Paprika: A Jungian Interpretation
I first heard of Paprika (2006) about a decade ago, around the time Inception (2010) was released. Ever since, I had always just known the movie as this weird, bizarre, trippy anime on dreams that served as an inspiration for Inception. Only until a few months ago did I finally get the chance to watch it as I was exploring old Japanese animation movies with my brother (e.g., classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, older Ghibli movies like Nausicaa Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke).
I was hypnotized.
Just from the first 10 minutes of the movie, I fell straight in love with Satoshi Kon’s eccentric art style (it got me to watch all of his other works). Kon’s signature style of blending fantasy with reality works especially well in conveying Paprika’s themes on dreams and the unconscious. Paprika’s tremendously surreal and absurd visuals, seamless transition between scenes, and incoherent babbles in some dialogues makes it all the more dreamlike and accurately portrays how thoughts and ideas are loosely mixed and intermingled together in the unconscious mind. Paprika has this enchanting effect, similar to Ghibli movies, where its art style or visuals alone is enough to get you to really enjoy the movie and feel its atmosphere without consciously understanding its themes.
However, now setting aside its sheer visual beauty and artistic cinematography, is Paprika merely a masturbation on charming animation techniques, or does it actually have a profound meaning? Does its exquisite aesthetics serve to genuinely convey a deeper meaning or artistic expression? What really are the themes that are explored in this visual masterpiece?
Starting from what is obvious, as I have mentioned previously, Paprika is undoubtedly a movie about dreams and thus also the unconscious. However, what exactly does it attempt to explore regarding dreams and the unconscious is what we are about to discuss here.
So before watching Paprika, I actually had the privilege to have familiarized myself with some Jungian psychology and it was really striking to see how the movie fits together quite perfectly when interpreted through that lens. I am thus writing this to explain my attempt on interpreting Paprika through the perspective of Jung’s theories on psychology.
Primer on Jungian psychology
Before we try to understand Paprika from the lens of Jungian psychology, let us try to first understand its fundamentals. The image below shows Jung’s model of the psyche, which consists of components such as the ego, persona, shadow, anima/animus, and the Self.
· Ego: The ego is your conscious self, your personality. It is what you feel and believe as what you are, but is not actually the whole entirety of you.
· Persona: The persona is the version of yourself that you project to the world. It is your social mask, what you want other people to perceive as what you are.
· Shadow: The shadow contains your repressed personality or character traits. It is the part of your psyche that you (your ego or consciousness self) refuse to accept or identify with and hence, it resides within the realm of your unconscious (you are not conscious that those personalities are part of you).
In some circumstances, the shadow is capable to subsume the ego and bring it under its control. This is what happens when a negative quality (e.g., pride, aggression) takes the better of you and possesses your conscious self.
People also have the tendency to project their shadow into someone else. Character deficiencies that reside in your shadow are usually one’s that irritate you the most when you observe them in someone else. For example, a conceited or narcissistic person would often be hyper-sensitive to others who are alike, and would often get irritated when seeing those qualities in other people.
· Anima / Animus: The anima and animus are particular archetypal parts of the shadow. The anima consists of repressed feminine qualities of a man while the animus consists of repressed masculine qualities of a woman. The anima/animus is unconscious or repressed as it is usually difficult for a man (especially a stereotypical one) to reconcile feminine qualities into his masculine personality and for a woman (especially a stereotypical one) to reconcile masculine qualities into her feminine personality.
As the anima/animus consists of character traits that are outside or not-reconciled with our ego, it is something unfamiliar, unknown, or exotic to us. With our natural curiosity and attraction into the exotic/unknown, combined with our biological attraction to the opposite sex (in most cases), people are observed to have some sort of sexual attraction to their anima/animus or the personification of it.
· Individuation and The Self: According to Jung, for one to become a higher, complete, or perfect version of himself, one needs to integrate the unconscious elements of his psyche into his conscious self. The ego needs to confront, encounter, and integrate the shadow and other unconscious elements of its psyche into itself. This completed version of oneself once a person’s conscious and unconscious elements have been united is called the Self (capital S). It is a representation of the psyche as a whole.
Opening scene
Now that we have laid out the fundamental concepts of Jungian psychology, let us attempt to interpret Paprika in light of this framework.
