Paprika

Theatrical Release Date: 2007 05 25 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 043396208674

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Sexual Situations]

Summary: Groundbreaking animator Satoshi Kon (whose credits include Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and Perfect Blue) directed this visually spectacular adaptation of a science fiction novel by Yatsutaka Tsutsui. Atsuko is a psychiatrist who uses advanced technology to study the human mind. Atsuko has developed a machine that will allow her to enter the dreams of her patients and study their psyches from the inside. Atsuko also does double duty as Paprika, a high-tech detective who uses this new innovation to find out the truth about what the people she's trailing really think. However, Atsuko falls victim to a thief who steals the one-of-a-kind machine, and Paprika sets out to find it as a wave of psychological instability tears through the city. Paprika received its world premiere at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: In Competition – Venice International Film Festival Film Presented – New York Film Festival Film Presented – Rotterdam International Film Festival Film Presented – San Francisco International Film Festival Film Presented – Newport Beach International Film Festival Best Animated Feature – Toronto Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature – Ohio Film Critics

Paprika

Format: Universal Media Disc

Release Date: 11/27/2007

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 90 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Derek Armstrong

The huge popularity of anime in Japan has failed to translate in the United States, in part because the two cultures hold very different ideas about narrative structure and content. Americans tend to want a more grounded, linear approach, whereas the Japanese have historically been comfortable with fragmentation and fantasy. That Satoshi Kon's Paprika found a devoted audience in the United States is somewhat surprising, because it's as fragmented and fantastical as anime movies get, with almost everything that happens governed by dream logic. But it's also as visually decadent as they get. Dizzyingly imagined and confidently rendered, the images just pop off the screen. The basic thrust of the plot is not hard to follow. A device is created that allows therapists (or terrorists, if it falls into the wrong hands) to view the dreams of the subjects wearing it, and even insert a dream version of themselves as a character. Paprika stops making sense when the device starts commingling the dreams of people not wearing the device, as the movie basically throws out logical rules and gives itself over to a series of albeit compelling and disturbing recurrent images. Like many anime films, it builds toward a huge climax in which the fate of the entire world is in the balance, but you aren't really sure why. Still, Paprika makes it pretty easy to divorce yourself from the need for logic, as its approach is at least consistent, and the characters it introduces are easy to either cheer or hiss. The most literal-minded viewers are likely to reject it on some level, but Paprika wasn't intended for them anyway. It was intended for viewers who appreciate abstraction and grand-scale ambition, and those viewers will be pleased as pudding. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Masao Takiyama  Executive Producer 
Masao Takiyama  Producer 
Satoshi Kon  Director 
Satoshi Kon  Screenwriter 
Susumu Hirasawa  Composer (Music Score) 
Satoki Toyoda  Producer 
Seishi Minakami  Screenwriter 
Jungo Maruta  Executive Producer 
Jungo Maruta  Producer 
Megumi Hayashibara  Actor 
Toru Emori  Actor 
Katsunosuke Hori  Actor 
Toru Furuya  Actor 
Akio Ohtsuka  Actor 
Kouichi Yamadera  Actor 
Hideyuki Tanaka  Actor 
Satomi Kohrogi  Actor 

Country: Japan,Spain