{"id":4634,"date":"2006-12-07T06:17:50","date_gmt":"2006-12-07T06:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groonk.net\/blog\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2010-03-26T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-26T18:08:14","slug":"paprika-is-curiously-cool-looking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/2006\/12\/paprika-is-curiously-cool-looking\/","title":{"rendered":"PAPRIKA is Curiously Cool Looking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This ain&#8217;t your mama&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.recipezaar.com\/library\/getentry.zsp?id=335\" class=\"external external_icon\">paprika<\/a>.  This here <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonypictures.com\/homevideo\/paprika\/index.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">PAPRIKA<\/a> will invade your headspace and cause fits of cool to shudder throughout your body.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blocked\"><p><object width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/ERaLC28EaQo\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/ERaLC28EaQo\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" align=\"right\"><\/embed><\/object>Can dreams drive you crazy? Is the boundary between dream life and so-called real life permeable? Satoshi Kon has been making brilliant animations based on these and similar questions since &#8220;Perfect Blue,&#8221; his 1998 feature debut about an idol singer whose life, inner as well as outer, is invaded by an obsessed fan.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/ff20061201a3.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">His latest and, he says, last investigation of this dream-vs.-reality theme is &#8220;Paprika,&#8221; which premiered at this year&#8217;s Venice Film Festival and has been selected as a possible nominee for an animation Oscar<\/a>. I have no idea if his film will make it into the final five, but it is definitely different from not only the talking-animal, 3G animation for kiddies that is now standard in Hollywood, but also the manga-based, sci-fi fantasy that the Japanese animation industry exports in large quantities to the world.<\/p>\n<p>True, it has SF elements, the main one being a gizmo called the DC Mini that looks like a futuristic hearing aid and can transmit the wearer&#8217;s dreams &#8212; think of an MP3 Web site that allows you to share dreams instead of tunes.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of focusing on his hardware or spinning the usual good-vs.-evil SF story, Kon takes his audience on a wild, fantastic ride into a land of extreme dreaming, where primal desires and fears (absolute freedom, appropriation of one&#8217;s identity by a malevolent Other) come to gaudy, phantasmagorical life.   <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I know it sounds like THE CELL. But this actually has a thought behind it.  I&#8217;m sure of this(sight unseen) cause director <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Satoshi_Kon\" class=\"external external_icon\">Satoshi Kon<\/a> did the amazing <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Perfect_Blue\" class=\"external external_icon\">PERFECT BLUE<\/a>, the mesmerizing <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Millennium_Actress\" class=\"external external_icon\">MILLENIUM ACTRESS<\/a>, and the flat out awesome <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paranoia_Agent\" class=\"external external_icon\">PARANOIA AGENT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s 3 to 1 against CELL director <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tarsem_Singh\" class=\"external external_icon\">Tarsem Singh<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>All <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Cell\" class=\"external external_icon\">THE CELL <\/a>did was show me J Lo smoking pot(points for the panty shot) and Vicnent D&#8217;Onofrio in weird hair.  It got points for mentioning <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fantastic_Planet\" class=\"external external_icon\">FANTASTIC PLANET<\/a> but lost all off them when it turned into a 90 minute music video.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a one sheet <a href=\"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/mt-archives\/005665.php\">under the cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/community.livejournal.com\/ohnotheydidnt\/9807524.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">ontd<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ERaLC28EaQo\" class=\"external external_icon\">anime luving YouTube<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/ff20061201a3.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">The Japan Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Paprika_(2006_film).jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/images\/Paprika_%282006_film%29.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"679\" \/> <br \/>&#8220;excuse me, who are you?&#8221; <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This ain&#8217;t your mama&#8217;s paprika. This here PAPRIKA will invade your headspace and cause fits of cool to shudder throughout your body. Can dreams drive you crazy? Is the boundary between dream life and so-called real life permeable? Satoshi Kon has been making brilliant animations based on these and similar questions since &#8220;Perfect Blue,&#8221; his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,56,66,57],"tags":[2064,2063],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","category-movies","category-one-sheets","category-trailers","tag-paprika","tag-satoshi-kon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10319,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/10319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}