Paprika opens with a scene where one of its main character, detective Toshimi Konakawa, a typical 40–50-year-old serious-looking man, is given a therapeutic dream session by a Paprika, a youthful, playful, vivacious, and somewhat erotic short-haired teenage girl wearing red.
The dream starts in a circus with a very whimsical vibe. Konakawa seems to be looking for someone and Paprika warns him of a suspicious looking man which Konakawa claims as just an innocuous old friend. However, this suspicious looking man then traps Konakawa in a cage where he is then chased from the outside by different versions of himself.
The scene then quickly and seamlessly transitions into Konakawa, accompanied by Paprika, chasing this particular person through various iconic movie scenes.
Konakawa: “I let him get away again!”
Paprika: “Aren’t you the one who got away?”
From the last scene of the dream, it seems like the person Konakawa is chasing is a culprit of some sort of homicide case.
“But what about the rest of it?”
Paprika’s opening scene serves to lay out its central theme on unraveling and settling out one’s deep internal issues through a confrontation with one’s unconscious which is accessible through dreams. We learn from this opening scene that detective Konakawa is trying to work out a deeply rooted personal trauma or conflict connected to this person he is chasing in his dreams. From Konakawa’s dream, we can observe a few clues about Konakawa’s personality and situation: it seems like he has some sort of interest in movies, he is denying some sort of danger which causes him to be trapped in some sort of cage, and that Paprika seems to be trying to tell him in the dream that it was him who ran away instead of the person he is chasing (we will explain and discuss this later on). We can also clearly see from his interactions with her in his dream and from the very end of the scene that Konakawa has some sort of sexual attraction to Paprika.
Dreams and the Unconscious
Jung believes that dreams are the medium which the unconscious uses to communicate to us. This is why dreams are usually very abstract, unstructured, chaotic and feel like a stream of merely random things that are incomprehensible and does not have any meaning at all. The very reason that they are incomprehensible is that they are coming from the unconscious — if it were something concrete and comprehensible then it would already be within our consciousness instead.
“Don’t you think dreams and the internet are similar? They are both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents.”
-Paprika
Paprika’s atmosphere or overall vibe portrays this really accurately. In a lot of its dialogues, especially when characters are shown to be possessed by a dream, they uttered incoherent babbles, mixing together completely unrelated things in their sentences. This is similar to how everything is loosely intermingled together in our dreams and the unconscious.
“Thieves are not always wrong. Discipline calls for a search of the DC mini rather than Paprika’s bikini. This is true happiness. Even the five court ladies danced in sync to the frog’s flutes and drums. The whirlwind of the recycled paper was a sight to see, it was like computer graphics! That I don’t support technicolor parfaits and snobby petit bourgeois is common knowledge in Oceania. Now is the time to return home to the blue sky! The confetti will dance around the shrine gates. The mailbox and the refrigerator will lead the way! Anyone who cares about expiration dates will not get in the way of glory train! They need to fully realize the liver of triangle rulers! Now, this festival was decided by the third-grade class with the telephoto camera! Move forward! Come together! I am the ultimate governor!”
-Shima Torataroh
One particularly iconic scene from the movie, serves as a very representative example of how Paprika visually illustrates dreams. The scene shows a vibrant parade containing a stream of random objects — from household appliances, frogs playing musical instruments, to dolls, toys, robots, the human anatomy, samurais, the Buddha, the statue of liberty, Japanese shrines, planes, and countless more. This stream of random objects depicts how in our unconscious (and thus dreams) resides a vast sea of thoughts and ideas, from our mundane thoughts of ordinary life objects, our hobbies, to myths, religion, science, modern culture and ideologies which stirs and blends together in a chaotic and abstract way.
Personal Conflicts and the Jungian Shadow
Paprika’s story revolves around the internal conflicts of its characters, and their relationship with their unconscious, their shadow, and their anima. One of its main character, detective Konakawa, is shown from his dreams to have some conflict going on in his past. He seems to — for some strange reason — deny his interest in movies although it is clearly obvious that he has a passion for it.
It was hinted that the kernel to Konakawa’s internal conflict, resides in his unsolved homicide case that he kept dreaming about, something deeply buried in his unconscious. It was also clearly shown that Konakawa voluntarily avoids and is terrified of this part of his unconscious.
