Paprika

I recently watched a movie called Paprika, directed by Satoshi Kon, because I really enjoyed his work on Paranoia Agent and Tokyo Godfathers. The movie is about a device that allows others to peer into dreams, and the effects of it's misuse on the subconscious of others and the difficulty of separating dreams from reality. There is a lot of confusing, twisted imagery that necessitates watching multiple times, which is alright, because this movie is beautiful and interesting enough that a person will actually want to. The animation is detailed and smooth, and the extremely realistic designs clash wonderfully with the surreal dreamscapes. The music is also very abstract and bizarre, featuring lots of digital voices and a mishmash of instrument choices, especially the theme that follows the growing dream parade that stampedes through peoples' minds throughout the movie. One of the major themes is the concept of a person's persona, or the mask that they put on to hide their true self, with several characters having alternate dream avatars, which include the titular Paprika herself. I found myself completely pulled into this film, attracted to the twisting plot and the intricate, clever action dream sequences, and I felt that it does an amazing job simulating the bizarre state of dreaming and the relative difficulty of recognizing being within a dream far better than the later Inception did.