randy_byers | Paprika

"Does it make more sense the second time?"

holyoutlaw asked.

"Yup," I said. "It actually does. Not that it necessarily adds up to anything earthshaking."

We had just seen the anime movie, Paprika (Papurika, 2006), at the Varsity. I had already seen it once over the weekend, but I was happy to see it again. The movie is apparently based on a metafictional science fiction novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, and the story reminds me to some extent of Pat Cadigan's cyberpunk novel, Mindplayers. It's about an experimental device called the DC-Mini that allows therapists direct access to their patients' dreams. Three of the devices are stolen, and suddenly dreams start popping up in the weirdest places. Paprika is the dreamland alter ego of the therapist, Dr. Chiba, and they are the composite protagonist. Paprika is a red-headed wishfulfillment superheroine with a jaunty pop song for her soundtrack.

While all of this leads to an appealing, if initially confusing and not particularly original, narrative, much of what I like about this movie is the visual phantasmagoria and general trippiness. We are never sure whether we are inside a dream or not at any given moment (story of my life!), and the narrative frame keeps shifting unexpectedly. On the second time through, it does make more sense, but in some ways that just means it makes more nonsense, because it is dream logic, which is frequently absurd. The director, Satoshi Kon, seems to be channeling his own subconscious imagery, both symbolic and narrative, and despite frequent pseudo-scientific exposition, it doesn't necessarily make rational sense. It's more of a carnival ride through dreamland, and it explicitly links the movie-watching experience to the dreamstate. (One of the wonderful throw-away bits is when characters dive into a TV screen and come out of the camera that's filming what was on the screen.)

It's a trippy visual feast, is what I've been saying -- a riot of weird, fanciful imagery. It's playing at the Varsity still tonight, but I'm not sure if it'll stick around for another week. Possibly it'll move to a smaller screen at the Metro for an additional week, because I believe it was showing at a second theater downtown somewhere, too, which means there was an expectation of an audience for it around here.