Paprika - Review

If you are sitting down to watch Paprika for the first time, I have a suggestion for you.  Make sure that you're very well rested and 100% ready to pay full attention to the movie.  If you're not willing to fulfill both of those quotas, Paprika is not going to make any sense to you.  So long as you can commit yourself to those prerequisites, Paprika is going to be an absolutely mindblowing experience.  This movie truly is Inception before Inception was around!

What would it be like if you could dive into the dreams of your friends and family?  That's the main question that Paprika brings up, and it's definitely explored to the fullest extent.  Early on in the movie we come to learn a device that allows users to not only view another person's dreams, but also interact with them.  The uses in the medical field are staggering, as anyone could see how a therapist could dive into a patient's dreams to help make sense of them.  The therapist could also help walk that person out of their dream to help them realize a subconscious need in the real world.  A truly amazing medical breakthrough indeed!

Unfortunately, not everyone has such well-meaning intentions for the device.  Whenever an important breakthrough like this comes along, you can be sure that someone or something is out to use it to further their own agenda.  That's exactly what happens in Paprika, and it leads to some major real-world issues.  Not only are the dreams of many forming into one massive illusion, but those dreams start to invade the real world as well.  The lines between the sleeping world and real world start to combine, and it's hard to tell just what really exists.

As you can see, it's going to be easy to get caught up in Paprika.  I thoroughly encourage you to puase the movie as it rolls in, just so you can keep things straight in your head.  It will definitely help, but there are going to be times when the movie tricks you into thinking one thing while another is really happening.  You won't know what's actually taken place in the film until it's too late.  In that sense, Paprika really pulls you into the actions of the movie, and makes you a part of the story.  I promise, no matter how great your deductive skills are, you're going to be taken on twists and turns whether you like it or not.

Even if you can't follow along with the story, Paprika is a beautiful movie to simply view.  I can't recall the last time I saw an anime with such vivid colors all appearing on the screen at one time.  These bursting visuals are only enhanced by the top-notch animation and fantastic soundtrack.  This film really is an amazing thing to see in action.  You may not always know what is going on in Paprika, but I promise you'll be visually entertained the entire way through.

Paprika is a very deep and well thought-out movie.  It may not all 'click' with the viewer on the first go-through.  This is a film that begs to be watched over and over, analyzed time and time again.  No matter how many people pour their thoughts into an analysis for Paprika, there's sure to be someone else out there that pulls some other detail out of the experience.  Paprika is an amazing anime that deserves to be experience by even the most casual fan.

9 out of 10