Perfect Blue

Mima Kirigoe is an idol singer, part of a moderately successful trio called Cham. Since the career life of these singers is, at best, a matter of a few years, Mima has decided to leave Cham to try her hand at being an actress. She lands a part in 'Double Bind,' a suspense thriller that will test her commitment in many ways, putting her in situations that some of her old fans find uncomfortable. This explodes into her life in a big way when Mima finds an internet website that purports to be written by her.

Whoever is writing the site knows too much about what Mima is going through, and she finds herself stalked by an unhappy fan that has developed a fixation on her. Soon people are dying in gruesome circumstances, and Mima becomes more and more confused about whom she really is and what is real. First time director Satoshi Kon is merciless, making sure that the viewer gets few clues about which reality is real and whether what one sees is in 'Double Bind,' 'Perfect Blue,' or in Mima's mind alone.

This is really a remarkable piece of work. Great care is put into artistic and musical values. It has striking graphic qualities without the viewer ever getting the feeling that the images are overwhelming the story. In addition, I particularly like the imaginative use of color. Of course, the use of music is particularly important in a film about Japanese popular entertainment figures, and Kon makes sure that the film lives up to aural expectations.

This is a rough, gripping film. Violence, murder, and rape are depicted with the deliberate intention of making the watcher uncomfortable. It skirts the edge of being offensive, and is sometimes classified as hentai - animated pornography. It isn't by my standards, but 'Perfect Blue' is graphic enough to offend some people. Take this into consideration before deciding to watch.


Breaking new ground   November 23, 2003
Miguel B. Llora (Honolulu, Hawaii USA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

A movie like this makes us question the limits of our own consciousness. It allows us to explore in a space not our own, the endless possibilities and the demons lurking within the human psyche - and alerts us to the reality of what it is we do not know. We should be scared of what we are capable of, not to mention to celebrate our potential. One of the good things about anime is that the simulation seems less real, since it is in this "invented" space. I'm not trying to downplay the effect - as I feel that the impact on the viewer is no less real - just merely stating an observation. Let this not fool you, I am not that naive - anything in cinema is a simulation, sometimes a simulacra, of reality. However, despite the impact being as real, the images - no matter how explicitly sexual or graphically violent - are not as "real" as in motion pictures. I most certainly don't expect too much of a buy-in on that last comment. However, images seem more sanitized and we don't need to spend so much of the budget on scenes and the potential for good is astronomical. I guess that is why I endorse this genre. I'm as confused about the sexuality and violence as anyone. The Jody Fosteresque traumatic rape scene (ala The Accused) borders on the exploitive. Perfect blue flirts beyond anime at times bordering on hentai.

The story is a simple one but the execution is not. Mima Kigiroe is a struggling entertainer with a bevy of loyal fans. She starts her career as a singer and transitions into a career in acting. Her entree into this world is a series called Double Bind - of which the subtlety was not missed on me. As yes, the seemingly disjointed story evolves, Mima (as well as the viewers) reality begins to collapse. I have to admit, I was lost several times while watching the movie, about what was reality and what was fantasy, as if the writer purposefully wanted me, the viewer to emulate the sense of utter confusion that Mima was going through. Was it successful? Absolutely! Anyway, coupled with the ever present updates on a website called Mima's Room - we are presented with (as Mima is) with several apparitions. Mima is forced to utter (in a moment of epiphany) that someone sure knows her. For the resolution (or lack thereof) you will need to watch the movie yourself.

What is really "cool" about Perfect Blue particular anime is that it does not fit into one of the many popular categories of anime already out there. It neither fits into the post-apocalyptic strata of an Akira or Ghost in the Shell nor is it romantic (in the Byronian sense) as say something coming out of Hayao Miyazaki. Perfect Blue cuts new ground. Japanese have, for a long time, been interested in psycho-thrillers and the good detective story. What with the popularity of writers like Matsumoto Seicho (Points and Lines - also available on Amazon.com) as well as Sogo Ishii (Angel Dust - also available on Amazon.com) is proof positive of the popularity of mystery and suspense. Make no mistake it is an adult psycho thriller. Having said all that, I am hopeful that this movie is not representative of modern Japan. As a critique of the excesses of voyeurism as well as the sadistic and misogynistic excesses of some manga, Perfect Blue stands head and shoulders above all the other anime features. Is it reflective of Japanese pop culture? On what ground and under what context, that still has to be further explored. Not to belabor the point, for the resolution (or lack thereof) you will need to watch the movie yourself.

