“Paprika” is a novel by one of the greatest author in Japan Tsutsui Yasutaka (筒井康隆), which was also converted to an anime film, a story of a female psycho therapist named Chiba Atsuko becoming another character Paprika to heal patients before being dragged into the power game.

I really enjoyed watching this film without feeling no less than 148minutes of the running time, saying to myself “Am I in my dream? The sense of the time is changing…”

1. When the car (L1) is falling from the bridge, the hotel (L2) lost gravity, so why don’t L3 and L4 lost gravity too?

2. Why can’t Dom create a dream site to hold and play with his kids, of course in the US, if he really want to?

1. They won’t get old in lucid dream state, they can even change face and body, Eames is the pro of this

2. They get old only in limbo, so Satio got aged because he died to level 4 and is in limbo, Cobb didn’t get old, Cobb slept to level 4 and is in lucid dream state

3. Satio and Cobb wake up almost at end of the flight, effect of sedative is over, killing themselves can get back to reality

But, among the questions you raised. I would like to point out that, “Kick” is extremely important during the inception exercise. Do you remember, in Lv1 or normal dream, killing himself can bring back to real world. BUT, not applicable to Lv 2 or deeper level, and the movie never mentioned killing himself in Limbo can return back to real world.

I’m equally excited by this to-be the sci-fi classic of 2010s too.

Allow me to offer two pts that I noticed many audience haven’t noticed.

Let’s assume the entire Inception is a real exercise.

The scene of meeting between Cobb n the aged Saito provides critical clue to the mysterious ending.

A few leading questions will help ….
1. How old was the aged Saito? 80s or even 90s n it meant he has been trapped in limbo for some perhaps 40 or 50 yrs.
2. Where was aged Saito? He died in Level3 n therefore limbo was at Level4.
3. How long do u think Saito was trapped to experience aging? Going by the math, depending the time delay factor, I’d say another 8 hrs real time at least to produce that time effect.
4. Do they have that long time on the flight? Bear in mind, they’ve planned the 3 levels Inception exercise by utilising the flight time. There u r … u get the math right! If the meeting between Cobb n aged Saito really took place limbo, ie resulting from Saito got killed at the L3 dream (snowny castle). Sorry guys … the wake up scene n how Saito made phone call to clear immigration for Cobb could not possibly happen at real life. The flight time wasn’t long enough to allow that to happen. Therefore, the rest n the conclusion wasn’t at real life.

To satisfy yr curiosity, u may wonder why Cobb didn’t age? That was equally critical. After Cobb saying goodbye to Ariadne at L4 (when she was about to jump at the building edge with Fischer to provide a kick to bring back the dying Fischer … nb Fischer hasn’t died yet n that also explain how the Forger could bring Fischer back to L3 n continue the mission to open up Uncle’s secret. (I’ll come back on this pt later.)

Cobb must have found another way to provide a kick himself to come back L3 the Snowny castle, locate Saito, n enter his scrambled mind of limbo (Saito’s L4). This’ll explain why Cobb wasn’t aged. It’s reasonable to assume locating Saito in his limbo could take time from L3.

I concur that the aged Saito may have pulled the trigger to commit suicide in order to provide a needed kick to come back to life. He may be failed but that doesn’t matter. As I said, timeline won’t fit to real life.

Even we can’t be sure if aged Saito has killed himself or even Cobb, Saito n Cobb couldn’t possibly awakened in time.

My best guess is if Saito lucky enough to come back, this must hv happened sometime after landing at a hospital, like a coma patient awakens!

Another important not being mentioned at all, is the role of the Forger – Eames. He was v creative n could make things happened, eg magically take out a big gun at the garage in the L1 dream. Forger was “seeding” the message to Fischer while Fischer thought he was “extracting” from his uncle, but was turned out to be his own projection.

Therefore I tend to think the Inception exercise was a success n everyone came back except for Cobbn n Saito.

Enjoy … question?