Paprika
Rent/Purchase
Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.
What critics thought
Satoshi Kon's final feature is broadly acclaimed for its visually dazzling, dream-logic animation, with most critics treating its deliberate incoherence as a feature rather than a flaw. The main fault line runs between those who find the dreamscape immersion enough on its own terms and those who wanted a film that actually holds together as narrative — a divide that hasn't stopped it from accumulating a serious retrospective reputation.
“challenging and disturbing and uncanny in the ways it captures the nature of dreams”
Mick LaSalle·San Francisco Chronicle
“not a movie that's meant to be understood so much as simply experienced – or maybe dreamed”
Rob Nelson·The Village Voice
“With a conventional invade-dreams/bend-reality plot, it's a bit of a bore. It's not as dreamlike and mesmerizing as Richard Linklater's rotoscope-animation Waking Life, less fanciful than the Oscar-winning anime Spirited Away.”
Roger Moore·Orlando Sentinel
“sense of unease about the rapidly changing relationship between our physical selves and our machines”
Manohla Dargis·The New York Times
Genres
Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorSatoshi Kon
StarringMegumi Hayashibara, Tohru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Toru Furuya, Akio Otsuka
ComposerSusumu Hirasawa
Paprika
Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.
What critics thought
Satoshi Kon's final feature is broadly acclaimed for its visually dazzling, dream-logic animation, with most critics treating its deliberate incoherence as a feature rather than a flaw. The main fault line runs between those who find the dreamscape immersion enough on its own terms and those who wanted a film that actually holds together as narrative — a divide that hasn't stopped it from accumulating a serious retrospective reputation.
“challenging and disturbing and uncanny in the ways it captures the nature of dreams”
Mick LaSalle·San Francisco Chronicle
“not a movie that's meant to be understood so much as simply experienced – or maybe dreamed”
Rob Nelson·The Village Voice
“With a conventional invade-dreams/bend-reality plot, it's a bit of a bore. It's not as dreamlike and mesmerizing as Richard Linklater's rotoscope-animation Waking Life, less fanciful than the Oscar-winning anime Spirited Away.”
Roger Moore·Orlando Sentinel
“sense of unease about the rapidly changing relationship between our physical selves and our machines”
Manohla Dargis·The New York Times
Genres
Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorSatoshi Kon
StarringMegumi Hayashibara, Tohru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Toru Furuya, Akio Otsuka
ComposerSusumu Hirasawa
Rent/Purchase