Paprika (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Matthew R

  
  Hands down the most visually stunning and conceptually ingenious film by animation auteur Satoshi Kon, it stands as Ghost in the Shell, not only as a landmark in what can be expressed in animation but also in sci-fi. Bringing the concepts of dreams into the world of scientific abuse,… More
  Hands down the most visually stunning and conceptually ingenious film by animation auteur Satoshi Kon, it stands as Ghost in the Shell, not only as a landmark in what can be expressed in animation but also in sci-fi. Bringing the concepts of dreams into the world of scientific abuse, Paprika testifies that not only is our progression of technology amazing, but also very dangerous. It tests what remains of our humanity, our personal, private humanity that can only be found in our dreams. Blending reality and illusion together in his signature, seamless style, Kon orchestrates a visual treat for the eyes as well as a complex and driving premise for the mind.

• Jacob E

  
  Paprika is one of the finest anime films I have ever laid eyes on. Stunning visual design and animation, a pretty good dub, an excellent soundtrack, and an intriguing story about technology vs. the subconscious, Paprika is on perfection's edge. My favorite part is how it truly… More
  Paprika is one of the finest anime films I have ever laid eyes on. Stunning visual design and animation, a pretty good dub, an excellent soundtrack, and an intriguing story about technology vs. the subconscious, Paprika is on perfection's edge. My favorite part is how it truly manages to capture the image of the dream on screen. Even films completely about dreams don't seem to grasp this notion quite perfectly (Inception was great, but the dreams never seemed unreal enough to me). But Paprika nails surreality and is an absolute joy to watch. Paprika, you are truly the spice of life.

• Greg S

  
  Dreams cross the border into reality when scientists design a device to access the subconscious. This anime was Christopher Nolan's inspiration for INCEPTION, but it's more focused on creating startling dreamlike imagery and mood than plot, a task at which it succeeds… More
  Dreams cross the border into reality when scientists design a device to access the subconscious. This anime was Christopher Nolan's inspiration for INCEPTION, but it's more focused on creating startling dreamlike imagery and mood than plot, a task at which it succeeds magnificently.

• Anthony L

  
  Surreal, very surreal and wonderfully inventive. It kept me entertained throughout with its unpredictability and amazing visuals. This is a great film, even if you?re not into Anime/Manga etc

• Luke B

  
  Really expected to like this. Perfect Blue was an absolute masterpiece and Paranoia Agent was fantastic at first. Unfortunately, this entire film is like the end of Paranoia Agent. It seems to say "The mind and dreams are unexplainable and random", fair enough, but… More
  Really expected to like this. Perfect Blue was an absolute masterpiece and Paranoia Agent was fantastic at first. Unfortunately, this entire film is like the end of Paranoia Agent. It seems to say "The mind and dreams are unexplainable and random", fair enough, but that's no reason to make an unexplainable and random film. I'm all for surreal cinema, Inland Empire was incredible. But that had pacing and a general sense of mystery. Paprika, once you get over the perfect animation, is nothing but visuals. The characters are very flat, the pacing is off, and the story just fades into nothingness. I hope Kon can go back to using explorations of the mind as a tool and not the entire product.

• Nicki M

  
  Interesting, though confusing story. I'm really not the best person to review this as I am really not a fan of this style of movie. It was watchable, though.

• paul s

  
  Visually stunning and thought provoking, though I sometimes felt the charactors (except the detective) were too shallow to be driving such a wild plot. However, if you just sit back and enjoy the visuals and once the concept of overflowing dreams sinks in, it's quite a ride… More
  Visually stunning and thought provoking, though I sometimes felt the charactors (except the detective) were too shallow to be driving such a wild plot. However, if you just sit back and enjoy the visuals and once the concept of overflowing dreams sinks in, it's quite a ride (though the only charactor I found I really cared about was the detective - kind of the chewy center of the film. The giant geisha doll reminded me of the sta-puff marshmellow man from Ghostbusters, but was still a frightening image. Just wish more time would have been spent fleshing out the Chairman's charactor, as well as why Paprika was so heroic. There are enough flashes of brilliance here, from the detail of some of the scenery, to the tightness of the anime style, to make this a recommended film

• Gordon A

  
  Visually inventive and beautifully constructed mind bender which tackles dream states' manipulation with technology. Largely comprehensible for Manga, it's let down by a flat ending.

• Robert C

  
  An interesting concept, with some truly interesting visuals. A sort of 'Wachowski brothers meet Alfred Hitchcock with some very Dali inspired Japanese anime. Could have been a bit more cohesive story wise, but all in all an enjoyable little journey.

