When we open our eyes and dream we open our eyes

[sovay]

I have just returned from seeing Paprika (2006) at the Kendall Square Cinema with gaudior and eredien and other cool people I don't see often enough; they invited me on the theory that I would be interested by virtue of subject matter and they were right. This was the first film-length anime I have ever seen and I loved it. At different points in its plot, it reminded me of Patricia McKillip's Fool's Run, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, but mostly it seems to have been reminiscent of itself; it is about dreams and movies and some of the most eerily catchy music I have ever heard. I am not sure that I should attempt to provide anything like a plot summary, but I would suggest you not miss it. I may try to see it again myself.

Planted in the future, we live two lives
All to reveal a secret we can't hide . . .
—Sam Phillips, "How To Dream"

Comments

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

Voices are so much a part of the character, I don't even understand the phenomenon.

I'm definitely with you on that one. And most of the time, it's a matter of truly lousy actors replacing good ones. Watch some of the anime on Adult Swim and you'll see what I mean. A lot of them use the same Canadian production studio and they tend to have four or five actors doing everyone's voice--actors who aren't even good at changing their voice. A lot of them tend to do it by giving some characters no variance of emotion. But going to the Japanese version, you can hear a remarkable amount of nuance put into the performances. I feel like I've talked to you about this before, but voice actors are highly respected in Japan (see the Wikipedia entry on "Seiyu" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiyu)).