Film Review: Paprika


Fig 1. Paprika (2006)

Based on the book of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui the film Paprika (2006) is an example of the type of films that have been coming out of Japan over the years, along with showing the ways that animation can be used to tell a story much more clearly than if it was live action. As shown in the film you can do anything in animation just like you can do anything in your dreams.

The core premise of the film is people being able to interact and go into other peoples’ dreams as a form therapy with the help of a device called the DC Mini. When one of the DC Minis goes missing the doctors who use it start to think that someone is using it to take control of people with a crazy dream filled complete nonsense while they still awake. With the help of Detective Toshimi Konakawa the doctors might find out who stole the device before the dream world and the real world start merging together, likely they have Paprika on their side.

The film was directed by Satoshi Kon and was done in the Japanese animation style known as anime which has become very popular over the years in the west. As the film is animated and not made with live action like most science fiction stories, the dream sequences can become seamless and the characters can move in the ever changing physics of the world with easy something that might be difficult if it was being done by a real actor with a green screen. “The animation medium lends itself so perfectly to dream capers that it's no wonder Kon's final film is regarded a perfect marriage of form and subject.” (Clark, 2017) It seems that Kon is showing that, just like with dream, animation has no limitations to what can be achieved.

The film received a lot of positive reviews and was praised for its use of animation and the way that it made the viewer explore its world. However, the western audient might have a problem getting settled into the film or keeping up with the story as it follows the Japanese style of storytelling that is not that common with films that come up of Hollywood. “….an outright challenge to American viewers, who may, in the face of its whirligig complexity, feel almost pea-brained.” (Denby, 2007) On the other hand as more and more people in the west become more familiar with this type of storytelling because of the popularly of anime then the story structure we see in Paprika might start to make its way into big blockbusters in the coming years.

Paprika not only left its mark on the world of cinema but it also seems to comment on it drawing comparisons with films to dreams. References are made to other films in the dream world and dreams are a liken to playing out like movies as if the viewer is flicking through the different movie channels, we travel through a number of different worlds at once. “The sense of an impending collapse of reality is further highlighted by Kon's post-modern allusions to the mechanisms and history of cinema.” (Jackson, 2008)

Some people watching the Paprika might get the feeling that they have seen this type of film before, a story about going deep into another’s dream world to find answers, and they have. The 2010 film Inception follows a similar storyline but one thing to keep in mind is that Paprika came out 4 years before hand.

Bibliography

Illustrations

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Image
Fig 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey Poster (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is one of the many classics brought to life by Stanley Kubrick. The film stands out in the world of cinema nowadays for the way it was produced but at the time of its release it didn’t receive that many good reviews from the critics, however, it inspired future film makers such as Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott. Like with most of his films Kubrick frames or centres most of the shots using the rule of thirds a technique that he learned from his days as a photojournalist for Look magazine. As shown in Fig 2 the rule of thirds involves placing a 3x3 grid over the image and lining up the key subjects within it so that everything is not cluttered on one side, in Kubrick’s case he places key subjects in the middle of the grid with other subjects on both sides of it so that the audience’s eye is drawn to what is being shown in the middle. As show in the example Dave Bowman and Frank Poole are on ever
Read more

Film Review: Kung Fu Panda - Act Structure

Image
Kung Fu Panda (2008) directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne can be broken down in to the different acts that take place. Sometimes it can be broken down in to a 3 act stuctre or a 5 act stuctre but ever way they both have the same points that happen in the story that introduct the characters, show us what problems they have to face that lead up to the big cilmax before everything is goes back to the way that it was at the begining. Below is how I have broken down Kung Fu Panda using the 5 act stuctre along with working out the plot and ending type of the film. The 5 Act Stuctre shown with Freytag's Pyramid The plot of the film is similar to a Arc Plot. Po changes as the story goes on and the characters around him also change. This means that when one thing happens it will affect what happens next or start the next sturcture. I see the ending of Kung Fu Panda as being a Partial Ending as the story has ended but we get the feeling that this is not the end of Po and
Read more

@Simon - Mesh Mishap

Image
I can't unfold the mesh. :( I've done everything in the video but for some reason this won't work. The error at the bottom says: "Mesh has non-manifold edges. Clean up the mesh before using unfold." and I don't understand what it means.
Read more