• Drew S

  
  Paprika is delightfully buoyant and has imagination by the boatloads, but it is clearly Satoshi Kon's weakest film. In Perfect Blue and (especially) Millennium Actress, he managed to weave his themes and narratives into shattered dreamworlds perfectly, but Paprika is just a… More
  Paprika is delightfully buoyant and has imagination by the boatloads, but it is clearly Satoshi Kon's weakest film. In Perfect Blue and (especially) Millennium Actress, he managed to weave his themes and narratives into shattered dreamworlds perfectly, but Paprika is just a clusterfuck. Since the movie constructs itself around the chaos of dreams, it obviously made no effort to be conventional, but the actual plot was confusing and simply dull. Between the stunning, fully-realized animation and the numerous stabs at psychological rumination, Paprika was meant to be an ambitious film, possibly the most ambitious of Kon's works. And I would never call it a failure, because something as flashy and brilliant as this certainly has merit. I'm just saying that I nearly fell asleep at one point, even with all the uplifting music and dazzling imagery. There's just no excuse for that.

• Daniel H

  
  At one point near the finale of this film, two main characters simply stand, stunned, and then turn to look at each other. That is really all I can say about this film.

• Steve K

  
  Trippy, creepy headtrip. Animation for adults.

• Bruce B

  
  I don't normally watch Animation in any form or cartoons, But this film caught my eye on a preview and I figured what the heck just this once. The colors were beyond anything I thought my TV could produce, the scenes were amazing. Oh yes in the collection it goes.

• Mike S

  
  Fascinating, original and cool in many ways. As with most anime in general this one harbors a lot of intelligence and requires your full attention. I must admit I also found it confusing and bizarre, but you still get a good sense of the characters and the basis for the story. So all… More
  Fascinating, original and cool in many ways. As with most anime in general this one harbors a lot of intelligence and requires your full attention. I must admit I also found it confusing and bizarre, but you still get a good sense of the characters and the basis for the story. So all and all, if you like anime and have an open-mind then this movie is a good choice. Be aware though that its quite artsy and the ending is somewhat unsatisfying.

• Justin Y

  
  This animation is cleverly directed and the visuals can be refreshing to the eyes. The artistry really reminded of <i>Spirited Away</i>, but unlike the previously mentioned film, this movie is not for kids. The story is too complex and deep for a younger person to grasp… More
  This animation is cleverly directed and the visuals can be refreshing to the eyes. The artistry really reminded of <i>Spirited Away</i>, but unlike the previously mentioned film, this movie is not for kids. The story is too complex and deep for a younger person to grasp and there is also some brief nudity.<p>As mentioned earlier this film's story is pretty complex. Any description of the plot will make it seem simple, but when you watch this film you will become totally lost as to what is real or what is a dream. This is a typical Japanese anime where you need to watch it more than once to get a good understanding of what is going on. Having seen this multiple times myself, I still don't get exactly what's happening at certain parts. Also, when I saw this in the theaters it really did seem like a ton people were lost by the 2nd half of the film.</p><p>Nevertheless, the characters are interestingly drawn and they are voiced nicely. The soundtrack does wonders as well. It really does liven up the film.</p><p>If you're a fan of anime then this movie should go on your must see list. Anybody else can still get a good kick out of this, but don't expect a walk in the park like those Disney animations that you're probably used to watching.

