04/22
Kon- Paprika
This was a nice movie. When I knew it was made by the same director as Perfect Blue, I had a strong feeling it would be something mind-boggling, but I didn't expect to see the same reality vs dreams switching.
Now, we have only grown characters, though I noticed Paprika seemed to look more youthful than Dr. Chiba, but I guess it's a little weird to determine a dream's age.
Also, the ending was quite unexpected with Dr. Chiba "changing her last name" to Tokita. I think Paprika telling the detective Dr. Chiba to change her name might have been her way of letting him go without inviting him on. In a way, I can sort of see why she would send a note via Paprika rather than telling him in person when they are already acquainted after he kissed her when she was unconscious and without consent.
I think Paprika telling Dr. Chiba how it was the doctor who was a part of Paprika, not the other around, was an interesting idea. Unlike Perfect Blue where illusions of Mima are part of the real Mima, even if it's a delusion, it was more like Dr. Chiba wanting to become more whole by becoming Paprika. In other words, Dr. Chiba did not save the world by accepting Paprika as a part of her identity, but Paprika was the identity she was meant to become all along. Not that Dr. Chiba was the lesser half, but Paprika is simply the "other me" she has been trying to find. And when she is "reborn" like the chairman, she becomes the person she wanted to be not through Paprika, but when Paprika and Chiba fuse to become the light. It is not the darkness that consumed her but her own light that she already had that was able to consume the darkness and reset the balance between reality and the dream world. Dr. Chiba's choosing to save Tokita shows that she has become Paprika. Even Paprika herself said she didn't know what to do. Without Dr. Chiba, Paprika is just a shell. She may be a caring hero who can understand and help people, but Dr. Chiba is the smart one who can create solutions. Without the other, the two alone could not have won. I also like to think Paprika can be seen as both the standalone (given how she was able to travel freely in the fused worlds like she was familiar with them and when she would save Dr. Chiba in the real world) and a piece of Chiba (when she understood why she needed to enter the Tokita robot to be the extra spice to Chiba herself).
I also thought it was strange and sad that even at the end of the movie, we never really knew who the detective's friend looked like. I don't know who the Radio Club bartenders are, but given how they and Paprika helped the detective on the side deduce the meanings behind his dream, his friend's face is still obscure. I also admire how even when Paprika saves him during his dreams, it is when Paprika is in trouble that he can save himself from his fears. By remembering his past and saving himself by ending his nightmare his way, he was able to accept his past as the past. I like to interpret him changing his dreams as to how people change their own aspirations. It is true that he once had a filmography dream, but he "woke up" from his first dream and "went to sleep" into a new dream. But he didn't keep his dream as a dream; he made it into his own reality by working towards it and becoming a detective and a hero like his own dream. So, by entering and realizing a new dream he is both awake and asleep.
Whenever a character enters a dream, we can actually tell this time. The moment we see the inanimate parade, that is a sign that this character is experiencing a dream.
This is the first time I have seen a Monkey King character as a woman. Kind of makes sense because like Sun Wukong (Son Goku since this is a Japanese culture class), he represents humans and their holy ability to defy the social order, including the holy order between the elitist deities of Heaven and the chaotic demons, and it took pain and suffering to learn his mistakes (and a journey to the west) to not get or find enlightenment but to learn it by enlightening himself. Or maybe they just wanted to use his flying cloud as Paprika fell through the skies into a dream and gave her clothes because it's a neat reference.
-04/21/24
One more post!! Then exams because no homework does not mean no work for me :(
Honestly, I did not pick up some of the similarities to "Perfect Blue" until after I looked up plot summaries. But, now that you mention it the delusions are very similar and equally destructive. Also an interesting point about the "Monkey King" thing, I have never heard of that before.
















