In this Japanese anime epic, humanity's last bastion of privacy has finally been infiltrated by technology, the world of our dreams. The story centers on a new invention called the DC-Mini. With this revolutionary device, psychiatrists are now able to enter a patient's dreams in a therapeutic setting. But when an unknown assailant steals all of the devices, using them to enter peoples minds enacting mind control, chaos ensues as dreams begin to bleed into reality, and the thin line between the conscious and the unconscious begins to blur. Enter a young female researcher named Chiba , who takes it upon herself to delve into the newly anarchic dream world in order to set things straight. In this surreal realm her name is Paprika, and she's out to save the world. Bursting with fantastic imagery and breathtakingly innovative animation.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/synopsis
The movie Paprika occurs in a place that competes between physical and subconscious. The depiction of this dreamworld now real, is of a massive carnival parade that moves through the city toward the destruction of the minds of all who live in this city. Masks, dolls and clowns become important parts of this representation. The animations style used liberates the director in terms of creating a cinematic experience that is effectively evokes the ambiguity and subversion inherent in this waking dream
The character Paprika is herself a subconscious mask of the wakeful Chiba . In the same way that masks reduce one's inhibitions through disguise, so too is the character Paprika able to accomplish all feats in her dreamworld, while the daytime Chiba is quite reserved.
The dynamic and subversive qualities of this waking dream world are best represented through these seemingly innocuous child's toys which march straight out of the id, onto the city's streets. Their innocence is twisted to become almost macabre abstractions of real forms. As they are part of dreams, they go beyond the point of representation or disguise, but in fact become alternate beings. This movie shows the ultimate usage of masks, clowns and impersonation in creating an entirely carnivalesque world of inversion. The architecture o the city by the movie's end becomes the rational framework around which the ocean of masks thrashes.
Paprika was directed by Satoshi Kon and animated by Madhouse Studios, who have also animated other anime features such as Ninja Scroll , Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Trigun . Part of the animation team included Studio Ghibli regular Masashi Ando . Studio Ghibli is widely known in western markets for Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle .
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