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[ninety6tears]

So I watched Paprika! If you don't know, it's an anime film (based on a book) that sorta did the Inception thing first with a plot that involves the ability to enter/observe other people's dreams. The funny thing is that one of the things I pondered when walking out of Inception is the usefulness that shared dreaming could have in psychotherapy; the device in Paprika was primarily developed for that purpose, though of course in both movies the technology is abused.
There are, I think, intentional homages in Inception to a couple scenes in Paprika, but Inception ran with the heist film concepts (quite well) and only the individual characters' experiences while Paprika contemplates quite a bit more how much of a game changer that kind of technology would be in the realm of everything from science to philosophy. It's also way more psychedelic in how far it goes with the dreamscapes, almost to the point that you have a hard time believing anyone could have dreams quite that insane. I have an unlucky streak with finding highly hyped anime films very boring, but I enjoyed this one.

I took a crazy-long break from True Blood after getting over halfway through season one probably over a year ago, but I've gotten back into the swing of marathoning it. My god, this cracked out show. It's so hilarious and ridiculous but I always hesitate to say it's really camp because it does handle a lot of the dramatic moments really well. Season 3 made me all pouty though, because suddenly a lot of characters I liked were being dicks (in ways I felt should have been done earlier than the third season?), and Tara just never gets a break from her life generally sucking, and dammit I hate/love Eric friggin' Northman and his stupid charisma and his stupid pastel sweaters.

Comments

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

I agree, all the extended development would be awesome if all the characters were equally interesting, but I feel like the show spends a lot of time on characters I don't really care about and sometimes am not even supposed to find very likable. It's gotten to the point where I'm sighing at every new server at Merlotte's or whatever because all the new characters get a little tiring. But at the same time the show is so addictive...I don't know.

[mutantjules.livejournal.com]

I love Paprika! :D

my girl Janet is saying I should watch at least the first season of True Blood. Dammit. My show-carrying apparatus is approaching critical mass

[jolinar-rosha.livejournal.com]

Paprika sounds very interesting. Have you ever seen The Cell? They had a similar device, which wasn't about entering dreams but someone else's head, and it was actually used in psychotherapy (to begin with, though it's later also used to extract information). It's an extremely interesting - and extremely scary too - concept in all these films.

ooh True Blood. I love that series so much - it's so weird and crazy. And Eric Northman is just amazing. He's such a bastard, but you can't help liking him (I think it's because he exhibits sudden kindness/thoughtfulness/niceness when you least expect it). And at least, he never hid anything about himself.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

I have seen The Cell, but it's been a very long time. I've kinda been meaning to rewatch it since I fell in love with The Fall which is by the same director.

I started off wondering why fandom was so into Eric, but he's pretty cool :D And I was so sad for him when Godric died!

[jolinar-rosha.livejournal.com]

Godric was so cool, I actually cried when he died. And yeah, I think that was when I really started to love Eric, seeing how emotional he was over his creator's fate.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

I hope there are more flashbacks with Godric (I'm at the beginning of S5)...or really more flashbacks with Eric in general.

Oh, and thanks for the balloons :D

[jolinar-rosha.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know about further flashbacks, I'm waiting till the finale is out before I start on season 5 (because I tend to watch the entirety of each season in 3 days :P).

Heee, Happy Birthday! :D