Join us for another session of SHADES movie magic with anime masterwork Paprika this Thursday 4 May.

Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue) delivered another anime classic with the mind-bending and visually stunning Paprika (2006). When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. If this technology got into the wrong hands, it would be both disastrous and deadly. Enter Dr. Chiba Atsuko (alter ego: Paprika), who hunts down the thief across a shape-shifting landscape of dream worlds.

Cited by Christopher Nolan as an influence on Inception, it’s not hard to see why Paprika is continually counted among lists of the greatest anime films of all time by the likes of Time Out. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, and is essential viewing for fans of Satoshi Kon’s other reality-blurring works such as Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers. His fourth film, it was also his final work, due to his untimely passing in 2010.

View Trailer

Rating: M

Director: Satoshi Kon

Cast: Megumi Hayashibara, Tōru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Tōru Furuya, Akio Ōtsuka

Runtime: 90 min

Language: Japanese with English subtitles