite memorable. In Millennium Actress TCS is the scene in which the lead character looks for the love of her life and “runs” from movie to movie. In Tokyo Godfathers it was the chase through the city. The Chase Scene makes a spectacular appearance in Paprika as well.

One of the truly memorable aspects of Paprika is the animation. The sumptuous surreal feel of the movie is expertly created by the plot and the pictures. The genius behind Paprika’s amazing animation is Madhouse. The lines and colors all blend flawlessly with the story. There were no stilted frames, no moments of “OMG, that’s CG!”, no distracting glitches in the animation; just the movie being conveyed through superb animation.

I fell in love with the OP/ ED credits of Paprika the moment the electronic strains filled my ears. The music, composed by Susumu Hirasawa, offered extra depth and feeling to the movie. When there’s such happy and energetic sounds pouring through the theater, it’s hard not to feel a bit of that rosy optimism. Hirasawa’s score was the perfect complement to Paprika’s surreal surroundings.

Paprika offers a welcome repast to anime fans and non-fans alike that makes a person think beyond what their eyes are trying to tell them. Even though the visuals are a confusing cacophony most of the time, the stories underneath are ones that tie everyone together. Paprika should make us realize that maybe all of our dreams aren’t so different after all.