Paprika
- 2006
- Tous publics
- 1h 30m
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 6 wins & 5 nominations total
Megumi Hayashibara
- Paprika
- (voice)
- …
Tôru Emori
- Inui Sei-jiroh
- (voice)
Tôru Furuya
- Tokita Kohsaku
- (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera
- Osanai Morio
- (voice)
Hideyuki Tanaka
- Guy
- (voice)
Satomi Kôrogi
- Japanese Doll
- (voice)
Daisuke Sakaguchi
- Himuro Kei
- (voice)
Mitsuo Iwata
- Tsumura Yasushi
- (voice)
Rikako Aikawa
- Kakimoto Nobue
- (voice)
Shin'ichirô Ôta
- Reporter
- (voice)
Satoshi Kon
- Jin-nai
- (voice)
Yasutaka Tsutsui
- Kuga
- (voice)
Brian Beacock
- Hajime Himuro
- (English version)
- (voice)
- …
Doug Erholtz
- Dr. Morio Osanai
- (English version)
- (voice)
Michael Forest
- Dr. Seijiro Inui
- (English version)
- (voice)
Shin'ya Fukumatsu
- Magician
- (voice)
- (as Shinya Fukumatsu)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
I'm not an expert in anime, nor have I seen a lot of this genre, but I utterly admire the immense creativity of people like Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away"). Satoshi Kon's "Paprika" is a great example of anime at its finest. The movie is a sea of original ideas and a visual blast. Apparently, the plot is about the theft of a machine that allows scientists to enter and record people's dreams, and how a detective and a young therapist called Paprika join forces to get it back. But there is so much going on and so many smart innuendos (remember: this is Rated R anime, not "Ratatouille" - even though I think the R rating is just too much in this case) that "Paprika" becomes one of the most original adult animations in recent memory - superior to Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and even "A Scanner Darkly", I dare to say. I won't give away anything because I don't want to spoil a single scene, but I'd say that I see it as a movie about the power of movies over our life/dreams, and about the love people like me have for the Seventh Art. I don't know if that was Kon's original idea and honestly I don't care - it's not every day that you find a movie that amuses and says something to you in such an unpretentious way. Whatever was Kon's original idea, I think that he got what he wanted: a movie that both entertains and makes you think. Simply fascinating. 10/10.
10qiowisj
I had gone into Paprika not knowing much of what to expect, save for the fact that it was an anime with quite a buzz. An hour and a half later, this is one of the best films I've seen in 2007.
The plot, as best as I can describe it, concerns a group of scientists developing a device which allows one to interject your subconscious into and record another person's dreams. However, a thief is using the technology to terrorize and control others. As the scientists try to find their stolen property, reality begins to take on a different meaning...
Satoshi Kon is filmmaker I've never heard of before, but what he has created is truly visionary. Paprika continually amazes with imagery which transcends conscious understanding and coherence for what can only make sense on a subliminal level. Examples include a marching band of inanimate objects, dolls and animals, a giant aquatic leviathan with a man's face and humanoid toys that act as vessels for their dreamers bodies.
But what makes the film necessary viewing is not the visuals alone, it's the core of the story and varied themes that it poses. The subject matter deals with issues both contemporary and probable. The actual identities of ourselves are wrapped in an enigma. How science has its positive and negative aspects. That the advantages of the internet is better communication but also dehumanization. I'm sure others will find other symbolism and subtext.
Wheather you're familiar with Japanese animation or not, Paprika will expose any newcomer to something foreign and deeply personal as well.
The plot, as best as I can describe it, concerns a group of scientists developing a device which allows one to interject your subconscious into and record another person's dreams. However, a thief is using the technology to terrorize and control others. As the scientists try to find their stolen property, reality begins to take on a different meaning...
Satoshi Kon is filmmaker I've never heard of before, but what he has created is truly visionary. Paprika continually amazes with imagery which transcends conscious understanding and coherence for what can only make sense on a subliminal level. Examples include a marching band of inanimate objects, dolls and animals, a giant aquatic leviathan with a man's face and humanoid toys that act as vessels for their dreamers bodies.
