So, what are the feelings about Paprika around here? I googled for some Mobian opinions, but the results were mostly Oscar nom grumbles. Do you recommend it? Is it worth a $11 ticket and audience annoyances, or should I wait to rent and enjoy in the comforts of my abode? I saw Perfect Blue years back at the Cinema Village, found it somewhat interesting if confusing, then never saw it again.

I've seen all of Kon's movies except PERFECT BLUE (MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, TOKYO GODFATHERS). I like both of them, a lot.

All the PAPRIKA reviews I've seen have been mostly glowing, except for what appears to be a common complaint about the last 10 minutes or so of the movie. I've seen one bad review, but I think the guy was a troll. I'm going to go see it.

I caught the late show at the Angelika. Wonderful visuals, lots of playful surrealism, a bit long on pretention and short on coherence. But I had settled in for something that wouldn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense anyway. If you do the same, you'll probably have as much fun as I did. And if the From Russia With Love tribute didn't win me over, the guy transforming into Akira Kurosawa would have anyway.

I saw PAPRIKA at the New York Film Festival last fall and while I found it visually dazzling, I didn't quite know what to make of its content after a single viewing, so I reserved judgment until I could see it a second time. Which I haven't done yet. And I've seen all of Kon's other movies multiple times. This one is much more abstract than the others.

PAPRIKA's lead voice actress (she plays Dr. Atsuko Chiba) is one of my favorite singers, Megumi Hayashibara, and I was very pleased to see a still from the film accompanying the NY Times review with a caption identifying Megumi by name. I believe she's the first of the Japanese singers represented in my CD collection who's been mentioned in the Times. (Actually, I'm sure she's been mentioned in the Times in the past, given that she's been doing anime voices for over 20 years, including that of Faye Valentine in "Cowboy Bebop," but I don't think ever as prominently as this time.)

Re: Satoshi Kon. I'd urge fans of his work to check out MEMORIES (1995), a three-part anthology which includes a segment written by Kon entitled "Magnetic Rose." It's about a space salvage crew that boards a massive derelict ship out in deep space and finds out it was once the home of a famous opera singer who'd lived in it as a recluse after her career ended after a scandal decades earlier. The crew members who board the ship see all kinds of holographic renditions of the ship's once ornate interiors and holograms of the singer, Eva Friedel, performing arias from "Madame Butterfly" and "Tosca." Kon based his screenplay on a manga story by Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA).

Except for the undeniable visual flashiness Kon brings to his projects, this struck me as as unimaginative and empty. I will never understand the acclaim this guy gets for works that are far inferior to those of Yoshitoshi Abe and colleagues. Not even close to the level of accomplishment of "Lain" or "Texhnolyze". I see very little virtue in his work beyond superficial glitter.

I went into this hoping I'd be at least as impressed with this as I was with "Millennium Actress". I wasn't. Probably my last foray into Kon territory.

I just saw this and liked it very much. I've seen very little anime and don't really have a yardstick by which to gauge examples of it -- so take that for what it's worth. I went because I liked the preview and it delivered on what that preview seemed to promise, Very Trippy Imagery. I mean, serious, intense, full-bore trippy stuff.

I agree that it makes absolutely no sense, but truthfully the few forays I've made into this genre didn't make much sense to me, either, so that's hardly a deal breaker for me. It also is one of those movies which, while it doesn't make any sense, seems always to be somehow on the verge of making One Heck of A Lot of Sense, and so you end up bearing down harder, trying to figure the whole thing out as you're watching it.

MINOR SPOILERS

minor tributes to Tarzan, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, and most charmingly ROMAN HOLIDAY.

doug

I also really enjoyed it, enough so that I've seen it twice in the theater so far and have been feeling the unexpected urge to see it yet again. (It's still playing at two theaters in Seattle, for a second week.) I also agree that it doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, although I picked up things the second time through that I hadn't noticed the first time. But yes, it's the trippy visual feast and the confusion of dreams and reality that I find appealing, even if it doesn't make logical sense. It reminds me a bit of Pat Cadigan's cyberpunk novel MINDPLAYERS, too, or perhaps Zelazny's THE DREAM MASTER, and I wonder if the original novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui is available in an English translation.

As far as I can determine, there is no English translation available for either Tsutsui's "Paprika" or his "Girl Who Leapt Through Time".

Hey, Mr. Camp, I just finished reading about MAGNETIC ROSE in a book about anime called ANIME: FROM AKIRA TO HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE by Susan J. Napier. What a coincidence! The book has definitely made me want to get back to watching anime (which I haven't in a long while). I wanted to rent MILLENIUM ACTRESS over a week ago, but when I came back the next day,someone else had already rented it. I just read a decent review the other day about PAPRIKA, Kon's new film, which just opened here in the D last week, I think.

I saw PAPRIKA two nights ago and enjoyed it immensely. I own PERFECT BLUE, MILLENIUM ACTRESS and TOKYO GODFATHERS on DVD, have watched all multiple times, and it's my favorite Satoshi Kon film since PERFECT BLUE.

While not real strong on plot, at least on first viewing, it reminds me more of a Tone Poem - than a strict narrative film - that juxtaposes, merges and pulls apart dreams & reality.

Gorgeous animation, the most surreal and beautiful I've seen on the big screen since SPIRITED AWAY. Definitely will be picking up the DVD.

Since seeing PAPRIKA in the theater, I've watched the PARANOIA AGENT series and MILLENIUM ACTRESS. I thought PARANOIA AGENT was excellent and deeply creepy, but I didn't get much out of MILLENIUM ACTRESS. PAPRIKA remains my favorite of these three, and I too will be picking it up on DVD.

Thanks for the reminder about PARANOIA AGENT which I also have. Right up there with PERFECT BLUE and PAPRIKA for me. I must like his work that starts with the letter P. :lol:

Hello,

For those of you whom are enamoured with Tsutsui Yasutaka (as I have become after seeing the movie), here are some leads:

"Such Lovely Ladies" in Ellery Queen (ed.), _A Japanese Golden Dozen_ (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1978.)
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Ellery-Queens-Japane...84662669&sr=1-2

_What the Maid Saw: Eight Psychic Tales _ (New York: Kodansha International, 1990.)
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/What-Maid-Saw-Eight-...84661763&sr=1-1

"Standing Woman" in John Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg (eds.) _The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories_ (New York: Barricade Books, 1997.)
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Japanese-Scienc...6274990-5951152

_Salmonella Men on Planet Porno_ (London: Alma Books, 2007.)
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Salmonella-Planet-Po...84663605&sr=1-1

For an interesting discussion on the man (and, indeed, where the abovementioned list was cobbled from), see:

Susan J. Napier, "Woman Lost: the Dead, Damaged, or Absent Female in Postwar Fantasy [chapter three]," _The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: the Subversion of Modernity_ (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 67-72.

"Keeping Not Writing: an Interview with Yasutaka Tsutsui" at:
http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review...ew_tsutsui.html