Paprika

Paprika is a 2006 movie based off of the novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Brought to us by the studio Madhouse and the acclaimed director Satoshi Kon whom passed away in 2010, Paprika is a wonderful descent into the insane world of dreams and the human mind. I should right away state that Paprika is probably one of my utmost favorite animated films, and is without a doubt my favorite Satoshi Kon work, though I love pretty much every single one of them.

But as for Paprika, I love every single component of this movie. It is in fact probably I think my hands down my favorite take on the idea of "dreams." Just a huge bustling and completely insane parade stampeding wherever it wishes, pulling in whoever draws near it. If you were curious why this movie is under the genre horror... what is more terrifying than just completely losing your mind? Losing your entire sense of self as you become devoured in the absolute madness that the parade represents? ~~Additionally, there's a hell of a lot of smaller creepy stuff that kind of got swept under the rug of my brain that I just didn't remember as a result of the bigger stuff present in Paprika.~~

I think the moment the movie truly and one hundred percent won me over was a scene relatively early on when during a conversation one of the characters just suddenly starts rambling about a bunch of weird nonsense. This movie is full to the brim of memorable and notable scenes, but it's this particular scene that has stuck with me like a year and a half later. Because once this old man's insane rambling concludes, he just bursts into laughter and takes off running throughout the halls. And as he does this, Susumu Hirasawa's Parade enters the scene and starts playing as this old man launches himself through a window and out of the building.

Then you get to the see the parade in its full glory and sitting at the top of it is the old man, who has been forcibly abducted into this completely insane parade that stampedes throughout the world of dreams.

...Wait. Have I even actually stated anything about the plot of this movie yet? Basically, there's this invention called the DC Mini and it allows the wearer to delve into dreams. And as this movie bluntly makes clear, that is a realm we should just leave the fuck alone. Because the idea of going into someone's dream, or dreams crossing over into reality is fucking terrifying. Because of course this experimental and incomplete dream device is stolen and everything goes horribly fucking wrong.

Anything can happen in a dream! Actually, this movie in fact features a nightmare that I myself have personally had multiple times throughout my life. Specifically, it's that dream where suddenly like the ground just gives away from underneath of you or just disappears, and you just start falling. And like right as I land in the dream, I wake up, freaked the fuck out until my brain catches up and I realize "oh that was just a goddamned dream."

Additionally, I've also that had that type of dream where in the dream you think you've woke up, but you're still in the fucking nightmare. And of course the thing where you're being chased by something in a dream and you know it's a dream and you desperately want to wake the fuck up but you just can't. That type of shit is a billion times more effective to me than a bunch of spooky scary monsters or just buckets and buckets of blood.

Satoshi Kon fully embraces the idea of "anything can happen in a dream." I don't know how the actual novel compares, though I know for a fact that apparently he changed some stuff and Yasutaka Tsutsui himself apparently agreed with the changes, but there is a multitude of just genuinely creepy or weird and fucked up things littered throughout this movie. I know Perfect Blue is viewed as like the darkest of Satoshi Kon's movies/works, but personally, Paprika got to me way more than Perfect Blue.

_One of my favorite things of all in horror is stuff just happening right in the background. Fuck your jumpscares. Subtlety is effective, god damn it._

The scene that everybody knows from this movie, and for good reason, is carved into my mind right along with that scene where the old man is the first to just go completely crazy. I won't even include anything about it outside of a spoiler tag because you have to see it. You have to see it for yourself.

And perhaps one of the things I love the most about this movie is that it never stops escalating.

When dreams and reality are merging towards the end, it is just complete and utter chaos and the movie itself ends with

I mentioned him briefly before, but it does need to be stated that Susumu Hirasawa, who did the soundtrack for Paprika and has done music for this, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, and the to-never-be-released The Dream Machine, is in fact in actuality, a musical god that has descended to this Earth. As previously stated, I love just about every single thing about Paprika, but the Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack is probably what puts it on top for me in terms of Satoshi Kon works. I cannot say it enough. I will never stop saying it. __Susumu Hirasawa is a musical god that has voluntarily chosen to walk among us. And everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion, but this is not an opinion, _it is FACT.___

The Paprika parade would not be as great as it is without this playing.

I don't have much more to say since I of course do not at all want to get any more specific than I have/spoil this movie. So in conclusion, Paprika is a wonderful, wonderful movie from beginning to end, and in my opinion, is almost perfect. As I said when I began this review, Paprika is one of my favorite animated films of all and my favorite Satoshi Kon work. A 9.5 out of 10 or 95 out of 100.