But what makes the film necessary viewing is not the visuals alone, it's the core of the story and varied themes that it poses. The subject matter deals with issues both contemporary and probable. The actual identities of ourselves are wrapped in an enigma. How science has its positive and negative aspects. That the advantages of the internet is better communication but also dehumanization. I'm sure others will find other symbolism and subtext.
Wheather you're familiar with Japanese animation or not, Paprika will expose any newcomer to something foreign and deeply personal as well.
I saw this two days ago at the New York Film Festival.
The plot: What happens when we acquire technology that allows us to migrate the boundary between dreams & reality, and what happens when that boundary blurs?
The Animation: Stunning; Madhouse always does good work and Kon's movies always produce some fun reality bending sequences.
The Music: Susumu Hirasawa who did the Paranoia Agent soundtrack came up with the score here too. The opening song is a particularly infectious number. It makes you smiley. It's like the opening song from Paranoia Agent on steroids. I really could not get the grin off my face till the beginning sequence ended.
The Cast: The voice cast is headed by Megumi Hayashibara, probably the most prolific and well known female seiyuu ever, with roles such as Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), Lina Inverse (Slayers), and Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop) to her credit. Akio Ohtsuka and Koichi Yamadera, Batou & Togusa of Ghost in the Shell fame, both play major roles as well. All do a fabulous job as usual, but Hayashibara really shines in her Paprika role.
This film has great animation, music & actors, but the plot is really just a thin veneer for the lucid dreaming sequences that permeate so much of Satoshi Kon's work. I still recommend seeing it because it's a really light fun film, but I don't think it adds up to being more than the sum of some really great parts. I think this one needs to be enjoyed in pieces rather than as a whole.
The plot: What happens when we acquire technology that allows us to migrate the boundary between dreams & reality, and what happens when that boundary blurs?
The Animation: Stunning; Madhouse always does good work and Kon's movies always produce some fun reality bending sequences.
The Music: Susumu Hirasawa who did the Paranoia Agent soundtrack came up with the score here too. The opening song is a particularly infectious number. It makes you smiley. It's like the opening song from Paranoia Agent on steroids. I really could not get the grin off my face till the beginning sequence ended.
The Cast: The voice cast is headed by Megumi Hayashibara, probably the most prolific and well known female seiyuu ever, with roles such as Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), Lina Inverse (Slayers), and Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop) to her credit. Akio Ohtsuka and Koichi Yamadera, Batou & Togusa of Ghost in the Shell fame, both play major roles as well. All do a fabulous job as usual, but Hayashibara really shines in her Paprika role.
This film has great animation, music & actors, but the plot is really just a thin veneer for the lucid dreaming sequences that permeate so much of Satoshi Kon's work. I still recommend seeing it because it's a really light fun film, but I don't think it adds up to being more than the sum of some really great parts. I think this one needs to be enjoyed in pieces rather than as a whole.
What happens when you see a wonderful film, a truly wonderful one, and you are disappointed because the very last one you saw was from the same filmmaker and was very much better? I should have watched some trash first.
The better film I'm alluding to is "Millennium Actress," a wonderful slippery glide through a shifting of life, movies and personal memory. Several things made that great: the drawings were in some places marvelous; the reason for the slips was never explained; and the "wrapping" story was incredibly thin, just barely enough. It was clearly a movie about movies and how life and film make each other.
This one conflates life, dreams and movies in much the same way, and goes further by merging individual lives and dreams. But it is burdened by two things. The first is that the wrapping story is large, heavy. The second is that we have a tedious explanation about why the slips occur: some invented device. And it adopts the Godzilla/Transformers model where two giants fight, towering over the city. Jees.
Two things are superior, however. One is that the dreamworlds give the artist freedom to depart from the constraints of the real. It isn't surreal: that's a very specific thing. But you do have dancing refrigerators leading a parade to hell. You may not appreciate the visuals here, in fact I suspect most won't think them special. But I did.
