Christopher Nolan’s Inception is considered one of the best films of the 2010s and took us into a crazy dream world. What many people don’t know: Four years earlier, an amazingly similar sci-fi work was released that was no less ingenious.
We can assume that even one of today’s greatest directors has to take his inspiration from somewhere. In addition to books by author Jorge Luis Borges, The Matrix and Blade Runner were the main inspiration for Inception. But Christopher Nolan was obviously inspired by one movie in particular, even if he never officially confirmed it.
We are talking about Paprika, a psychological anime sci-fi thriller that was released in 2006 under the direction of Satoshi Kon. In many ways, it anticipated the ideas of Inception and is considered one of the best animated films of all time. Now it’s finally returning to home cinema and you can get your hands on the limited 4K Steelbook
In addition to the 4K version, the steelbook also contains the standard Blu-ray. This is all the more pleasing as the film was recently only available on DVD*. If you haven’t seen Inception yet, you can get it on Amazon in 4K
Did Christopher Nolan help himself to this sci-fi masterpiece?
The idea of a story about dream predators came to Nolan after he finished work on Insomnia in 2002 (via The Telegraph ). But it wasn’t until 2010 that his vision became a reality. In the meantime, Paprika was released in 2006 and almost certainly had an influence on Inception, as both fans and critics have noted.
In both films, technology is used to infiltrate dreams in which the rules of physics as we know them do not apply. Even entire scenes show such a striking similarity when juxtaposed that they can be placed on top of each other like templates. A Reddit post shows some of these scenes as they look superimposed on each other.
(Paprika)
Although both sci-fi thrillers are similar in many ways, they are equally different. While Inception is a psychological thriller with a surrealistic approach, Paprika blends reality and the dream world to create a new, surreal reality
Dreams become reality: that’s what the sci-fi adventure Paprika is all about
A revolutionary device called the DC Mini allows scientists led by Dr. Atsuko Chiba to see people’s dreams. Although the device is not yet fully developed, Dr. Chiba uses it to help mentally ill patients. She slips into her alter ego “Paprika” to do so.
When the device is stolen, it turns out that in the wrong hands it can become a dangerous weapon. After a series of ominous attacks, Paprika sets off into the dream world to uncover the conspiracy, while dream and reality gradually merge throughout Japan.
Time magazine named Satoshi Kon’s last film one of the 25 best animated films of all time, and the Japanese sci-fi psychological thriller also appears in other lists of the best. The colleagues at Filmstarts gave it a strong 4 out of 5 stars in their review.
The more you dive into Paprika, the more the sci-fi adventure takes you on a wild ride where you quickly forget which way is up and which is down. Don’t expect straightforward sci-fi action, but a colorful maelstrom of images that will certainly leave you with a few questions unanswered the first time you play it. Paprika is made for repeated viewing
