Letters from Heather

If I had realized that Satoshi Kon was the same director of Paranoia Agent, I would have rented this movie much, much sooner. In fact, I regret not watching it with Isaac when we skimmed the cover ourselves in his video store a few times. I was torn between renting this and some deeply cell-color driven animation called, I think, Beautiful Mari, which I might still take a chance in seeing. I went to the store with the intention to rent Steam Boy, something I've avoided because the name sounds so silly, but the previews for it that came with The Sky Crawlers have convinced me it's something I ought to see.

Anyway, Paprika is a proactive thriller following a team of psychiatric researchers that have developed a device to allow literal dream therapy. They call it the DC Mini, which I imagine stands for "Dream Catcher Mini", and the device shows great success as the project's primary researcher Doctor Atsuko Chiba (千葉敦子博士) explores the dream therapy during the DC Mini's final stages of production under the disguise as the cover's red-head with amber eyes, Paprika. Somehow three prototypes are stolen, which lead to an array of fantastical events and in-reality near-suicides on the part of several doctors at the facility. The team tries their best to analyze recordings of the dream-terrorist's victims, and come to the assumption that they are being controlled by a missing associate named Kei Himuro. This man developed the device and entire therapy system with the overweight Doctor Kōsaku Tokita (時田浩作博士), and is feared to have taken control of the device for personal gain. With the help of the opening's "illegal" patient, Detective Detective Toshimi Konakawa ((粉川利美探偵), Dr. Chiba, and Dr. Tokita are able to get to the bottom of this dream terrorist plot and return things to normal when the DC Mini system goes beyond realms of control and meshes with reality.

The movie explores archetype concepts briefly with Detective Konakawa, and the emotional estrangement of many of its characters with few exceptions. In returning reality to its natural state, the characters all face what haunt their own dreams or identities, with the greatest change happening in Dr. Chiba. The color and effects in this film are nothing compared to the wild psychological path it takes us through. This movie's truly something to experience, and I enjoyed it far more than the last film because it granted me hope in spite of great despair and destruction. Paprika shows you that you're capable of changing your fate, even when your dreams become nightmares.

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