ITALY: Japanese animation movie joins race for Golden Lion Award at Venice Film Festival

Record ID: 497980

  • Title: ITALY: Japanese animation movie joins race for Golden Lion Award at Venice Film Festival
  • Date: 4th September 2006
  • Summary: LIDO OF VENICE, VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 3, 2006) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SATOSHI KON, DIRECTOR OF 'PAPRIKA', SAYING "The relationship between technology and human beings is very important in this film, however I don't think that the problem is technology in itself ...technology can be used in a good way or a bad way, on the contrary the problem is the way in which technology is approached. I think here we have to be particularly considerate."
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA36MGFHH3N9H0YOOPCHR9A2SPZ
  • Story Text: "Paprika" is a complex animation film by Japanese director Satoshi Kon, based on the science fiction novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, which blurs the lines between dream and reality and keeps the viewer guessing as to whether the action is in a character's mind or actually supposed to be happening.
    The plot centres around a research scientist called Atsuko Chiba, whose alter ego is a stunning and fearless 18-year-old "dream detective" called Paprika. It focuses on a new invention called a "DC Mini" which is capable of exploring people's unconscious but is stolen by "dream terrorists" who want to use the device to take over the world.
    Kon said that creating the multi-layered plotline was as difficult as the manga animation work itself, and he added that one of the messages of the movie was not that technology was in itself a bad thing, but only how people treated new discoveries. If it falls into the wrong hands, it can be as harmful as helpful.
    "The relationship between technology and human beings is very important in this film, however I don't think that the problem is technology in itself ...technology can be used in a good way or a bad way, on the contrary the problem is the way in which technology is approached. I think here we have to be particularly considerate."
    Whilst in Hollywood traditional cartoons are as good as dead, in Japan animation is so closely linked to the manga comic tradition that they are not as interested in computer-generated images as in the West.
    "In the USA there is almost CGI technology now, but I think that's ok on the contrary in Japan what I saw produced in 3D SGI is not very convincing. It's something still quite artificial so for example for video games it's ok but not for animation in Japan. But we must also consider the importance of Manga, of comics, in Japan. If you see something written with Manga you see everything written by hand, also traditional drawings. If you try to turn these things into anime , transforming them through this technology it becomes a completely different thing. So I think it is also a problem of people who still love that kind of way of making drawings." said satoshi Kon.
    'Paprika' is in competition for the coveted Golden Lion award at the venice Film Festival.
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