Animated sci-fi thriller. Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research invent a device that allows them to record and watch dreams. But when a thief steals it and uses the machine to enter people's minds, the trio - along with a police inspector and a sprite called Paprika - are forced into action.
This surreal Japanese anime delves into the language of the unconscious and has been cited by Christopher Nolan as an inspiration for his 2010 dream thriller Inception. It centres on a revolutionary high-tech device, the DC Mini, that lets psychotherapist Dr Chiba enter her patients' dreams and analyse their neuroses in situ. But after several of the machines are stolen, and Dr Chiba and a troubled detective try to recover them, the line between reality and dreams begins to blur. Director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue) brilliantly taps into the illogical ellipses of the language of dreams, drawing on everything from Freud to cult TV show Monkey. In terms of plot, it's often too labyrinthine for its own good but the cavalcade of hallucinatory images builds into a fascinating, creepy, often visually ravishing anime - a true cartoon for grown-ups.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Paprika / Dr Atsuko Chiba | Megumi Hayashibara |
| Kosaku Tokita | Toru Furuya |
| Detective Toshimi Konakawa | Akio Ohtsuka |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Satoshi Kon |
