TRAILER: Paprika

The writer/director of Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, and Tokyo Godfather has a new film: Paprika. The original story by the same title was written by Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui and was serialized in 1991. Several directors expressed their interested in interpreting the story for screen, but Tsutsui himself felt that Satoshi was the one director who could fully realise it.


Satoshi Kon adapted the story for screen from the original book.

This trailer is cram packed with interesting and ingenious visuals - worth a look. He is constantly playing with our perceptions in a way that's not far from the work of Michel Gondry. See the trailer HERE(Apple) and the opening to the film HERE (Official Site).

It's anime, but Satoshi's films are more psychological drama/thriller than sci-fi. As a taster of his previous work, here are a few descriptions(and recommendations):

TOKYO GODFATHERS: Three homeless friends are in Tokyo at Christmastime. One is a young girl, one a transvestite and the other a middle-aged no-good. Whilst searching through some rubbish they come across a newborn baby which they decide to keep. Using a key, they find with the baby, they set off in search of the parents.

MILLENIUM ACTRESS: The story recounts the legend of an actress named Chiyoko Fujiwara who mysteriously disappeared during her greatest moment of fame. Via a sweeping backdrop of historical and fictional events that breathlessly span time, Chiyoko relates her saga to a documentary filmmaker named Genya who has tracked the actress down to her remote hideaway. As the story unfolds, Chiyoko's personal history becomes inextricably intertwined with the characters she plays in the movies throughout her long career, all in pursuit of her first love, a political activist painter who left her only with a mysterious key that sets the whole story in motion.

PERFECT BLUE: One of the most ambitious animated films to come out of Japan (or anywhere, for that matter), Perfect Blue is an adult psycho-thriller that uses the freedom of the animated image to create the subjective reality of a young actress haunted by the ghost of her past identity. Mima is a singer who leaves her teeny-bop trio to become an actress in a violent television series, a career move that angers her fans, who prefer to see her as the pert, squeaky-clean pop idol.