Review of Paprika

Paprika, the last film of the late Satoshi Kon, is in a league of its own when compared to his other works—a league that is far, far below the rest. Satoshi Kon is, of course, a very talented director, and in that regard he still delivers for this film. The visuals are every bit as detailed as expected from him and his team, and the sheer amount of technical skill on display here is mind-blowing at times. Unfortunately, that's about where my praise for it ends. Satoshi Kon films typically take you on a psychological ride that explores its characters' inner thoughts in visually inventive ways.You might think that Paprika does this as well, as it would seem so at first, but the experience ends up feeling very flat by the end in spite of the film's wacky and colorful premise. The elaborate dream sequences only distract you from the fact that everything here operates on a very basic surface level. While that physiological element does exist to some extent in Paprika, it's relegated to the sidelines in favor of an uninteresting, superficial mystery plot about stolen technology featuring one-note, unlikable characters. I don't dislike this film for being confusing or for going "over my head" as they say; I dislike it for being astoundingly simple and straightforward. There's not much to explore and not much to think about after the film is over. Paprika delivers entertainment that's built to last for the moment and nothing more.

But, make no mistake: the entertainment that it does provide is still very much worth experiencing just for those immediate sensations alone. The soundtrack definitely deserves a mention, as it's pretty great and the recurring themes are very strong. As for the animation, the creators are able to get away with a lot because of the film's dream setting, and with that they're pretty creative. They must have spent a lot of time discussing what sorts of things tend to happen in dreams so that they could make those sequences feel genuinely relatable. Sometimes, though, the dream elements feel gimmicky and forced, like they were thrown in to remind the viewer that the characters are, indeed, in a dream; characters will dive into television screens and paintings to travel distances that would have probably been easier to walk across. Additionally, it feels like they miss a lot of opportunities to truly mess with the viewer's perception of reality, instead making it all too clear what's really going on most of the time.

Now, maybe Paprika just isn't trying to be some intelligent psychoanalytical film; that's fine. Maybe it could instead provide a nice cast of characters with great chemistry who drive the film forward, a la Tokyo Godfathers. However, Paprika fails to provide even that. The characters in Paprika range from underwhelming to outright irritating, with a few exceptions. Kosaku, in particular, is on the "punchable" side of the scale. This guy is unbelievably, impossibly, and disgustingly obese. It's played off like some kind of charming quality, and that perhaps it's what's on the inside that matters most—a touching sentiment, but unfortunately for Kosaku, he also happens to act like a literal child. Well, shit, I guess he's got no redeeming qualities no matter where you look. Did I mention that he has the most punchable face of any anime character ever?

Even Paprika herself, despite her gorgeous character design, is deceptively dull, much like the film. Going by the title and promotional art, you might be looking forward to seeing a film featuring her as the central character. That's why you'll be happy to learn that she actually spends the majority of the time replaced by her comparatively drab counterpart, Atsuko, and receives no development of her own. In fact, there's a ton of wasted potential when it comes to both of these characters, as it's never explored why Atsuko might take on this other form in the first place, and what this duality actually means for them. It ends up feeling like the only reason this "Paprika" alter ego exists is for eye candy and so that we can see a cool character battling dream monsters in trippy action scenes; if that was the intention, she at least succeeded in providing that. But, with Satoshi Kon, we've come to expect a deeper meaning behind every action, and in this film the action often takes place for its own sake, feeling a little too much like a Saturday morning cartoon.

That Saturday morning cartoon feel doesn't end there, though, as the worst of it comes from the film's villain—something that Kon's films have never featured this blatantly before, typically favoring inner conflicts over the external. This is a villain whose first lines consist of him robotically expressing his ideals, as if he'd been carefully scripting his own words, eager to recite them to the next person who'd walk into his room. By the end of the film, he'll crush your suspension of disbelief harder than any amount of surrealist dream imagery could by acting like a totally unreasonable cartoon bad guy: a comically insane person with maniacally evil plans who shouts like a baby when he doesn't get his way. To make things worse, we never learn why he feels the ways that he feels, making him an underwhelming character and a weak villain. I didn't even mention the similarly flawed supporting villain whose existence is entirely unnecessary and serves no greater purpose.

As previously stated, Paprika does still contain a bit of Satoshi Kon's signature psychological element, and that comes in the form of side character Toshimi's plot line. Unlike other characters in the film who only seem to be concerned for their job's sake, Toshimi actually has a strong personal investment in his own arc, as he takes the initiative to find answers to the questions that haunt his dreams. You grow to care about this guy because it actually feels like he cares, too. And, for once, the dream motif is used really well to give meaningful visuals to his inner psyche—the kinds of tangible things that can actually be pulled apart to learn more about a character. But, ultimately, the problem is that Toshimi's concerns are really only his alone. They don't mesh well with the main plot at all, and when the creators attempt to mash them together the results are questionable at best. He's left with nothing to do by the climax, becoming just another bystander watching the action unfold outside of his control, having no influence on the conclusion.

With most of the characters being as two-dimensional as they are, it's no surprise that the film's climax ends up being a thrown-together mess. Everything is resolved with actions that don't need to make too much sense, using the fact that dreams have become real as a crutch for the deus ex machina finale. There are attempts to salvage Atsuko's lack of development by introducing a romance plot that, while hinted at, feels more insulting than anything else. They were clearly and knowingly taking a risk with this particular pairing, but the necessary steps to pull it off correctly were not taken. At most, you could say that the creators were at least trying to invoke some real emotions for once, but I'd honestly rather they'd not at this point, especially when the results are this awkward.

I don't know exactly what went wrong with the making of this film to make it stand out in such a negative way. Considering Kon's otherwise excellent track record, perhaps it's the source material that's at fault; I wouldn't know. All I do know is that Paprika, as it exists in this film, is an overall emotionless endeavor that left me wondering what the point of it all was. Regardless, I do still have a lot of respect for Satoshi Kon; he's made his fair share of masterpieces, and his contributions to the anime industry won't be forgotten anytime soon, so I suppose he's earned the right to make a few mistakes. After all, it was his willingness to take risks that brought us such great films as Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress. You can see that Paprika was made with that same level of ambition; it was just bound to fail at some point.