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Entry tags:
- anime/manga,
- anime/manga: evangelion,
- anime/manga: flcl,
- anime/manga: gunbuster,
- anime/manga: millennium actress,
- anime/manga: nadia the secret of blue wa,
- anime/manga: paprika,
- anime/manga: paranoia agent,
- anime/manga: perfect blue,
- anime/manga: satoshi kon,
- anime/manga: toki wo kakeru shoujo,
- anime/manga: tokyo godfathers,
- books,
- books: harry potter,
- comics,
- movies,
- movies: harry potter,
- movies: mamoru hosoda,
- movies: millennium actress,
- movies: paprika,
- movies: perfect blue,
- movies: satoshi kon,
- movies: spiderman,
- movies: toki wo kakeru shoujo,
- movies: tokyo godfathers
Paprika and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo: Reviews
Other than movies related to long-running anime series, or "movies" that consisted of a series of experimental shorts (hello Amazing Nuts!), Paprika and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo ("The Girl Who Leapt Through Time") were the two biggest true anime movies last year. Well, them and Gedo Senki. But Gedo Senki was powerfully un-good, so we won't waste time discussing it in this post, since it's already been criticized to death all over the internet. Anyway, what's interesting about Paprika and TokiKake is that they're both based on classic science fiction novels by the same author, Tsutsui Yasutaka.
And I watched them both last week for the first time. So here are my jumbly-thoughts about both.
Paprika
Paprika is the story of Dr. Atsuko Chiba, who uses a new experimental device, the DC Mini, to enter people's dreams and help them solve their personal problems. She does so in the guise of her alter-ego, Paprika, a self-styled "dream detective." Paprika is wild and carefree and adventurous, whereas Atsuko is extremely stern and professional. At many points in the movie, it is difficult to believe that Paprika and Atsuko are actually the same person. And yet, they are.
U.S. trailer for Paprika. I like this one better than the Japanese trailer, despite the infuriatingly stupid quote from Manohla Dargis.
Paprika is the fourth movie from director Satoshi Kon. And, true to form, Kon returns to the same things that made his previous three movies so awesome: A blend of mind-bending visuals, awesome music by Susumu Hirasawa, and a likable, interesting cast of characters centered around one amazing heroine. Or in this case, possibly two heroines. Like I said, the whole Paprika/Atsuko split is kind of hard to wrap my mind around. The end of the movie would seem to indicate that Paprika and Atsuko do consider themselves separate entities. So maybe I should count them as two?
My favorite part of Paprika was not the titular heroine(s), but rather this guy: Detective Konakawa Toshimi, a supporting character who takes on a larger role as he gets (unwittingly) involved in the mystery of the "dream terrorist" who steals a DC Mini. Paprika actually begins with Konakawa and ends with Konakawa, even though he's not the most important character in the movie. But his story, which is separate from the main plot of Paprika, is used as a framing device for the entire movie. Konakawa's subplot rehashes the main theme from Kon's second movie Millenium Actress: art imitates life, and life imitates art. Fiction reflects reality, and reality reflects fiction; and sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It's an interesting theme that Kon keeps returning to in almost all of his works. But my favorite thing about Konakawa is that... Well, he's funny. He's definitely the comic relief character in the cast. But he's also sympathetic and likeable, and he blends seamlessly into the serious scenes of the movie, too.
All of the characters in Paprika are likeable, really. Deeply flawed, of course - particularly Tokita and Atsuko - but likeable. Which is usually the case for a Satoshi Kon movie. Even the villains are "likeable" in the sense that they're appropriately, thrillingly evil. There's a climatic battle between good and evil. There are moments where the heroes stand up and do things so awesome that you just want to cheer. And, like in all of Kon's movies, there is a happy ending.
