Paprika (2006)

Note: this review contains spoilers for Paprika.

Though Satoshi Kon may have passed before his prime, his films serve as a testament to the power of animation to blend dreams with reality. His final film, Paprika, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 novel of the same name, takes this idea to its logical conclusion, even making it a central plot point. Though watching the English dub of Kon’s series Paranoia Agent spurred me to seek out his filmography, one point of interest with Paprika in particular was seeing that the Christopher Nolan film Inception had been compared with it, though it had been years since I had seen Inception, so I was able to view Paprika on its own merits. After watching Paprika through an English dub on Blu-ray, it’s safe to say that Satoshi Kon’s cinematic career ended on a high note.

Detective Toshimi Konakawa (Paul St. Peter) suffers from a recurring nightmare, which a woman named Paprika guides him through for analysis, thanks to an experimental device known as the DC Mini that allows one to enter someone else’s dreams. Later, it is discovered that a set of DC Minis have been stolen, which psychiatrist Doctor Atsuko Chiba (Cindy Robinson), DC Mini inventor Doctor Kōsaku Tokita (Yuri Lowenthal) and chief of staff Doctor Toratarō Shima (David Lodge) discuss with chairman Doctor Seijirō Inui (Michael Forest), fearing that it may have fallen into the wrong hands. Things take a turn, however, when Doctor Shima’s dream is hijacked despite him being wide awake, causing him to unexpectedly jump out of a several-story window.

Doctor Toratarō Shima's (David Lodge) dream has been hijacked.

In exploring the nature of dreams vs reality, the animation has a dream-like quality that blends perfectly with the story to capture the nature of what it’s like to dream. When the lines between dreams and reality become blurred over the course of the movie, the animation can make you wonder what’s real and what’s a dream, though the writing helps make the distinction clear and the plot easier to follow. There are times where it seems evident that CG might have been used for some of the visuals, though their execution makes it evident that it was used as a tool rather than a crutch.

In addition to the idea of hijacking a dream, there is also a mystery element to the plot, as both the characters and the viewer discover the identity of the dream hijacker, and the culprit’s motivations have some interesting layers to them. Detective Konokawa’s story and his role as a detective help to tie things together, as he aids in capturing the culprit and his subplot explores how dreams can have potentially deeper meanings with a recurring nightmare relates to an event in his past and how it’s affected his mental state. Dreams also have interesting motivations for other characters, particularly Doctor Tokita, giving the movie a more consistent storytelling theme.

The barrier between dreams and reality begins to blur as Doctor Atsuko
Chiba (Cindy Robinson) looks for the culprit.

Though it has been a long time since I’ve seen the movie Inception, I can see how it might be accused of taking some inspiration from Paprika. The concept of entering and manipulating another person’s dreams is central to both films, and the idea of a dream having multiple layers is similar to that of Konokawa’s nightmare. Not only that, one of the dream layers seen in Inception is an everlasting corridor, much like the one seen in Konokawa’s dream. While other comparisons have been made, I will say that unlike Inception, Paprika makes it clear by the end whether or not it’s the real world or still a dream.

Composer Susumu Hirasawa, who has also worked on Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress and Paranoia Agent, lends his talents here as well, and his music is a perfect match for the story and visuals. As for the voice acting, since I watched the movie in English, my opinions on the voice acting are based on the English cast rather than the original Japanese. In this case, the English dub is very well cast, with Cindy Robinson able to voice both Chiba and her alter ego Paprika while making them sound distinct from one another. Paul St. Peter, better known for his role as Xemnas in the Kingdom Hearts series, is a good fit for Konakawa, and having more familiarity playing a villainous role made it interesting for me to hear him in a more heroic one. As for Michael Forest, I’m more familiar with his role as Alex Rosewater in The Big O, so I found him to be a good fit for the role of Inui.

On its own merits, Paprika has an interesting story about the exploration of dreams, married with appropriately dream-like visuals in a way that only Satoshi Kon and Madhouse could have pulled off, making it a must-see for fans of animation and Kon’s work in particular. With the unfortunate passing of Kon in 2010, Paprika displays a lot of untapped potential in his talents and represents a culmination of everything he had learned over his career. The fact that he had managed to sneak in nods to his previous films (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers) at the end also makes Paprika, perhaps unintentionally, a nice send-off for Kon’s cinematic career.