• William D

  
  [size=3][color=black]Believe it or not, Paprika is the first Japanese anime film I've ever seen. I am in the Big Brother program in NYC, and I've been recently befriending a 14-year-old boy who's obsessed with anime.[/color][/size]… More
  [size=3][color=black]Believe it or not, Paprika is the first Japanese anime film I've ever seen. I am in the Big Brother program in NYC, and I've been recently befriending a 14-year-old boy who's obsessed with anime.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black][img]http://movie.yesky.com/movie/cover/402/6902_356356.jpg[/img][/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]He told me I [u]had[/u] to try out some anime. So I was very excited when I saw that there was a new anime film in theatrical release in NYC. I also appreciated the hallucinatory quality of the print ads for this film, so I thought I'd be in for a treat. [/color][/size][size=3][color=black]I was pleased with what I found, but not bowled over. Paprika is the story of a group of scientists studying dreams and the dreaming process. They have developed an implement, called the DC Mini, which clips onto someone's head. While the person sleeps, a researcher can watch the person's dreams play out in the form of a movie on a laptop. [/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]A completely preposterous idea, but I still found it interesting, if only as a thought experiment. Wouldn't it be fascinating if people's dreams could be rendered in visual format for other people to see? What you'd see![/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]Things go awry when the senior scientist has a hallucinatory episode and jumps out a window. He survives and is studied by his students, who determine that somehow he is trapped inside someone else's dream. Someone has projected their dream into his head. This is also completely ridiculous, but still I was willing to go with it, because it was pretty fascinating to consider the idea of a person being inside someone else's dream.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]The central drama surrounds the struggle to find out who has done this to the senior researcher, and of course along the way the filmmaker occasionally blurs the line between dreams and "reality."[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]A subplot has to do with movies themselves, a self-referentiality that is explored all too rarely in cinema today. Movies are presented as a sort of waking dream. People go into a movie theater, it is suggested, to go inside someone else's dream. A movie director essentially is bringing you into his or her dreams.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]This of course is not a new idea. Hollywood has long been called the "dream factory." But this has mostly treated the movie as a piece of machinery that would [u]create[/u] dreams, insofar as the movie would cause the viewer to drift into a dream of their own. [/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]In the mind of the Paprika filmmaker, [b]Satoshi Kon[/b], the movie is the dream. A director first has a dream and then uses sets and actors to paint the picture of that dream, much like the DC Mini device does in Paprika. We watch movie screens the way the researchers in Paprika watch dreams on laptops.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]Another subplot is quite intriguing but isn't explored rigorously. This involves the title character, Paprika, who appears in dreams. The strange thing is that she appears in dreams of several different people, as if occupying a collective dreamscape that all dreamers tap into when they fall asleep.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]But it turns out that Paprika is the alter-ego of one of the female scientists. It is never explained how this scientist has found a way to enter other people's dreams.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]But this film was not designed to answer questions. It was dreamed into existence more to pose interesting questions than to answer them. It doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't very rigorous. It wants to have fun first and foremost and to meditate to some degree on the still murky phenomenon of human dreams.[/color][/size] [size=3][color=black]Paprika is rated R, but I don't understand why. It does operate at an adult level, but there's nothing pornographic, violent, or particularly disturbing about it. If a 12-year-old is smart enough to be inclined toward anime, I see no reason why he or she shouldn't be taken to see Paprika.[/color][/size]

• Mike N

  
  To commemorate the occasion of me getting stranded in DC on my way to Philly from Dallas and saddled with dropping $80 on the cheapest, with-discount hotel room, I am posting this entry. Hip hip...*kaboom!*

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Paprika", the DC Mini is an untested device that allows the user to access a person's dreams. And that's exactly what buttoned-down Dr. Chiba has been doing via her teenaged avatar, Paprika, to assist a police detective who is searching for… More
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Paprika", the DC Mini is an untested device that allows the user to access a person's dreams. And that's exactly what buttoned-down Dr. Chiba has been doing via her teenaged avatar, Paprika, to assist a police detective who is searching for a killer amongst images from his past.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]But three DC Mini's have been stolen, presumably by terrorists. This could mean disaster and the project has been shut down. And a researcher has gone missing...[/font] [font=Century Gothic]The anime film, "Paprika", only occasionally lives up to the outstanding promise of its opening sequence. It does have some interesting thoughts about how we dream when we are awake when watching movies or accessing the internet but it also manages to get bogged down often in technospeak. Overall, this is a disappointing effort from Satoshi Kon, who also made the wonderful "Millennium Actress."[/font]

• Diego T

  
  An endless, and often very unsettling, puzzle that surprises, disturbs, frightens and dazzles on all sides. The entertainment from all the commotion and creativity is seamless, and "Paprika" is one of those stories that just embraces it's ability to be fictional. Also,… More
  An endless, and often very unsettling, puzzle that surprises, disturbs, frightens and dazzles on all sides. The entertainment from all the commotion and creativity is seamless, and "Paprika" is one of those stories that just embraces it's ability to be fictional. Also, it has one of my favorite movie endings. The artistry used in telling the plot, in ways that purposely confuse the viewer, is one of the best things about this film; using flashbacks and mind trips not just to tell something about the characters' feelings and secrets, but also to show off visual sparkle and influence an adrenaline that keeps always viewers excited from one neural adventure to the other. Visuals 10/10 Sounds 9/10 Content 23/25 Uniqueness 14/15 Memorability 9/10 Resonance 8/10 Chemistry 20/20 Total 95/100

• Chihoe H

  
  Paprika spices up the screen. The visuals, the colours, the music, the creativity and imagination weaved together very well. It can be hard to follow, but it all comes together. I love it, and it definitely is somewhere near the top of the list with Spirited Away.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings