Review of Paprika

[9.5/10] _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The duality of yourself. A creature which, through no fault of its own, dons many masks, many personalities, many interpretations. How do you act on your first date? How do you act on your fourth? Is it different now that you are comfortable with one another? Can you finally be who you truly are? The idea of duality is what Satoshi Kon strived to analyze through his filmography. This idea, that the life you live isn't just one experience, one person, but many that live alongside one another, battling for control. In Paprika, one of the greatest anime films ever, we see Kon at hismost dreamlike, but ironically at his most lucid as well, explaining his beliefs in the bluntest way he ever had before.

Drawing truth from fiction, drawing reality from dreamscapes, drawing anything, at any time. Paprika feels like a piece of his soul that has stayed with us after his untimely departure because it very much feels like his story more so than any other film he's ever made. The character Toshimi, specifically, reminding me so much of Kon himself, a man who's constantly weighed down by his past, reminiscing about what he became. It very much felt like a part of Kon, one of his personas.

And so I sit years after I originally watched this film and, with fresh eyes, consume it once more. Devouring the frames with hearty indulgence and nearly suffocating from Kon's own decadence. A film which inspired Hollywood blockbusters and young, unknown creatives alike. Put simply, a feast for the mind and eyes, Paprika is a testament to the power of animation.

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[Waking/Dreaming]

We are vessels. Our bodies are objects moved by the mind. The mind being an inexplicable source of coding and crackling synapses and nerve-ends that not only speak to itself but to everyone around us. Limited only by ourselves. When the vessel rests, the mind doesn't. The mind, for whatever reason, wanders into plains that are otherwise unexplored. A dreamscape that is as undefined and inexplicable as anything we can imagine.

The idea that every object that blinks into our unconscious while the vessel is awake somehow plays a role in the dreamscape is an interesting discovery. We cannot create a face, we cannot create another vessel through ideas, so it must come from experience. And that experience shapes the entirety of the dreamscape that we inhabit once resting. This dreamscape that not only exposes our inner-most fears and desires but eclipses our understanding ten-fold.

Now imagine you had a device to experience your dreamscape vividly, lucidly, without the restrictions of fleeting memory that takes away these momentous experiences. Now imagine you could use this device on anyone. Seeing everything that they are without the barrier of tact, shyness, and reservedness. You can strip someone bare with this device and see their other side. The side that is uninhabited by worldly concerns.

Paprika is that. As a character, and as a film that is titled after the character. Paprika is Atsuko's alter-ego, her unhinged, dream-fueled, pixie. The savior. The kind of person we could be if we were living without a whim. That person who she wants to be, at least when her vessel is dormant. However, that is someone she can't be because she has a job, she is weighed down by obligation, by ethics, by tact, by everything that makes us self-conscious humans.

This device, the DC-Mini, is that fuzzy screen into a world which we don't understand. The story that is at the center of Kon's metaphor is simple. The DC-Mini was hijacked to commit a form of mental terrorism that infuses dreams with one another and ultimately drives people mad. We are taken on a whirlwind journey through dreamscapes, confusing reality with dreams and vice versa. Through this we see ideas form that otherwise wouldn't exist, and the blueprint for inspiration to arise.

As we follow Atsuko and detective Toshimi as they battle themselves and the terrorists, we begin to unfurl Kon's incredible work in subtly establishing what it means to be us. What we can learn from something that isn't real. Which, for me, is the main point of this film, the meta-commentary, the fourth wall breaking concept that changed the way I perceived entertainment.

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[Color, Sound, and Experience]

This is Madhouse's best work bar none. They are responsible for all of Kon's films and they are at their best when working with the mind of the auteur. Colors are vivid, the animation is plentiful, and the experience is unforgettable. It isn't necessarily "mind-bending", as someone may say, but it isn't supposed to be.

It is supposed to be enveloping, like a cacoon. The first scene expresses this idea perfectly. We are taken through an incredible amount of sequences in a short span of time that show exactly what the dreamscape is capable of. From scene to scene with impeccable match-cuts by Kon, only to end it with an astounding introduction credits sequence to match, as Paprika dances through the streets of Japan and becomes real, in a sense.

