Perfect Blue

"Perfect Blue" is a very, very dark anime...so don't let your kids watch it thinking it's like "Pokemon" or "Inuyasha"! It's also a confusing mind-bending sort of film...one that certainly is unique.

When the anime begins, Mima is in an up and coming pre-packaged Japanese girl bands. However, her agent convinces her to leave this life and pursue a career in films. But this way to success is very dark and soul-crushing and soon they have her in a film featuring a rape, lots of violence and nudity. All the while, Mima struggles with herself. She hates what she's doing but in the world of female pop stars and starlets, she feels a sense of obligation and won't publicly question the folks looking after her career. Now at this point, the film gets weird...really, really weird. Mima seems to be losing her mind and some murders occur...and soon the viewer is confused and they might be seeing the world through the eyes of a lunatic...or a killer! What's it all mean? See the film and TRY to unravel it all...but don't be surprised if you still are questioning what it all means.

This is a very clever film and its plot is deep and very strange...and I liked that. But be forewarned...the film shows some very sexually explicit and violent scenes...even by Japanese standards (the film features pubic hair...something very taboo in Japanese culture). Well done and worth seeing...but just don't let the kids see it or anyone who have been sexually abused as a few of the scenes just might be too intense.

Roger Corman is quoted as considering this a cross between Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, whilst others have referenced Argento and Lynch. Whilst I'm not particularly keen on any of these comparisons, it is certainly true to say that this film, even though it is animated, is much closer to live action than what we normally consider animation. There are times when you forget you are watching animation, the urban shots of Tokyo are mesmerising, and I have certainly never seen so much blood in an animated film. I was going to say violence but I guess there is plenty of that in a Tom and Jerry short. This, of course, is much harder edged and although it begins in pink, girlie, teen idol territory it is not there for long and there are delirious sequences towards the end when it will not only be the person on screen who is having an identity crisis!

Japanese animation has become a very popular style of animation in Western culture due to the wide range of genres it employs and its many different approaches to storytelling; two elements that immediately set it apart from the common Western style of cartoons that almost always are made for children only. Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue" quickly became a favorite among western fans of anime because it explored themes rarely seen in western animation; themes that had more in common with the horror genre such as obsessions, murders and suspense.

The story revolves around Mima (Junko Iwao), a young singer who is quickly becoming an idol as part of the musical trio "Cham". In order to make her career more marketable her managers make her leave the group and join the cast of a famous TV series. However, her new role is considerable different than the cute image she portrayed in "Cham", as it requires her to do nude scenes including a rape scene. At the same time she tries to adjust to her new job, someone begins to stalk her and to brutally kill those near her artistic career and Mima begins to wonder if she is really doing the right thing.

"Perfect Blue" is often labeled as a classic of Japanese animation because it presents a way different kind of story to those used to family-oriented animation. In is closer to an Italian Giallo than to a normal cartoon both in thematics and in style. The use of animation as a medium allows director Satoshi Kon to create stylish images of high surrealism as well as powerful images of violence. It is not something young children should watch.

Based on a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, the film offers an interesting and harsh criticism to the "idol culture" in Japan, and its exaggerated portrait of an obsessed fan is an extreme, yet hauntingly realist image of insane obsessions. The story has been labeled as "Hitchcocknian", but its lack of subtlety in terms of graphic violence and nudity, as well as its high level of surrealism puts it closer to the stylish Italian sub-genre of Giallo.

By keeping the story around Mima, Satoshi Kon creates haunting atmospheres of paranoia as Mima feels strange in her new career; while it sacrifices character development of the supporting characters, this approach increases the feeling of isolation and adaptation the story has, making a more effective horror/mystery piece. Like any Giallo, the haunting image of the mysterious stalker is always present, and in "Perfect Blue" the mystery and suspense are very well handled making the movie a great work of suspense.

The animation is very good, and not as flashy as casual anime fans would assume. The movie's mixture of realism and surrealism works very well with the style of drawing and the camera-work is brilliant. Still, while the plot at times gets a bit predictable to hardcore horror fans, it still holds up and keeps captivating from start to end. The original Japanese voice work is very good, so I would recommend watching it with subtitles instead of dubbed.

"Perfect Blue" seems flawless as motion pictures can go, and the odd choice of using animation as medium (it was originally meant to be a normal live action movie) makes it different than the rest. This is a blessing as neither anime fans nor horror fans have seen a quality animated horror movie like this before. 8/10

On the cover of this film, Roger Corman is quoted as saying "If Alfred Hitchcock partnered with Walt Disney they'd make a picture like this." He couldn't be more right.

The story is about a pop idol Mima, who is sheding her squeaky-clean image for that of an actress. Along the way, she is raped onscreen for a sleazy television show, and does a nude shoot for a men's magazine. This makes her dirty, as her old self tells her. She finds a web site detailing every intimate little detail in her life, and believes that she is being stalked by a strange man. Her personality splits in two, into herself and her old, clean, self which tries to murder her. While she is battling her old self, all of those who contributed to her downfall are being grusomely murdered.

This movie has been critisized by others on this very site, saying that the film was boring in the first 40 minutes. How wrong they are. In Hitchcock's films, (take Psycho for example) he builds up character for the first half-hour until the slashing. This does the same, because if we were not built up to believe that Mima's character is not real-i.e 3-dimensional, then we would feel no sense of loss and disorientation when all hell breaks loose in Mima's life (and the editing room).

A first class film with twists all the way. Should be seen by any movie fan with a mature mind. Even though it will probably collect dust in the anime section of the video store.

5/5

Only beaten in the anime stakes by Ghost in the Shell (2nd) and Akira (1st). Pure genius.

OK, this is definitely one anime movie that really has this creepy feel that clings to you as you watch. The animation is really good as characters and movements appear so life-like, it seems like reality. There's definitely the theme of 'identity' and Mima's difficulty distinguishing reality from illusion. Her paranoia and fear tends to grab your attention and as she asks questions, you ask the same ones. I thought the film also played well with celebrity infatuation and the price of fame. It really had a lot going for it and the different camera angles give a very dreamy, mysterious atmosphere. One great shot is the zoom out from Mima's apartment. I could've sworn that was a real city.

"Who are you?" sums up this movie. What a film. By the way, CHAM's song is really catchy.