Like INCEPTION, Love PAPRIKA: Alternate Recommendation #3

Welcome to the Dream World

This year marks the eighth anniversary of INCEPTION, it represented the next big step in Science-Fiction with its unique vision of what we perceived as the dream world, but it was not the first. Director Satoshi Kon created his final feature film in 2006, in the form of PAPRIKA. While INCEPTION’s concept of the dream is rather unique PAPRIKA takes those concepts, and molds them into something completely different. There’s plenty to talk about here, despite their similarities, what helps these two movies is how they act as two sides of the same coin, which is why if you like INCEPTION, then you’ll love PAPRIKA.

            Thematically, INCEPTION, and PAPRIKA are completely different, one is a heist film and the other is a mystery thriller. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, PAPRIKA’s plot tends to jump all over place, while INCEPTION’s is more precise. Probably the biggest difference between these two films is how present the dream world, in INCEPTION the dreams are well-structured, and most of them appear to be “manufactured” in a way, while PAPRIKA’s presents them more “naturally” as in, they seem more jumbled, wacky and insane.

            PAPRIKA’s biggest advantage over INCEPTION is definitely its music. The soundtrack was composed by Susumu Hirasawa (Japan’s version of Daft Punk), it brilliantly immerses the viewer into the world PAPRIKA creates. As the music goes on, it soon becomes a representation of dream world, considering most of it sounds like a bunch of random sounds put together, though some songs in the soundtrack are quite catchy. That doesn’t mean INCEPTION’s score isn’t any good though, it heightens the tension in key moments, which allows the audience to get emotionally invested in said moments.

            In many respects, INCEPTION acts as a sequel to PAPRIKA in a way, since PAPRIKA is about the creation of the “dream device” and INCEPTION more or less, shows what happens after that device is made. It almost seems like a timeline of sorts. The different uses of the device can be very interesting at times.

            If these points have interested you, both these films are available on Blu-Ray and DVD, they can easily be found on online and at your local video-store.