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.