Deadline: The live-action adaptation of the movie "Paprika" will be directed by Yan Yuqian

According to Deadline, "Birds of Prey" director Cathy Yan will serve as the executive producer and director of the live-action adaptation of the animated film "Paprika" based on the original novel of the same name.

Paprika (Japanese: パプリカ) is a Japanese animated film released in 2006. It was directed by animation director Satoshi Kon. The plot was adapted from the science fiction novel of the same name by Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui, but the content was changed and greatly simplified. The protagonist of this film is Dr. Atsuko Chiba, a psychotherapist. Her research institute invented a dream machine that can enter dreams. However, the device that uses the dream machine was stolen. In order to avoid a disaster, Atsuko and her incarnation "Paprika" in the dream began to track down the murderer.

The original novel was published in a magazine in the 1990s. Because the live-action film project was difficult to produce, the author Tsutsui approached Kon Satoshi in 2003 and asked him to adapt it into an animation. Kon Satoshi was deeply influenced by Tsutsui's works, so he readily accepted. The theme of this film is "dream and reality", so Kon Satoshi tried to present the feeling of dreams during the conception stage. As a result, because of his eagerness to achieve perfection, the production of the storyboard was seriously overdue. The animation production of this film was handled by MADHOUSE in accordance with the convention of Kon Satoshi's works. In terms of technology, in addition to hand-drawn animation, it also combines computer graphics (CG).

This film is Kon Satoshi's fourth animated film after Blue Fear (1997), Millennium Actress (2002) and Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and the last work he completed before his death in 2010. The film premiered at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival in Italy on September 2, 2006, and was then released in Japanese theaters on November 25 of the same year. The film received positive reviews from domestic and foreign critics, who praised the plot, visual presentation, animation level and soundtrack, but some criticized the plot and boring pictures.