Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006)

[Michael Kerpan]

The "silly ending" is remarkably stupid. It epitomizes the sort of intellectual and artistic laziness that seems to be at the core of Kon's work (serving to undo a good bit of his native talent).

[colinr0380]

I have just seen the film on DVD and while I thought it was interesting I also had some trouble with it. I should admit straight out that I'm not a big fan of Satoshi Kon's animation style, though I have only seen Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers in addition to Paprika. I know animation is basically caricature but I did find the same problem with the morbidly obsese man-child genius from Paprika as I had with the drooling, ugly obsessed fan in Perfect Blue - it felt difficult to connect with the characters as I was continually having to push through the forced 'fat' and 'weirdo' signifiers respectively to try to engage with those characters on any deeper level, which led me to feel that we were not meant to see these secondary characters as anything more than facilitators for pushing the main characters further on and that is why their characterisation is literally only surface deep.

It makes both Perfect Blue and Paprika seem strange in that they seem so interested in exploring split personalities and dreamscapes of their main characters while providing little characterisation in others - it makes the motivations of the secondary characters that do appear seem to come more out of the blue than emerging naturally. They seem rather narcissistic films in the sense that their lead characters are looking inwards rather than trying to understand the world outside of them more sympathetically - surely if the characters in Perfect Blue and Paprika were not so driven/deluded they might have realised sooner that people close to them were dangerous psychopaths or the head of their company was a megalomaniac bent on world domination (or at least more of a megalomaniac than your average boss!)

I certainly found things to like about Paprika though even if I wasn't completely satisfied by the film. I quite liked the sequence where Paprika is captured by one of the villain's henchmen who thrusts a hand into her stomach (shades of Videodrome) and rips her avatar apart, leaving Atsuko finally exposed after she has been protected from danger for most of the film behind her cool, calm and collected dream world character. This is another interesting twist from Perfect Blue - Atsuko is given Internet-style empowerment through anonymity by Paprika rather than being teased and tormented as Mima was in the earlier film by the pop idol doppleganger that her guilt at abandoning that side of herself to become a 'serious', adult actress has created (I wonder if Lindsay Lohan went through a similar self evaluation after I Know Who Killed Me?(!)). In both cases the main characters have to remove themselves from the control these small elements have over their wider sense of self by moving beyond the comfort and safety these personas provide for them that they are beginning to find restricting.

That sequence in which Paprika has her authority over the dream world shattered when she is overpowered and held captive reminded me strongly of The Cell, as did the police officer having to rescue her - really the only difference between the two films is their initial approach to the situation: in The Cell you have the forced entry in order to stop a serial killer's crimes and in Paprika you have a stolen dream interface machine. The one on one battling consciousnesses from The Cell is replaced in Paprika by the use of linked dreamscapes as a kind of hard disk space to which data can be written or erased - a wide open peer to peer connection compared to The Cell's broadband interaction (of logging on to others or sharing your head space with authorised users through an intermediary - while seemingly in Paprika just using the headset a few times grants unlimited access to your dreamscape at any time, 'logged on' or not) if you like.

It is very interesting to compare Paprika with The Cell - I think both films have great moments and yet somehow do not feel completely satisfying. However despite some of my reservations they both manage to create some memorable imagery - including co-opting a lot of pop culture images (along with the films that The Elegant Dandy Fop pointed out I think I saw the cat jugs from Sans Soleil in the parade sequences and of course The Cell used some well known music video/art installation imagery in various sequences)

[tavernier]

Coming to the Film Society of Lincoln Center:

June 27 – July 3
Satoshi Kon Retrospective

[noelbotevera]

Kon is usually entertaining. My problem with him is that aside from Paranoia Agent, which has its own set of problems, he seems too much of a crowd pleaser. Sentimental, fashionable, glossy fare that'll always be a hit with audiences.

[jojo]

Kon is usually entertaining. My problem with him is that aside from Paranoia Agent, which has its own set of problems, he seems too much of a crowd pleaser. Sentimental, fashionable, glossy fare that'll always be a hit with audiences.

Perfect Blue isn't sentimental, and I think Paprika is a little too self conscious to be called sentimental either.

I think Kon is basically a talented genre director. Although you can't really pinpoint an "exact" genre, he works very exclusively within a "B movie" sensibility.

That said, of all the current anime directors, he's the best at composing eye-pleasing scenes that impress without the backing of a large animation budget. He's also an economical storyteller (although I'm sure there are some who would argue he's even a "storyteller"), which is not something that can be said for much of recent Ghibli or even Pixar fare.