Paprika

Paprika is a Japanese animated film centred on Atsuko Chiba, a research psychiatrist who takes part in the development of a device that lets therapists enter and record their patients' dreams. Using the device outside her clinic, she adopts a second identity, Paprika, to help people in trouble. When the prototype is stolen, its misappropriation begins to affect the minds of those connected to the project, and the boundary between dreams and waking life starts to collapse. Chiba and the detective Toshimi Konakawa work to recover the device and stop whoever holds it from doing further damage.

The film was directed by Satoshi Kon, his fourth feature after Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, from a screenplay he wrote with Seishi Minakami. It was produced by Madhouse with Sony Pictures and features voice work by Megumi Hayashibara, Tohru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Toru Furuya, Akio Otsuka and Koichi Yamadera, with 31 credited cast members and 45 credited crew.

Made on a budget of about 3 million US dollars, the film runs 90 minutes. It holds a rating of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 111,000 votes and 7.8 out of 10 on TMDB from about 3,000 votes. A critics' score of 7.4 out of 10 from 95 reviews places it broadly in line with those audience ratings.