But the main thing is the title character, a lovely redheaded virtual soul who lives in the dreamworld. She's the pinnacle of girl fantasy: capable, not real, fairy-like but strong, desirable but forceful, following the rules of the world sometimes and writing the rules at other. She's woven from something deep in the psyche, our usually unfound soulmate who writes our dreams that spill into our lives.
But her appearance and character isn't what amazes here. Its how many different ways the filmmaker has her interact with the dream world. I stopped noting them because they were so varied and clever. She flies of course, she morphs. She shares a body in the real world of a woman scientist. (There's a truly remarkable dream scene when a vagina is "unzipped" to the forehead to reveal the true woman within.) She merges with shadows, reflections, light and shadow. She appears from dolls and billboards, clouds. From cracks and folds. Its as if there was a list of all possibilities that is being exhausted.
I will suggest that you see this before "Millennium Actress." Then both will blow you away.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
The better film I'm alluding to is "Millennium Actress," a wonderful slippery glide through a shifting of life, movies and personal memory. Several things made that great: the drawings were in some places marvelous; the reason for the slips was never explained; and the "wrapping" story was incredibly thin, just barely enough. It was clearly a movie about movies and how life and film make each other.
This one conflates life, dreams and movies in much the same way, and goes further by merging individual lives and dreams. But it is burdened by two things. The first is that the wrapping story is large, heavy. The second is that we have a tedious explanation about why the slips occur: some invented device. And it adopts the Godzilla/Transformers model where two giants fight, towering over the city. Jees.
Two things are superior, however. One is that the dreamworlds give the artist freedom to depart from the constraints of the real. It isn't surreal: that's a very specific thing. But you do have dancing refrigerators leading a parade to hell. You may not appreciate the visuals here, in fact I suspect most won't think them special. But I did.
But the main thing is the title character, a lovely redheaded virtual soul who lives in the dreamworld. She's the pinnacle of girl fantasy: capable, not real, fairy-like but strong, desirable but forceful, following the rules of the world sometimes and writing the rules at other. She's woven from something deep in the psyche, our usually unfound soulmate who writes our dreams that spill into our lives.
But her appearance and character isn't what amazes here. Its how many different ways the filmmaker has her interact with the dream world. I stopped noting them because they were so varied and clever. She flies of course, she morphs. She shares a body in the real world of a woman scientist. (There's a truly remarkable dream scene when a vagina is "unzipped" to the forehead to reveal the true woman within.) She merges with shadows, reflections, light and shadow. She appears from dolls and billboards, clouds. From cracks and folds. Its as if there was a list of all possibilities that is being exhausted.
I will suggest that you see this before "Millennium Actress." Then both will blow you away.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
I saw Paprika on the Fantastic film Festival of Amsterdam and i was amazed. Being a movie buff since the age of 14 and running to 30. Once in a while i get blown away by a new production. Always been a fan of manga this production from anime master Satoshi Kon is his latest entry is the magic world of drawing. Taking all the space and freedom this genre offers you will be sucked in to a world of fantasy en wonders. Kinda like when you first saw Charlie and the chocolate factory as a kid. The characters are totally lovable en the drawings are of the most beautiful i have ever seen in theater. The story is complex so, if you want to know what all the fuzz is about read another review en check the film.
it's my new love: Paprika 9 a.o.10
it's my new love: Paprika 9 a.o.10
Did you know
- TriviaThe tall and short bartenders on Paprika's website are voiced by director Satoshi Kon, and the original author of the Paprika novel, Yasutaka Tsutsui, respectively.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Beautiful Animated Movies (2014)
- SoundtracksParade
Composed and Performed by Susumu Hirasawa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Paprika. El reino de los sueños
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- ¥300,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $882,267
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $35,593
- May 27, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $966,886
- Runtime
- 1h 30m(90 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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