Friday, July 13, 2007

Peppers!


So after our exciting cinematic experience last Friday, the cinetrix and I tried to top it with multiple films Saturday. We started by heading across town to hastily duck into Paprika right as it was getting started. I was still pretty cashed out from the previous night so I couldn't really follow the film that well. Well, that and IT MADE NO FUCKING SENSE.

Actually, the basic story isn't that hard to follow, it's just one of those films where you're not really sure if what you're seeing is real or even supposed to be, and that's part of the draw. (I've never been huge into fantasy. I'm the guy who didn't like Pan's Labyrinth...)

I'm not normally one for anime anyway, but I have enjoyed some of Miyazaki, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The film was absolutely gorgeous and if I wasn't trying to avoid film theory like the plague right now, I'd go into the sequence wherein one character "rapes" the Paprika character by shoving his hand into her crotch (through clothes, of course, as well as flesh/body/being/psyche?) and then rips her outer being off. (Don't mean to be a spoiler, but it can be seen here.) It was a hugely sexualized film, but, for the most part, in the way older noir films generally are. I did enjoy the whole self-referential vibe Satoshi Kon was throwing our way. I still can't stress enough how gorgeous it was. Honestly, the music was so amazing and visuals so lush that I probably should've changed my shorts afterwards.

All in all, I'd like to revisit the film and just enjoy myself rather than wondering what the fuck is going on the entire time.

Plus, Atsuko is one two-dimensional chick I could get down with in the biblical sense, if you follow. Seriously, if cartoon babes looked like this when I was coming along (other than April O'Neil, of course), adolescence would've been a much different (possibly more awkard?) formative experience for me. I think she was intelligent also, or something...

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