released 01 jan 08 / last mod 01 jan 08 / greg goebel / public domain
* At the beginning of Satoshi Kon's animated movie PAPRIKA, a police detective named Kogawa is investigating his own dreams, using a dream monitoring tool named the "DC Mini". His dream journeys are being supervised by a girl named Paprika, it seems for the brownish-red color of her hair. It turns out that the DC Mini is an experimental device, built by a team led by an old school pal of Kogawa's, Dr. Shima. The device itself was actually invented by the gluttonous, obese technogeek Dr. Kosaku Tokita -- a super genius but irresponsible, and his colleague, trim and pretty Dr. Atsuko Chiba, has to ride herd on him to keep him in line. Exactly who the mysterious Paprika is and what relationship she has with the three researchers is unclear at the outset.
A set of DC minis is stolen, which leads the team of researchers to worry about invasions of privacy. As it turns out, that's the least of their problems, since the DC minis turn out to have a disastrous tendency to blur the line between dreams and reality. It falls to dream warrior Paprika to prevent the world from being sucked down into a living nightmare.
Anybody who's ever seen other Satoshi Kon flics, such as MILLENNIUM ACTRESS or TOKYO GODFATHERS knows they are always superbly produced, and PAPRIKA is no exception, a riot of color and detail and surprise and fantasy. Kon's musical partner, Susumu Hirasawa, also contributes a near-perfect soundtrack, an intriguing combination of old-fashioned Japanese pop music anthems and 1980s electronica that fits the dreamscape of PAPRIKA perfectly.
The only problem with PAPRIKA, and it's a substantial if not lethal one, is that it flatly doesn't pay to think too much about this film since its plot logic ranges from "confused" to "nonexistent". If PAPRIKA is enjoyed as a clever visual experience, it's a real gem; however, it would have been nice if Kon had put a little more work into installing a brain into it as well. One warning -- this is not a movie for kids. It's not into sleaze, but there are some risque scenes, and it would confuse most kids anyway.
