Anime Paprika

[Dagger]

[url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paprika/][u]Rotten Tomatoes[/u][/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paprika_(2006_film)][u]Wikipedia[/u][/url]

Anyone else see this in theaters? It's far from Satoshi Kon's best work, but still worth seeing just for its sly humor and freewheeling visuals. I have the feeling that it would've benefited from extensive cultural notes--a lot of the dream-babble in particular seemed to lose something in translation. Unfortunately that's not something you can include in the subtitle script, and having jokes explained tends to kill them... kind of a lose-lose situation.

(Megumi Hayashibara is a real treat as the main character.)

Not that I didn't enjoy Paprika, but I'm kind of surprised by how positive most of the mainstream reviews have been. I think it might be more impressive if you only watch anime occasionally.

~Dagger~

[Inkstitchling]

[COLOR=DarkOrchid][SIZE=1]I'm hoping to go see it this next weekend with a few friends. We all loved Tokyo Godfathers & Millenium Actress, so I was wondering how Paprika compares to Satoshi Kon's other work.
[QUOTE]It's far from Satoshi Kon's best work, but still worth seeing just for its sly humor and freewheeling visuals.[/QUOTE]
What do you think [I]is[/I] his best work?
[QUOTE]I have the feeling that it would've benefited from extensive cultural notes[/QUOTE]Even for the Japanese culture obsessed? [/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=Inkstitchling][COLOR=DarkOrchid][SIZE=1]
What do you think [I]is[/I] his best work?
[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
On a personal level, I would say Paranoia Agent. On a more objective level, I would say Millennium Actress; it's a stunning piece of work but not as much to my tastes.

[QUOTE][COLOR=DarkOrchid][SIZE=1]Even for the Japanese culture obsessed?[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
That's for you to decide. I would be interested in seeing an alternate take on this aspect of the movie, actually. What got me thinking about this was a scene (inconsequential; not a spoiler) in which a Daruma doll stands on a platform and asks for votes. I have no idea if that kind of street campaigning for small-time elections is still common or more old-fashioned, but the connection between its brief lines & local Japanese politics isn't especially obvious unless you've already been exposed to that type of scene/image elsewhere (minus the surrealism, haha).

Its line about votes also references its uncolored eye--which would seem totally nonsensical to those who don't know about the Daruma eye tradition. Really made me wonder what I was missing in the rest of the dialogue. The Hina dolls & Shinto torii & Maneki Neko etc. were recognizable and all, but I bet a lot of the chanted lines a) made a tiny bit more sense than they seemed to, and b) contained allusions that flew over my head. Some of them sounded like kotowaza--nothing that I could recognize, though.

~Dagger~