Paprika - 2006
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" - Edgar Allan poe
If there was a device that allowed you to share your dream with others. How would it be used ? and how would it be abused ? Paprika features just this device called the DC-Mini, which is revolutionary but still in its development stage. The DC-Mini was used as an unofficial form of psychotherapy.
The movie idea surely will remind you of "Inception", which was inspired from "Paprika".
Trailer
Initial release: november, 20, 2006 (Los Angeles)
Director: Satoshi Kon
Scenario: Yasutaka Tsutsui
reality and fantasy The first scene of the movie show how leak into each other. As Toshimi Konakawa get treated by this device. It's a mind blowing scene, since that it's the first one and the audience still not knowing what's the movie is about.
This scene is from Konakawa's dream, where he was in a circus chased by all the spectators. And what's most brilliant, is that all of them, women, men, children, had his face, and his moustache.
Now that's a good way to use the DC-Mini. So talk about the other way. Controlling someone's else subconscious, mean that you can change his idea or his opinion about a subject, without letting him know that. So that the victim could wake up and do things that he normally won't do it.
Lets go even further, what if we can control someone's waking dream ? Sequences can be catastrophic. Actually dr.Tora Taroh was lucky to stay alive after trying to suicide while he was in a controlled waken dream.
Same as dr.Tora, Chiba Atsuko got her waken dream controlled. She also been lucky to be Saved from death. What's most brilliant here, is the perfect work done to get this images, that shows how do the victim feel when he got reality and fantasy leaked into each other. Especially when she was saved in the last moment. The scene is a breath taken one.
What's the movie is about :
Dr.Seijiro probably wants to control the word, or something like that. So what about controlling people's dreams. So all the dreams are now a dream, an only one dream. And here we met Paprika. Who's gonna save the world. But who is Paprika ? paprika is the alter ego of the scientist, Dr.Chiba, using the dream device for unauthorized purposes. She was created because the scientist didn't want people to know who was she.
As the adventure began, Paprika took a different forms, depending on her imagination. Trying to figure out the one responsible of all this mess.
Getting caught finally by Osanai, who was assisting Seijiru. Paprika find herself a prisoner for this guy. Osanai clearly hiding his love. He literally peels her skin to reveal Chiba underneath.
Chiba was out of conscious. But she was saved by Konakawa who came from his dream to join them in this other dream. Again and as usual, the scene is very emotional, and the visual work done, is a masterpiece.
After that Chiba woke up. Thought she was in the real word, but she was not, it was simply a dream into another one. And now as she found herself in the same world with Paprika, they have to fight Seijiru. Seijiru was trying to own all people's dream as we said before. But he couldn't defeat this wonder woman. And as she said:"There's always an opposite, light and darkness, life and death, men and women".
Dr.Tokita :
Such a memorable character he is. The love he's hiding for Chiba, made the movie a lot more interesting. The thing here is, that i thought from the beginning that Chiba is hiding her love for him too. Until the end. In the end of the movie Chiba admit that she loves him. But the problem is that it was in his dream that she did that. Which mean that for Tokita it was only a fantasy. A fantasy.