When forced by Parpika to confront it anyway, he discovers that he himself is both the murderer and the victim of this mysterious homicide case.
The camera then switches to a 3rd person view of Paprika & Konakawa reflecting on his dream while Konakawa’s face suddenly shifts to a younger version of himself.
Konakawa: “I’ve never thought of suicide”
Paprika: “Maybe it’s someone a lot like you”
Konakawa: “Like me?”
Paprika: “Or another you?”
Konakawa: “Another me?”
The scene reveals to us that Konakawa’s internal conflict has something to do with him killing another part of himself, his past self, which he tries to deny. Relating this to his denial of his passion for movies, we can start to get a sense of what probably happened in his past.
Another personal conflict that was touched on in the story is about Morio Osanai and his shadow. We were given a very clear example of a shadow projection during an early scene where Osanai claims that Himuro, Tokita’s assistant, was jealous of Tokita. It later became obvious that Osanai was the one who was jealous of Tokita. He then gets really irritated when Paprika exposes his shadow and the inner secrets which his ego denies.
“What would you know? You’re just a busy little man controlled by jealousy. You really think you can beat Tokita?”
-Paprika to Osanai
One other character that is quite interesting to point out is Tokita, the creator of the DC Mini, the machine in the story that enables people to access other people’s dreams. Although acclaimed as the genius of the century, Tokita is very childish and immature inside; he lacks any sense of responsibility. This character stereotype illustrates the fact that maturity does not necessarily follow intellect.
Chiba Atsuko to Kosaku Tokita: “You get busy with what you want to do, and ignore what you have to do. Don’t you understand that your responsibility costs lives?”
Kosaku Tokita: “Morals, responsibilities… I don’t really get this adults’ stuff
The Anima
Another Jungian concept that was illustrated quite apparently in Paprika is the anima. As explained previously, the anima is the unconscious or repressed feminine side of a man. The anima can manifest itself in dreams, usually as a personified female figure that is representative of a person’s repressed feminine qualities. More adult-like or mature characters like Toshimi Konakawa and Shima Torataroh are portrayed to have the sanguine and youthful Paprika as their anima. This may represent their repressed carefree or ebullient qualities as a consequence of being masculine, responsible, adult men. On the other hand, more childish or immature characters like Tokita and Osanai seem to have the more mature, serious, and highly responsible Chiba Atsuko as the representation of their anima, representing qualities that they lack.
*note: Paprika & Atsuko are two personalities of the same person. Atsuko is her real self while Paprika is a merry and joyful persona she uses for dream therapeutic sessions with her patients.
Konakawa and Shima is illustrated to have some sort of sexual attraction to Paprika:
Tokita & Atsuko:
Osanai prying open Atsuko from Paprika:
“Why do you dress like this girl? The real you is more befitting to me….
…I love you, I love you as you are”
-Osanai to Atsuko/Paprika
The Hero’s Adversary
If the archetype of the Jungian hero is one that integrates unconscious elements into the conscious (“slay the dragon of chaos” in Jordan Peterson’s terms), the adversary or the antihero is one that deliberately avoids or rejects this integration of the unconscious into the conscious.
Seijiro Inui, the company’s chairman and the main antagonist of the story, is the embodiment of the adversary archetype. He claims that dreams are sacred and are not to be touched by science and technology. He refuses the attempt to confront and understand the unconscious through dreams. He wants the ambiguous and unknown realm of the unconscious to stay unconscious or unknown, not wanting it to be integrated into the conscious or understood.
Seijiro: “This breath seethes in the joy of life. I will not allow arrogant scientific technology to intrude in this holy ground. The dreams are horrified that their safe refuge is destroyed by technology. In a world of inhumane reality, it is the only humane sanctuary left. That is a dream. That parade is full of refugees who were unwillingly chased out of reality.”
Atsuko: “You are collecting those with stolen technologies. Do you plan to take over the world of dreams?”
Seijiro: “I am protecting them. I am the guardian of dreams.”
One hypothesis on why Seijiro thinks or acts that way would be his condition as a cripple. He could not accept his reality as a disabled man and wants to find refuge in dreams. It is his illusionary sanctuary. This is quite hinted by the way Seijiro replaces his impaired legs with powerful wooden tentacles that enable him to walk and move in his dreams.
