Paprika: Spicing up our Dreams

Genius Satoshi Kon directs yet another awesome anime movie, Paprika, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel. And it is a feast to the eyes and the mind...

It is about Paprika, the alter ego of the psychiatist Chiba Atsuko and her adventures in the dream world while trying to find DC Mini, the dream recording machine that is stolen by evil forces. Atsuko, DC Mini's inventor Tokita and Atsuko's boss Shima team up to find who stole the DC Mini prototype. As the characters try to go into people's dreams to find the thieves, dream and reality start blurring and the quest to finding DC Mini becomes increasingly difficult.

It is a surreal journey of the mind that Paprika takes us on. While the eternal battle of the good and the evil is taking place in Atsuko's dreams, the movie also makes us think about the parallelisms between our dreams and the cyber world.

Deeply intertwined reality and dreams makes us question the boundary of reality of dreams and dreams of reality. Can we all share one big dream? A little existentialism won't hurt anyone.

I know a lot of people criticized this movie for being a little out there but I think it is not one of those movies that push you out there with no reason. The suspense, the pace, the layout are all very well timed/sequenced/laid out. I think it is a MUST SEE!!!

And the J-Pop is catchy, which is a plus.

Eastern Promises by Cronenberg

Cronenberg's Eastern Promises finally made it to DVD and I had a chance to watch it very recently.
Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts star in this thriller about russian mafia in London. An innocent nurse, Anna, crosses paths with the russian mafia when she delivers the baby of a Ukranian woman who dies during labor. Anna finds the woman's journal and attempts to get it translated to send the baby to her family instead of putting up for adoption.

Despite good reviews, I was not blown away by this movie. Cronenberg does a great job of making the characters real and personal. The story telling is extremely well paced and syncronized. However, excessive gore and violence in this movie made me keep my eyes closed for a good half of it.

I have to give Viggo Mortensen extra credit for being such an amazing actor. I do not speak Russian so I cannot judge how credible he was as a native Russian speaker but to me, he reflected the epitome of the Russian Mafia/secret past agent Nikolai. I almost felt like Viggo Mortensen knew Nikolai personally... It was amazing!

I think the reason I was not so impresed by this movie was that I felt like Cronenberg's History of Violence was a better thriller than Eastern Promises. Stylistically or otherwise, I did not feel like there was an improvement. I felt like Cronenberg found a safe zone and stayed there.

I guess it is unfair to judge a director for doing a good job as he has done before, but I really like how creative and bold Cronenberg is. And just because of that, I was expecting something completely different and mind blowing. This movie does not deliver that. It just gives you a predictably well done Cronenberg thriller.

Best Malbec Found: Achaval Ferrer

At roughly $20 this 2006 Malbec from Mendoza is ready to drink and it is the smoothest, most well balanced and most flavorful Malbec I had in a while. It is dark, purplish and beautiful in color. It has a fruity yet spicy aroma, you can smell that it is aged in oak but it is a perfect balance of new and old world aroma. Medium bodied yet complex, full of black fruits with an old world minerally (and not tannin-y) finish.
Achaval Ferrer is apparently one of the most reputable wine makers (despite being fairly new in the industry).
Received 92 points from Wine Advocate and can be stored until 2008.
I think I am going to buy a few bottles... I love it.
I just found out that you can buy it from costco at 16.99! Yay for affordable indulgence...