Miguel Llora


Reality and fantasy become blurred for former pop idol Mima   January 26, 2003
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

For the first half of "Perfect Blue" I was wondering why this 1999 film, based on the novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, had to be an anime. It seemed to me that director Satoshi Kon was simply trying to show that anything a "real" motion picture could do could be done by anime. After all, "Perfect Blue" is devoid of mythical creatures or futuristic settings, so why bother to use animation to tell the story? But by the end I was too caught up in trying to figure out what was really going on to matter, and when you are talking about a psychological thriller that it as much more important consideration than whether the film is photographed or drawn. Even if the story is rather conventional by anime standards, Kon does take advantage of the medium to tell the story with artistic flair.

The basic story of "Perfect Blue" is nothing new at its heart, but that is hardly a concern. Mima Kirigoe (voiced in the Japanese language version by Junko Iwao and in English by Ruby Marlow) decides to give up being a plastic pop idol to be a serious actress on a television police drama about a serial killer (although the writer has no clue who the killer is at this point). These major career change sets two things in motion for our heroine: First, she has to try to accept the new Mima, who has to endure a rape scene on the show and shooting a nude layout for publicity. Second, she has a fan (Uchida in Japanese, but Mr. No-Mania in English) who does not like the radical change in the objective of his obsession. The link between the two at first is "Mima's Room," a website he has set that reveals far more about her than anyone should know. But then they share something even more disturbing in common: Mima the pop idol starts "visiting" them both and while Mima is degraded by her past self for having sunk so low, her fan is being told the new Mima is a fake who needs to be removed from the picture.

What happens then is a collapse of reality, both from the psychological perspective of Mima and the viewing perspective of the audience. People who have harmed Mima in some way start showing up dead and the lines between reality and fantasy become totally obliterated. The result is not only disorienting, but also totally compelling. I have seen lots of films like this where I am supposed to put myself in the shoes of the main character as such reality and fantasy become indistinguishable, but few of them succeed as well as the last act of "Perfect Blue." There is a point where Mima wonders if maybe she was hit by a truck she avoided at one point in the story because she can no longer remember the last moment in her life she knew to be real. The paranoia of both Mima and the audience becomes complete.

The animation is rather simplistic, but still provides the stylized realism of detailed drawings that makes anime visually compelling. Kon takes advantage of the medium throughout the film in ways that would never have occurred to the director of a "regular" film. There are also certain scenes, as when the stalker Mr. Me-Mania hears his beloved target Mima talk to him as she speaks from every picture of her he has plastered on his wall, that certainly work a lot better as animation. The revelation of the truth during the climatic scene is actually done so subtly that I almost did not catch it.

To return to my original question as to why "Perfect Blue" was made as an anime, I have to wonder if there is some sort of taboo regarding nudity in Japanese films. I have no idea. But I know that in the hands of a western director this story could have easily descended to the level of an exploitation film. The end becomes something anticlimactic, but given the torturous web that was constructed I doubt any ending could be totally fulfilling. Besides, there is something to be said for the ironic commentary of Mima's goodbye.

The DVD includes a clip of the "real" CHAM trio recording their song in the studio and access to a faux Mima's Room web site. There are also brief interview clips with some of the vocal talent on both sides of the ocean and a rather disappointing chat with director Kon, who seems unable to offer any insights into this production. "Perfect Blue" is an ambitious anime that succeeds well enough in the second half to forgive any faults in the first. Thanks to Marc Ruby for the heads up on this one.