A trio of scientists are working on the psychiatric possibilities offered by a remarkable new device that can record patients dreams. When the device is stolen their own subconscious minds begin to be invaded and hijacked by an unknown assailant and the boundaries of reality and imagination start to blur. With the help of the mysterious alter-ego Paprika, and a police detective who is himself a patient, the team try to infiltrate this unconscious world to track down the missing machine and the person controlling it.
While Miyazaki may have the lions' share of international recognition for his masterful Japanese animation; in the west, science-fiction anime is for the most part still the reserve of a particularly geekish brand of teenage boys. Twenty-odd years on, Akira still dominates this violent and neon-lit landscape and a tendency to excess has marred much of what came after and disguised the fact that genuinely brilliant and original work has been quietly going on.
Director Satoshi Kon, whose career was tragically cut short by cancer earlier this year has been responsible for several vibrant, feverish slabs of dark but mature storytelling since his minor breakout hit debut Perfect Blue in 1998. Paprika was only his fourth feature as director and sadly will now probably be his last (there is an unfinished fifth currently in limbo), but he's left behind a stunning piece of work. Spritely creative; at times madcap and surreal, with armies of dream monster toys crashing through the walls of reality, time stopping, physics distorting, characters running through alternate films playing in their own mind. It's a bit of a head rush in parts, but still takes the time to establish meaningful characters with complex motivations.
Sci-Fi stories of dreams and subconscious have of course been around for years, and in the concepts and visual ideas present here, one can detect hints of Strange Days, Brainstorm and Blade Runner. But Paprika takes these several steps further and creates a dizzying sense of multi-layered reality. Its most recognisable aspects are those that it has itself gone on to influence, because if any film might hold a candle to the creative invention on show here, it's Inception, and director Christopher Nolan has made no secret of the dept he owes to this obvious forbear.
Compared to the clockwork precision engineering of Nolan's masterwork, Paprika is a touch freewheeling and can occasionally loose the viewer during some bizarre left turns. Plus some dialogue comes across a little awkwardly, although this might just be an issue of the subtitle translation. But these are very minor quibbles. This is grown-up animation of dazzling invention and well worth seeking out.
Rating: 4/5
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