Japanese animator Satoshi Kon's fourth feature imagines the unconscious as a raucous, confetti-strewn parade spliced with a film noir. While large traces of Philip K. Dick and cyberpunk reside in its cultural DNA, it's adapted from a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Seeking to aid her patients, psychiatrist Atsuko (Megumi Hayashibara) creates an alter ego, Paprika, using a device that allows entry into others' dreams. Unfortunately, the device's power is turned to dangerous ends when one of the prototypes is stolen.
Paprika doesn't quite achieve the delirium of Asian science-fiction films like Mamoru Oshii's Avalon and Jang Sun-woo's Resurrection for the Little Match Girl. Beneath the wild, colorful surface, it relies heavily on repetition and obvious symbolism. On the other hand, it balances surrealism and storytelling well for its first half. Kon's depiction of the real world avoids visual flash, making the film's dream imagery all the more psychedelic. Inevitably, the narrative disappears down a rabbit hole, but it emerges back at baseline reality.
Paprika's frustrations are inseparable from its design: rather than being concerned with fantasy per se, Kon's interested in the way fantasy affects the world. — Steve Erickson