Paprika

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Mum

Speaking of crazy Japanese movies...

Satoshi Kon is one of the giants in Anime. Sadly we lost him last last year and this was his last film completed before he died. It's a shame because you can see in this film that he's still have a ball playing around with these concepts of film conventions and constructed realities.

His work has also obviously had a big influence on Aronofsky, you can see it in Requiem for a Dream and big time in Black Swan, that plays out just like Kon's earlier work Perfect Blue but with ballet instead of acting.

The blurring of reality and fiction is a constant theme in his films so it's no surprise to find him writing a story based around dreams. Much like Inception or the Cell, dreams can be shared through technology but someone has taken over and is controlling them and it is up to our heros to dive into these dreams and sort out the mess.

And what a joyful mess it is. The dream imagery in the film is like nothing that could be done in live action (without a lot of work and billions of dollars) and is always creative. I find the narrative gets lost somewhere in all these images and concepts but getting lost along the way was no-doubt the intention.

It's a lighter film from his filmography and it still felt like he had one more heavy hitter left in him. Perhaps his half finished final film will be completed soon. But for now this playful film will cap his great legacy.