Osanai, which is revealed to be Seijiro’s henchman, is also possessed by Seijiro’s desire to escape from reality and take illusionary refuge in dreams. He could not bear the reality of his jealousy over Tokita (how he is inferior to him and how Atsuko prefers Tokita over him).
Paprika: “You’re just like an old baldy I know”
Osanai: “We are the chosen ones assigned to protect the sanctuary threatened by a technology that has lost its philosophy.”
Paprika: “You’re just twisted”
Osanai: “You should understand, dreams are so sacred they cannot be controlled.”
Paprika: “What would you know? You’re just a little man controlled by jealousy. You really think you can beat Tokita?”
Towards the end of the story, Seijiro transforms himself into an embodiment of non-reality or dreams, of chaos, of the unknown or the unconscious. Seijiro wants to control the world of dreams and become the emperor of this sanctuary from reality.
“I feel great! I am reborn! Look! I am standing! With my own legs! I am perfect! I can control dreams and even death! Now, to make the cosmos complete, I shall heal all deficiencies!”
Confrontation with the Unconscious
In order to finally resolve one’s deepest internal conflicts, one needs to confront the unconscious and integrate it into the conscious self (understanding). This confrontation with the unconscious is done in Paprika through diving into and exploring one’s dreams, embracing its darkest corners and alleys.
Konakawa’s journey in exploring his unconscious culminates when he remembered making an unfinished experimental short film about two best friends caught in a cop and fugitive chase, with flashbacks of their past playing throughout.
Bartender: “Do you not like the number 17? The conspirational 17. You’re familiar with movies as if you’ve made them before.”
Konakawa: “I did. I shot an independent on an 8mm. It was child’s play.”
Bartender: “When you were in high school?”
Konakawa: “When I was 17.”
Konakawa: “It’s a silly cop story. Two men who used to be best friends are now fugitive and cop engaged in a chase. They just keep running, and flashbacks of their past play throughout. That guy… How could I have forgotten about him? He was always one step ahead of me. He was smart and popular with the girls. I could never catch up with him. I was frustrated at myself for not being frustrated with him. He really was a god guy. We talked about making movies together. But I gave up, I didn’t have the confidence. I left the unfinished movie for him to deal with.”
Bartender: “And that friend now?”
Konakawa: “He died. He had just gotten accepted to film school, but he was sick. He didn’t tell me. I betrayed him. I was his partner. I was his counterpart. He was the other… The other me!”
Konkawa’s other self: “But what about the rest of it?!”
As he was remembering and reflecting on this short-film, Konakawa finally got into the realization that the person (the fugitive) he has been chasing was his other self, his idealized persona, what he had always wanted to be. At that moment, he understood that the internal conflict he has been having deep in his unconscious was the doubt of whether he had made the right decision in becoming a cop and giving up his dream and passion for making movies. He has been unconsciously denying this passion all along, repressing his former self as he is afraid of confronting the fact that he might have made the wrong decision, that he might have regretted what he had done.
However, in the end, he was satisfied with this realization. He had accepted his past and did not regret his decision to become a cop at all. He was content.
Konakawa’s other self: “You didn’t do anything wrong. You just lived out our movie in real life. That’s why you became a cop. It’s truth that came from fiction. Always remember that.”
This archetypal ‘heroic attempt’ of confronting the unconscious/unknown/chaos, triumph over it, and integrating it with the ego, the conscious/known/order, is symbolized in Paprika during the scene when baby Atsuko/Paprika swallows bits by bits of Seijiro (the embodiment of the unconscious/unknown/chaos/darkness) and growing more mature and mature as she swallows, absorb, or integrate more and more of Seijiro.
In one of the scenes during the denouement of the story, Shima asks Konakawa about his dream and Konakawa said that he has almost forgot about it, indicating that he does not dream about it anymore as it has been integrated into his conscious self and is not part of his unconscious anymore. He then looks up to the sky and sees a bright sun shining upon him, symbolizing his state of enlightenment.
At the very last scene of the movie, Konakawa is shown buying a ticket for a movie where he uttered the line “one adult, please”, indicating that he has matured over his internal conflict.
