PAPRIKA

The other night I was looking for a certain kind of celluloid getaway--a movie, on the short side, that would take me out of the city (or at least my apartment) for a spell.

I went with the Satoshi Kon anime Paprika, which is still showing on 42nd Street. The story has to do with a very thin...um, let's say dotted...line between dreams and technology--a theme that, in my experience, goes back at least as far as Ben Bova's late Sixties novel The Dueling Machine [and, come to think of it, other sources such as The Prisoner] and, as you probably don't know, my late Seventies short story "Reality in a COW," which was published in Dimensions.

It's like a slightly edgier Miyazaki film--and it's even got a kooky R rating to prove it! If Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away don't do it for you, try something else. But if you're into that kind of thing, considering treating yourself with a dash of Paprika.

Blink and you might miss an allusion to the artwork of Gustave Moreau.



Source (1:23)