Paprika has its flaws, however. Mostly, it's not nearly as tight or as well-written as Kon's first two movies, Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress. And that's because Kon didn't write it. Kon has a much better track record working with his own original material than he does adapting someone else's material (like Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika). The original novel Paprika by Tsutsui Yasutaka is a long, dense, and complicated book. Kon did his best to condense the original material into a streamlined ninety-minute movie. As a result, a lot of things get cut out. Namely, any sort of logical explanation behind the "science" of the DC Mini is missing from the movie. Pretty much none of the "science" in the movie makes any sense whatsoever, although it possibly could make sense with a little bit more explanation. The rules of the dream-world are never explained, so it's hard to tell what's normal in the dream world, and what's supposed to be an alarming exception. Likewise, the main love story in the movie is introduced and developed so quickly - I'm talking like, literally five minutes here - that it's too hard to swallow.
One thing that I love about Paprika, however, is the heroine. Or heroines. (Aaaaagh, this is confusing!) Like in all of Kon's movies, a woman takes center stage. Sure, there are lots of male characters, and sure, they're important - but they're only important in the sense that they interact with and support the heroine. It's almost the complete opposite of most Hollywood (and Japanese) movies. Take, for example, Hermoine in the Harry Potter movies, or Mary Jane in the Spiderman movies. Yes, these characters are awesome. Yes, they're extremely important to the story. BUT they're ultimately supporting characters. Harry and Peter are the stars of their respective franchises, and Hermoine and MJ support them. Whereas in Kon's movies, we have the opposite. Mimarin in Perfect Blue, Chiyoko in Millennium Actress, Atsuko/Paprika in Paprika, and to some extent Miyuki in Tokyo Godfathers... They are the stars of their own movies. They're the heroes. The men are there to provide support, act as walking plot devices, and occassionally bring the comic relief. You know, the way that women characters are usually treated in other movies.
Those of you who have seen Paprika may quibble with me about the above paragraph because of this: There is a scene in Paprika where Paprika is basically turned into a damsel in distress, and Konokawa has to ride in on his white horse in order to save her from a mustache-twirling villain. But that's one scene. I think it's more than balanced out by the fact that in turn, Paprika ends up saving Konokawa (more than once), Tokito (in many ways), Shima, and then basically the entire universe, in the end. Go Paprika! And the other thing about that scene is, well, its context: the scene occurs inside Konokawa's dream, and Konokawa's dream is based on classic movies. So the hero rushing in to save the damsel tied to the railroad tracks makes sense within Konokawa's psyche, because that's the way that it plays out in the olde tyme movies.
My other through-a-feminist-lens quibble with Paprika is the love story. I was disappointed by the fact that it turned into a typical Beauty and the Beast in the end. And no, I'm not calling Tokita a "beast" because of his obesity: I think that he's a "beast" because of his many deep and undesirable personality flaws. Which, by the way, do not really get confronted or resolved in the course of the movie. At least Atsuko faces her own flaws and conquers them. Tokita tries, I think, at one point: but he fails. And yet the beautiful and previously cold-heart Atsuko still melts and hooks up with him in the end. It's the same damn cliche that we see over and over again. The love of a good woman can redeem any man, no matter how repulsive. (*eye roll*) I would have expected better from Satoshi Kon. But then again, he didn't write the source material, so... Boo to you, Tsutsui Yasutaka!
Paprika is currently showing in select U.S. theaters (subtitled), and I think there's plans for a wider release this summer. The movie is already available on DVD in Japan, and a subtitled North American DVD release can't be too long coming. In the meantime, however, you can definitely download a fansubbed copy of Paprika. There are several DVD rips floating out there on in the internet.
...Millennium Actress will always be my favorite Satoshi Kon movie, though. ;)
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo / The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
I don't have as many things to write about Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo as I do about Paprika, because Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo didn't make me think as much. But it wasn't supposed to, and that's fine. TokiKake may not have been as eye-bendingly pretty as Paprika, but it's just as entertaining - and even, if I may assert, is better-written than Paprika.