Susumu Hirasawa composes one of the best soundtracks ever, as well. Particular tracks stick with you for years and match scenes perfectly. My favorite being "Parade", a cacophonous mixture of synth and vocal-chopping that is unlike anything I've ever heard and is reprised multiple times throughout the film in jaw-droppingly eccentric ways.

Lastly, I can't mention presentation without Kon's utterly unbelievable storyboards. If you have never looked up this man's storyboards then you are missing out. Coming from a Manga background, his storyboards are bursting with life and often consume more than one "frame" at a time, blending into one another. This creates for incredibly detailed frames that are replicated by the Madhouse staff. They are astounding. I could go on about the dream sequences, but I rather mention a somewhat overlooked segment, when Atsuko goes to investigate the small apartment of one of the suspects. This apartment is overflowing with creepy dolls and knick-knacks. The detail in every cut here is unlike anything you'll ever see.

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[Truth from Fiction]

The theme of the waking world and the dreaming world has been well-researched and analyzed by many. I think Kon, choosing to adapt work with these ideas is no coincidence. He's a man that is clearly thinking inwards, expressing himself through the products he meticulously created through years of hard work. I see him in every frame, and to a certain extent, every character, because I feel like he is seeing himself in his own creations as well.

I want to talk about the idea of truth from fiction, and what exactly makes that such a powerful statement that is exposited towards the end of the film. Sure the climax is huge and blockbuster-like, which is honestly one of the only elements I can truly criticize from this film, the idea that ultimately stuck with me the most is that of fiction leaving an impact like no other. Kon is deservedly meta in this film. As in, a lot of parallels are drawn between the movie and movies all together. From the dreams of Toshimi involving his past as a wannabe director to his dreams being surrounded by film and those films being Kon's own work.

We derive information from these moments. The themes in entertainment stay with us more so than any kind of indoctrinated lecture on morality we might hear from our parents or teachers in our school. Entertainment is a form of positive reinforcement. It teaches through enjoyment (or lack thereof) of a product. One of my friends cites her fascination with Harry Potter as a child as one of the reasons she became who she is. She molded herself to fit the kind of person she thought would be heroic within that world, and that world is exactly what inspired her to be such a great person.

I can say the same about myself and other pieces of entertainment. And while I may not be a great person in the eyes of some, I do think I harbor morality, and logical ethics, not from reading Aristotle or Hobbes, but from seeing their ideas manifest in contemporary products that influence me without knowing. And that is exactly what Paprika is commenting on. Influence through the unconscious, because dreams are the unmistakable explosion of the unconscious, letting everything we have soaked up within that day, week, year, decade ultimately show itself in incomprehensible forms that only our unconscious can learn from.

As time elapses, we, without our own knowledge, grow from that. Establish ideas from that. Gain new insight from that. Look no further than the most influential piece of entertainment on the planet. The Bible. How the ideologies it popularized ripple throughout the entirety of the world, making itself visible in every facet of culture. Whether you are atheist, Agnostic, or religious, the holy texts and their most core and relevant values have influenced you whether you like it or not. To a lesser extent, that is exactly what every kind of entertainment does.

That is what I take from Paprika. Not just the theme of the duality of myself. Whether that be the way I act anonymously, on the internet, and in person, on the street. Or the way I am with friends versus strangers, or the way I conduct myself professionally versus casually. Where different situations warrant a facade, a mask which the majority of us wear daily. See that mask crack and fall apart once you close your eyes and let your mind run. Run into the deepest, most depraved crevices of your lusts, of your fascinations, of your ideologies. Let it erupt into fireworks of ideas, insights, and evolutions. It is unhinged.

That theme, that theme specifically, isn't even what makes Paprika so great. It is the commentary on entertainment as a whole. The truth we see in fiction. The truth we see around us, and realizing that it is no different. It is one and the same. That is, in a harrowing sense, what we are as humans. Without that, our life would not be a life of a human. It would lack ethics, it would lack morals, it would lack logistics, everything that separates us from the animals we see. Without that, our life would have no spice. No Paprika.