Review of Paprika (2006) by Arif S — 27 Aug 2008

Satoshi Kon having directed two of my favorite movies, "Tokyo Godfathers" and "Millenium Actress", both of which I have only seen once so far, I expected a lot from "Paprika", which has been well received by both the public and the critics and has garnered a few awards.

However, though I found the film satisfying and often impressive from a technical and artistic stanpoint, it failed to delight me as my two earlier favorites did.

"Paprika" feels a bit like a 90-minute digest of everything Kon has done so far : you get the blurring of reality and fiction ? i.e. the madness ? of "Perfect Blue", the nonsensical, surrealistic implosion of reality - and the resulting feeling that the script is going nowhere fast ? of "Paranoia Agent", and the numerous references to movies and movie-making of "Millenium Actress". Add a completely surrealistic parade of monsters as the Japanese seem to love them (see "Spirited Away", "Ghost in the Shell 2" or "Pom Poko"), horror scenes lifted from "Altered States" and "From Beyond" and absurd cadavre exquis lines that seem to have been blurted out by the Cylon Hybrid from "Battlestar Galactica", and you get a very baroque Lynchian movie that could have been dreamed up by an otaku reincarnation of Philip K. Dick. Indeed, the film I felt Paprika was the most reminiscent of was "A Scanner Darkly", which was both less brilliant and more moving (I would also be curious to find out how it compares with Gondry?s similarly themed "Science of Dreams", which I haven?t seen yet.).