Paprika
19-Jun-07
Paprika: a visually gorgeous film that began with an interesting premise — what if you could build a machine that allowed you to enter the dreams of others?
But I think it fell into the trap that plagues many movies that toy with
the question “What is real?”
I think that compelling drama arises when you believe that the
characters actually inhabit a “real” world somewhere, that their actions
have consequences. However, if the premise of the movie is that the
characters inhabit a a dream or VR world, then anything can happen. And
if that’s the case, then death, love, violence, all have no more
reality–or meaning–than a video game. And it’s difficult to get
worked up about the “death” of a video game character.
The Matrix, by contrast, worked worked because a) the audience
believed Neo inhabited the “real” world through much of the movie b)
even when the “real” world was revealed to be fake, there was another
“real” world where actions in both the Matrix and the “real, real” world
had consequences.
That said, I enjoyed Paprika, and would recommend it to anime fans. I think it’s best watched as if you were watching someone’s vivid dream (or nightmare). The visual imagery is simply stunning, and it plays with adult themes that mainstream U.S. animation never approaches. I look forward to future animated film that combine the beauty and thematic elements of Paprika with a coherent plot and a greater respect for dramatic structure.