PAPRIKA by Satoshi Kon
Satoshi Kon makes character-driven animated films with exceptionally fine artwork. Both his stories and the quality of drawing in his films are mature and reward examination. (Be aware that Satoshi Kon films would alternately bore and scandalize children. This is why it can only succeed in Japan, where animation is made for a variety of ages.) Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and my favorite work of animation of all time, the science fiction segment Magnetic Rose from the anthology Memories.
Check out this trailer for Satoshi Kon's latest movie, PAPRIKA. I missed it in theaters and have been checking every few days for its availability on DVD. Finally the rental store had it this weekend, and I got to see it. Yeah, it's just as freaky and surreal as the trailer. I had to watch it twice to figure out when the characters were dreaming and which ones were doing the dreaming, but that merely meant I got to watch the gorgeous effects twice and pick out new details in the lush profusion of imagery.
It's a good thing I was broke at Youmacon or I would have been tempted to buy the soundtrack CD for that gorgeous music. After watching the film I started searching the web for that soundtrack again, and lo and behold, the composer gives away the credits track for free on his site! ("The Girl From Byakkoya" MP3 link, 4.4 MB) Computerized and yet still humanized-- ethereal, and yet in a celebratory way, instead of drowsy. Right up my alley.
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Speaking of music that uses a vocoder to truncate the pitch transitions of a voice (better known as the Cher Effect in "Do You Believe In Life After Love"), the other song which most occupies my digital audio player this week is "Still Alive" by the geek troubador Jonathan Coulton. ("Still Alive" MP3 link, 5.4 MB) As you see in this impressive trailer for the Valve game Portal, the style of humor of the team behind the game matches that of Coulton. So they asked him to write a song for a character to sing in the credits. Like so many of his works, its popularity has become virally popular on the web, in YouTube clips like this one. And like so many of his melodies, it is lodged in my brain.
Comments
rbradakis on Dec. 27, 2007 5:01 PM
I like the looks of PAPRIKA.
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