Paprika

A bit of an animated version of Inception, slightly mixed with Cronenberg's eXistenZ. While both of the mentioned titles thrilled me equally despite their different style and content, I remained indifferent to Paprika. Only a few East Asian films appeal to me and tune into me correctly emotionally. I simply come from a different cultural circle and I feel things differently. Paprika has a fairly simple theme - the plot revolves around a stolen device for researching human dreams, but it has heavy and confused processing, which emphasizes the visually overloaded abundance of glaring colors. This one star is only for the film's potential, which in my opinion could be used much more effectively and with incomparably greater impact. Overall impression: 25%. (2013-12-14)

The dream-like atmosphere is captured with (in)credible precision. Above all atmosphere is the best this piece can offer, because everything else is actually pretty regular. It’s a shame, that Paprika shoots almost all of it’s big guns in the phenomenal opening sequence and after that, it doesn’t come up with anything nearly as impressive. When you take into account how much more could be get out of the topic-matter, then the result seems a bit incomplete. But still it’s enough to make it an unusual and interesting experience. And all it would have taken is to drop that “ultra-villain" cliché, loosen the bridle on the imagination a bit more and then… Then the result could be one level better, especially with regard to the original book, which this adaptation, although similar in storyline, doesn’t have much in common with. Which is a shame specifically because it doesn’t suffer from the same flaws listed above. Although it’s true that the book doesn’t do so well at capturing the specific surreal reality of dreaming. (2007-10-13)

Another beautiful example that the Japanese can create serious and interesting films with deep thoughts, all while being animated. No one else can do it as well as they do, as if the world still believes that animation is primarily for children. The Japanese are carrying that flag bravely and firmly, and thankfully others are joining them. (2015-07-07)

Exactly according to the classic routine of Japanese anime; beautiful animation that gets repetitive at times and a story that is so interesting that it gets too complicated. But it’s definitely a movie worth watching and thinking about. But not to be too critical, I must say that the finale was excellent and the music was also very nice. Above-standard for a Japanese anime… (2016-11-06)

Satoshi Kon created a machine worked out to the smallest detail in terms of animation, content and dramaturgy, and which towers high above other feature-length anime films, and not only those from the same year. In many respects, this sophisticatedly superficial thriller, which inundates and fully occupies the mind and the eyes for an hour and a half, is also the pinnacle of Kon’s filmography. His previous works are partially echoed in many of the plot and style motifs of Paprika, which can thus be fittingly described as the culmination of Kon’s creative career so far. We can only regret the fact that it remains his last completed work. (2013-02-23)