But, like Paprika, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is a science-fiction movie that seems alarmingly unconcerned with little details like "science" and "logic". This is particularly head-scratch-inducing in a movie about, uh, time travel. The time travel in Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is illogical, nonsensical, and does not follow consistent rules. So to properly enjoy this movie, you will have to turn off the part of your brain that wants things to make sense. ;)
The titular Girl Who Leapt Through Time is Konno Makoto, a high school student who one day discovers that she has gained the ability to leap backward through time. At first, she uses her new power for petty, selfish reasons - being able to spend her allowance twice, cheating The Man at a karaoke booth, and being able to play baseball with her friends for hours on end. But when Makoto tries to use her time-travel powers to "help" her friends Kousuke and Chiaki, she sets in motion a chain of events that accumulate into a series of disasters. Every time Makoto tries to leap back and correct her actions, something worse seems to happen.
Makoto is great. She is one seriously awesome heroine. Mostly, she's completely believable. She acts the way that any teenage girl would act when suddenly gifted with a great power. She first uses her power selfishly, then feels badly about it. She tries to use her power to help others, but her own short-sightedness thwarts her at every turn. She doesn't start out as a strong or heroic person, but she becomes a strong and heroic person over the course of the movie. And she finishes the movie as a much better person than she was at the beginning.
Another thing that I liked about Makoto is that she has to own up to her actions in the end. Or rather... Well, it's hard to write about this without getting too spoilery, but I will say this. At the end of the movie, there is no magical reset. Makoto doesn't get to clean up her mess and then return completely to the way that things were before, with nobody none the wiser. In the end, her poor decisions have lasting consequences that she will have to live with for the rest of her life. But that's the point. Makoto doesn't become a stronger person by magically undoing all of the wrong that she's done. She becomes a stronger person by learning to accept and live with the consequences of her actions.
TokiKake is a great movie. Its funny parts are genuinely funny, and its dramatic parts moved me to tears. I love the character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (also the character designer of Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster, and Nadia). The music was good, but nothing that really stood out to me. But everything else about TokiKake was pitch-perfect. Particularly the pacing. Unlike Paprika, THIS movie doesn't feel rushed. Like I said, the rules of the time-travel mechanism are not explained in a satisfying way, but they weren't in the original novel either. Anyway, the reason that Tokikake doesn't feel rushed is that it's a good ten minutes longer than Paprika. That may not seem like much, but for an animated movie, ten minutes is a big deal.
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is currently making the film-festival circuit in North America, and I think that a proper theatrical release is in the works. Until you can see the movie in theaters, however, you can definitely download fansubs online.
ETA: I just realized that I'm writing this review on Friday, July 13th. The date of July 13th takes on a special significance in Tokikae as an unlucky day, although I don't think the film mentioned it being a Friday specifically.
And I watched them both last week for the first time. So here are my jumbly-thoughts about both.
Paprika
Paprika is the story of Dr. Atsuko Chiba, who uses a new experimental device, the DC Mini, to enter people's dreams and help them solve their personal problems. She does so in the guise of her alter-ego, Paprika, a self-styled "dream detective." Paprika is wild and carefree and adventurous, whereas Atsuko is extremely stern and professional. At many points in the movie, it is difficult to believe that Paprika and Atsuko are actually the same person. And yet, they are.
U.S. trailer for Paprika. I like this one better than the Japanese trailer, despite the infuriatingly stupid quote from Manohla Dargis.
Paprika is the fourth movie from director Satoshi Kon. And, true to form, Kon returns to the same things that made his previous three movies so awesome: A blend of mind-bending visuals, awesome music by Susumu Hirasawa, and a likable, interesting cast of characters centered around one amazing heroine. Or in this case, possibly two heroines. Like I said, the whole Paprika/Atsuko split is kind of hard to wrap my mind around. The end of the movie would seem to indicate that Paprika and Atsuko do consider themselves separate entities. So maybe I should count them as two?
