Story (Spoilers!)
At some point in the near future, a device called the DC Mini has been invented to allow someone to view their own dreams, or another person’s. The main character, Atsuko Chiba, uses this machine illegally for psychotherapy outside of the clinic, enforcing secrecy surrounding this practice. While in others’ dreams, she uses a confident, more outgoing persona called Paprika, truer to who she wants to be. Detective Konakawa, one of her patients, has a recurring incomplete dream most importantly consisting of him chasing down a suspect and seeing a dead body perpetually falling on the floor. The inventor of this device, a hulking man-child named Kosaku Tokita, notes that the device has been stolen and he hasn’t programmed in access functions to restrict who enters dreams, allowing the person that stole them to access anyone’s dreams. The chief of the department, Torataro Shima, is hacked, essentially, which sends him flying out the window and into a coma. Chiba examines his dream, finding a surreal parade of half-living objects and Tokita’s assistant Himuro. Tokita invades Himuro’s dream and is taken by the parade. Investigating Himuro’s dream, Paprika and Shima find that Himuro was a shell used by the chairman of the company and Doctor Osanai who want to protect the sanctity of dreams from prying eyes. Within the dream, Paprika is taken by Osanai, her skin is peeled off to reveal Chiba underneath, and the Chairman interrupts his sexual assault to return his focus to killing Chiba. Konakawa enters this dream from within his own dream, chasing Osanai through his dream and finishing it at last, killing Osanai both in the dream and in reality. This merges dreams and reality, and the parade begins destroying the city. Tokita, as a giant robot, eats Chiba and Paprika, merging the two and killing the giant, omnipotent dream form of the Chairman.
My Review (Minor Spoilers)
The similarities between this film and Inception, which came out four years later, are noticeable. But more importantly, the similarities between this film and The Matrix are the foundation upon which this film is built. Both films take a metaphysical interpretation of Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (which Neo can be seen reading at the beginning of The Matrix). This book primarily focuses on society’s relationship with symbols. Simulacra are copies of something that no longer have an original, while simulation is an imitation of real-world processes. The relationship between these two, and the nature of reality of both of them, is called into question by Baudrillard. Rather than splitting reality between the dreams of humanity in the form of the Matrix and the apocalyptic reality, Paprika splits reality between dreams of innermost desires and reality, or in the context of Baudrillard, imitations of the conscious self within dreams and the greater imitation of the subconscious self in reality. This is a film about self-acceptance and being true to oneself. Acceptance of past mistakes and working past them is the purpose of Konakawa’s character, who can’t forgive himself for chasing a dream and falling flat (literally, in context). He completes his dream and comes to terms with it, killing a major character and allowing Chiba to be truer to herself. Chiba merges with Paprika, accepting who she is and breaking down the barriers to love and identity that she had built up. This film argues that ourselves in our dreams reflect our innermost desires for who we want to be and what we desire, be it retribution or confidence, expanding on this and arguing that we should accept what our subconscious wants as what we want and come to terms with who we are rather than running from it.
In conclusion, I loved this film. This was an absolute trip to watch, especially the effect that the combination between 3D CGI and 2D characters had. The dream sequences are magnificently surreal and the message that this film has fits that surreal vibe perfectly, as it did in The Matrix and Inception. By no means is it a masterpiece, but it is quite a good film and I would recommend it to anyone, though it is at times hard to follow.
7/10
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