Paprika: Is This The Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

Dreams are a tricky concept to explore and depict in the medium of film. When dreams become abstract, they can embody the way that we actually see dreams but we risk losing any connections to be made to the real world. The opposite is true of dreams that are too structured and concrete in their depictions because although the connection to reality may be evident, the poetic truths that arise from the abstract qualities of dreams will not be. The Japanese animated film Paprika (2006) deftly manages a balance of abstract and structured by drawing from many influences and genres. An obvious parallel to make with Paprika is Inception (2010), the Christopher Nolan mind-trip that mainly took place within dreams in the context of information thieves. That film utilized the concept of dream levels, where multiple dreams could occur within one dream. However, Paprika opts to go a different route by allowing those exploring dreams to travel to the dreams of other people, almost as if they are through through different universes/realities, which allow for more complex and intellectual concepts regarding dreams to come to fruition.

In this film, scientists have created a device called the DC Mini, which allows people to travel into their own dreams to explore them for psychological purposes. This gives Paprika an introspective tone as a film, as many of the events that occur are about going into oneself or another's self to realize fundamental truths about a person, whereas Inception was a film about gathering information from dreams. However, there is one crucial aspect of both films that are similar: The struggle to determine what is a dream and what is reality. In Inception, the main character Cobb's wife Mal loses her grasp regarding when she is in a dream and when she is in the real world. This ultimately leads to her suicide, as Mal believes that she is in a dream when she is in reality, so she dies so she can "wake up." Paprika has a similar concept as Dr. Shima becomes crazed upon using the DC Mini and jumps through a window, almost killing himself. The difference here is that there was no concrete belief that one realm was dreams and one realm was reality. They had become so muddled to Dr. Shima that he tried to escape this fear of not knowing, but could not, because if a person dies in a dream, they die in real life as well, revealed in the death of Dr. Osanai.

Paprika is able to accomplish being both infinitely labyrinthine by presenting a more complex take on Inception, but it is also able to be far more accessible due to the influences it takes from Japanese animation. Borrowing from Akira (1988) in terms of urban setting and complex ideas while also harnessing the bright, colorful visuals and elaborate, imaginative sound and design of Hayao Miyazaki films. This in many ways allows Paprika to emerge with the best of both worlds, and become a film worth noting for both fans of mind-bending science fiction and any fans of Japanese animated cinema from the last few decades. It's a film worth being awake for.