My favorite part of Paprika was not the titular heroine(s), but rather this guy: Detective Konakawa Toshimi, a supporting character who takes on a larger role as he gets (unwittingly) involved in the mystery of the "dream terrorist" who steals a DC Mini. Paprika actually begins with Konakawa and ends with Konakawa, even though he's not the most important character in the movie. But his story, which is separate from the main plot of Paprika, is used as a framing device for the entire movie. Konakawa's subplot rehashes the main theme from Kon's second movie Millenium Actress: art imitates life, and life imitates art. Fiction reflects reality, and reality reflects fiction; and sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It's an interesting theme that Kon keeps returning to in almost all of his works. But my favorite thing about Konakawa is that... Well, he's funny. He's definitely the comic relief character in the cast. But he's also sympathetic and likeable, and he blends seamlessly into the serious scenes of the movie, too.
All of the characters in Paprika are likeable, really. Deeply flawed, of course - particularly Tokita and Atsuko - but likeable. Which is usually the case for a Satoshi Kon movie. Even the villains are "likeable" in the sense that they're appropriately, thrillingly evil. There's a climatic battle between good and evil. There are moments where the heroes stand up and do things so awesome that you just want to cheer. And, like in all of Kon's movies, there is a happy ending.
Paprika has its flaws, however. Mostly, it's not nearly as tight or as well-written as Kon's first two movies, Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress. And that's because Kon didn't write it. Kon has a much better track record working with his own original material than he does adapting someone else's material (like Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika). The original novel Paprika by Tsutsui Yasutaka is a long, dense, and complicated book. Kon did his best to condense the original material into a streamlined ninety-minute movie. As a result, a lot of things get cut out. Namely, any sort of logical explanation behind the "science" of the DC Mini is missing from the movie. Pretty much none of the "science" in the movie makes any sense whatsoever, although it possibly could make sense with a little bit more explanation. The rules of the dream-world are never explained, so it's hard to tell what's normal in the dream world, and what's supposed to be an alarming exception. Likewise, the main love story in the movie is introduced and developed so quickly - I'm talking like, literally five minutes here - that it's too hard to swallow.
One thing that I love about Paprika, however, is the heroine. Or heroines. (Aaaaagh, this is confusing!) Like in all of Kon's movies, a woman takes center stage. Sure, there are lots of male characters, and sure, they're important - but they're only important in the sense that they interact with and support the heroine. It's almost the complete opposite of most Hollywood (and Japanese) movies. Take, for example, Hermoine in the Harry Potter movies, or Mary Jane in the Spiderman movies. Yes, these characters are awesome. Yes, they're extremely important to the story. BUT they're ultimately supporting characters. Harry and Peter are the stars of their respective franchises, and Hermoine and MJ support them. Whereas in Kon's movies, we have the opposite. Mimarin in Perfect Blue, Chiyoko in Millennium Actress, Atsuko/Paprika in Paprika, and to some extent Miyuki in Tokyo Godfathers... They are the stars of their own movies. They're the heroes. The men are there to provide support, act as walking plot devices, and occassionally bring the comic relief. You know, the way that women characters are usually treated in other movies.
Those of you who have seen Paprika may quibble with me about the above paragraph because of this: There is a scene in Paprika where Paprika is basically turned into a damsel in distress, and Konokawa has to ride in on his white horse in order to save her from a mustache-twirling villain. But that's one scene. I think it's more than balanced out by the fact that in turn, Paprika ends up saving Konokawa (more than once), Tokito (in many ways), Shima, and then basically the entire universe, in the end. Go Paprika! And the other thing about that scene is, well, its context: the scene occurs inside Konokawa's dream, and Konokawa's dream is based on classic movies. So the hero rushing in to save the damsel tied to the railroad tracks makes sense within Konokawa's psyche, because that's the way that it plays out in the olde tyme movies.
My other through-a-feminist-lens quibble with Paprika is the love story. I was disappointed by the fact that it turned into a typical Beauty and the Beast in the end. And no, I'm not calling Tokita a "beast" because of his obesity: I think that he's a "beast" because of his many deep and undesirable personality flaws. Which, by the way, do not really get confronted or resolved in the course of the movie. At least Atsuko faces her own flaws and conquers them. Tokita tries, I think, at one point: but he fails. And yet the beautiful and previously cold-heart Atsuko still melts and hooks up with him in the end. It's the same damn cliche that we see over and over again. The love of a good woman can redeem any man, no matter how repulsive. (*eye roll*) I would have expected better from Satoshi Kon. But then again, he didn't write the source material, so... Boo to you, Tsutsui Yasutaka!
