Paprika

[archerships]

Paprika: a visually gorgeous film that began with an interesting premise — what if you could build a machine that allowed you to enter the dreams of others?

But I think it fell into the trap that plagues many movies that toy with
the question “What is real?”

I think that compelling drama arises when you believe that the
characters actually inhabit a “real” world somewhere, that their actions
have consequences. However, if the premise of the movie is that the
characters inhabit a a dream or VR world, then anything can happen. And
if that’s the case, then death, love, violence, all have no more
reality–or meaning–than a video game. And it’s difficult to get
worked up about the “death” of a video game character.

The Matrix, by contrast, worked because a) the audience
believed Neo inhabited the “real” world through much of the movie b)
even when the “real” world was revealed to be fake, there was another
“real” world where actions in both the Matrix and the “real, real” world
had consequences.

That said, I enjoyed Paprika, and would recommend it to anime fans. I think it’s best watched as if you were watching someone’s vivid dream (or nightmare). The visual imagery is simply stunning, and it plays with adult themes that mainstream U.S. animation never approaches. I look forward to future animated film that combine the beauty and thematic elements of Paprika with a coherent plot and a greater respect for dramatic structure.

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

False premise, that meaning is contingent on reality. Meaning is a subjective mental state. As an atheist, I'm surrounded by people for whom non-existent entities have great meaning. Actually, that's true for theists as well. Each theist believes in his own god, and believes all other gods are false. Yet I don't think any Christian would argue that a Muslim's god is meaningless.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Note that the word "real" is in quotes. I don't think that drama demands that the "reality" of the film correspond to our physical reality. For example, I think the Lord of the Rings has great dramatic power even though orcs, wizards, etc. don't exist.

But the "reality" of Middle Earth is not arbitrary and infinitely malleable. When people die, for the most part, they stay dead. The characters can't warp the nature of reality with an idle wish. Their actions have consequences. Would LOTR have had the same dramatic power if Frodo could wish himself to Mount Doom? Or simple turn the ring into a pumpkin?

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It's not the reality or lack thereof, it's the subjective consequences. In a fictional universe, in the Matrix, in video games, the players experience consequences that they can't avoid. In certain cases the consequences are self-inflicted (a religious believer could choose not to waste his time going to church, could choose not to become a suicide bomber), but the consequences are experienced all the same.