Paprika is currently showing in select U.S. theaters (subtitled), and I think there's plans for a wider release this summer. The movie is already available on DVD in Japan, and a subtitled North American DVD release can't be too long coming. In the meantime, however, you can definitely download a fansubbed copy of Paprika. There are several DVD rips floating out there on in the internet.
...Millennium Actress will always be my favorite Satoshi Kon movie, though. ;)
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo / The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
I don't have as many things to write about Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo as I do about Paprika, because Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo didn't make me think as much. But it wasn't supposed to, and that's fine. TokiKake may not have been as eye-bendingly pretty as Paprika, but it's just as entertaining - and even, if I may assert, is better-written than Paprika.
But, like Paprika, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is a science-fiction movie that seems alarmingly unconcerned with little details like "science" and "logic". This is particularly head-scratch-inducing in a movie about, uh, time travel. The time travel in Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is illogical, nonsensical, and does not follow consistent rules. So to properly enjoy this movie, you will have to turn off the part of your brain that wants things to make sense. ;)
The titular Girl Who Leapt Through Time is Konno Makoto, a high school student who one day discovers that she has gained the ability to leap backward through time. At first, she uses her new power for petty, selfish reasons - being able to spend her allowance twice, cheating The Man at a karaoke booth, and being able to play baseball with her friends for hours on end. But when Makoto tries to use her time-travel powers to "help" her friends Kousuke and Chiaki, she sets in motion a chain of events that accumulate into a series of disasters. Every time Makoto tries to leap back and correct her actions, something worse seems to happen.
Makoto is great. She is one seriously awesome heroine. Mostly, she's completely believable. She acts the way that any teenage girl would act when suddenly gifted with a great power. She first uses her power selfishly, then feels badly about it. She tries to use her power to help others, but her own short-sightedness thwarts her at every turn. She doesn't start out as a strong or heroic person, but she becomes a strong and heroic person over the course of the movie. And she finishes the movie as a much better person than she was at the beginning.
Another thing that I liked about Makoto is that she has to own up to her actions in the end. Or rather... Well, it's hard to write about this without getting too spoilery, but I will say this. At the end of the movie, there is no magical reset. Makoto doesn't get to clean up her mess and then return completely to the way that things were before, with nobody none the wiser. In the end, her poor decisions have lasting consequences that she will have to live with for the rest of her life. But that's the point. Makoto doesn't become a stronger person by magically undoing all of the wrong that she's done. She becomes a stronger person by learning to accept and live with the consequences of her actions.
TokiKake is a great movie. Its funny parts are genuinely funny, and its dramatic parts moved me to tears. I love the character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (also the character designer of Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster, and Nadia). The music was good, but nothing that really stood out to me. But everything else about TokiKake was pitch-perfect. Particularly the pacing. Unlike Paprika, THIS movie doesn't feel rushed. Like I said, the rules of the time-travel mechanism are not explained in a satisfying way, but they weren't in the original novel either. Anyway, the reason that Tokikake doesn't feel rushed is that it's a good ten minutes longer than Paprika. That may not seem like much, but for an animated movie, ten minutes is a big deal.
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is currently making the film-festival circuit in North America, and I think that a proper theatrical release is in the works. Until you can see the movie in theaters, however, you can definitely download fansubs online.
ETA: I just realized that I'm writing this review on Friday, July 13th. The date of July 13th takes on a special significance in Tokikae as an unlucky day, although I don't think the film mentioned it being a Friday specifically.
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I still haven't seen Millennium Actress. I plan to someday though. We just finished watching Solid State Society. Very good. :)
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And hmmm, now that I think about it, there's a lot of similarities between Paprika and Ghost in the Shell. Particularly the idea of a terrorist who can invade your mind and influence your perceptions of reality. Ugh, scary stuff.
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