Perfect Blue

J-pop idol group CHAM! has spent the last two years entertaining its fans. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and CHAM! must see one of its members, Mima Kirigoe, leave the group to pursue her acting career. While Mima's choice is met with a mixed response, she hopes her fans will continue to support her.

However, Mima's life begins to change drastically after her departure from the group. Wanting to shed her pop-idol image, she takes on a role in a crime drama series, and her career as an actress gradually becomes more demanding and taxing for both Mima and her manager, Rumi Hidaka. To add to Mima's growing unease, an obsessed fan who is incapable of accepting that Mima has quit being an innocent idol, begins stalking her; a new anonymous website begins to impersonate her life with intricate detail; and CHAM! also appears to be doing better without her. One by one, each disturbing development drives Mima to become increasingly unhinged and unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigoe, Mima Main

Iwao, Junko Japanese

Uchida, Mamoru Supporting

Ookura, Masaaki Japanese

Hidaka, Rumi Supporting

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Sakuragi Supporting

Hori, Hideyuki Japanese

Murano Supporting

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Rei Supporting

Niiyama, Shiho Japanese

Mima Fan C Supporting

Doi, Tadashi Supporting

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Blue Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Actor Supporting

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Inoue, Hiroaki Producer

Kon, Satoshi Director, Script, Character Design

Reviews

Sep 24, 2007

Venneh

Recommended

Title: Perfect Blue

Novel, Anime: Perfect Blue was originally a novel written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. When, I'm not really sure; there's not a lot of information about it.

The movie itself was done by Oniro, directed by Satoshi Kon, and was released in 1997.

Story: The story is centered around Mima Kirigoe, the lead member of a pop trio who's decided to go solo as an actress. Her small recurring role in a direct-to-video series ends up turning into a big break, but the part and a subsequent photo shoot involves... compromising situations, to say the least. On top of all this, she's ... got a stalker that knows every intimate detail about her life and is posting it on the Internet. And then the murders start, and her sanity starts fraying...

This film was Satoshi Kon's big break, and you know why when you watch it. The line between reality and fantasy blurs more and more as the film goes on, and you wonder if it's either all in her head, part of the direct-to-video series, or for real. And you will be scared. I was watching this in broad daylight in my dorm on move-in day for the returning students, and I was still scared out of my wits. And the plot twists. My god, the plot twists. In general, the plot is going to blow you out of the water.

As for faithfulness to the original, I've found tidbits that said that Kon didn't think that the original novel would make a good film, and so he asked permission from Takeuchi to change things. He got the permission, so long as the original story concepts were intact. For those who were looking for a faithful adaptation, there is a live-action film called Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete that was released in 2002 and directed by Toshiki Sato.

You can tell how old the film is, though, when the main character is trying to figure out how to use a computer/the Intarnet. xD

WARNING: There is rape, there is detailed nudity, there is very graphic violence, and lots and lots of blood. I'm not kidding when I say that you should only be watching this if you're over 17. Kiddies, and those who are squeamish, stay far away from this movie.

Art: This film was done back in '97, so yeah, the style's going to look a bit dated. But when you compare the animation with other shows that were airing about the same time (Pokemon, Sailor Moon StarS, to name a few), it doesn't seem to be quite as good as it possibly could be. The main reason for that was that during production, the Kobe earthquake hit the production studio (Madhouse), and the film's budget was reduced from one for a live-action movie to that of an OVA. Not the greatest art out there during the time, but given the situation that they had to work with, it's still pretty decent.

Music: The pop numbers that Mima's trio does (CHAM!) are pretty catchy. And the other music that's played only heightens the suspense. Pretty good, overall.

Seiyuu: As usual, no problems here. Mima's seiyuu is outstanding (she later went on to play Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura, Ceres in Ceres: Celestial Legend, and Akane in My-HiME (Higurashi), My-Otome and My-Otome Zwei (Soir)).

Dub: N/A, didn't watch it.

Length: I honestly don't know what more they could've done with this film; the film wraps up at close to an hour and a half. (Actually, knowing Kon, maybe I don't want to know.) And it seems just right, because of the fast pace that it clips along at, while still managing to make sure that everything that the audience needs to understand is included.

Overall: An amazing, if not perfectly animated, psychological thriller that will have you wondering just what's real here and clinging to your nearest cuddly.

Story: 10/10
Art: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Length: 10/10

Overall: 44/50; 88% (B)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 8, 2009

Maur

Mixed Feelings

Anyone familiar with Satoshi Kon is probably also already familiar with what would make this movie intriguing. His works have a real appeal to fans of the surreal. It can be very mentally and visually stimulating. I've enjoyed other things by Kon, and I was really beginning to like this movie, however, by the end I had several problems with this film...

Perfect Blue tries way too hard to synchronize the psychosis of multiple characters, all the while being far too vague about filling the viewer in on this objective. The result being an overtly complex attempt at immersing the viewer in utter confusion. The movie ... does a thorough job of making it literally impossible for most (any?) people to figure out whose psychosis they are witnessing. The juxtaposition of reality with dreams, fantasies, hallucinations, and apparently even premonitions, make for a potently perplex cocktail. I'm not sure why the movie prolongs the ambition of remaining so intentionally and completely vague, but even by the end of multiple viewings some things remain unclear. Perhaps there is some secret demand for this kind of gross ambiguity I'm not aware of, but it strikes me as inconsistent imagination or lazy writing -- or worse, pretentious writing. Like, "Oh, look at how confusing and misleading I can be. You'll never figure this out."

In general, Perfect Blue is fun to watch just for the surreal visual elements. It has very nice use of colors (darks, lights, illumination, etc.) and some trippy scenes. As a whole however, for me personally, this enjoyment was countered by the movies refusal to allow the audience to be able to discern reality from illusion. Now of course, I don't want to have things spelled out for me. I enjoy having my perception toyed with as much as the next person, but by the end of a movie, especially after watching more than once, I expect to at least have some grasp on what was "really" going on. Otherwise I just feel confused and frustrated wondering what the point to the whole thing was. Maybe with Perfect Blue that was the point...

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 5, 2020

WaifuLoser

Not Recommended

Satoshi Kon was certainly an interesting individual, this is easily witnessed in any of the interviews he participated in, or in any of the numerous philosophical quotes he spewed out. I legitimately would have loved to meet the man, have a nice leisurely chat about various topics, I wish I got the chance to analyze such a unique person's brain and thought patterns, unfortunately he passed away too soon, so my dream will be unfulfilled. The reader of this review might be wondering as to the relevance of this entire introduction in regards to my review of "Perfect Blue", quite simply, I am stating that ... I respect this man's intellectual gift and talent, while I never actually liked really any of his catalog, I would be lying if I said that his concepts weren't intriguing on paper. However, at the same time, I would be also lying if I claimed that I thought any of his films, especially "Perfect Blue" are actual good pieces of media. As much as Mr.Kon was a bright mind taken far too soon, he wasn't exactly a great director, getting by purely on his ideas, as opposed to actual solid directing, plot construction and general cohesion. Sadly, in my eyes, "Perfect Blue" is nothing more than a fantastic premise muddled in poor cohesion, superficial messages, and pretentious screenplay.

Considering the film was so heavily promoted on the concept of what is real and what isn't, it is hard to gauge what events are actually occuring, or if quite frankly none of it is real. However, I will get to that later, I want to focus on the one clear message the film does have, which is the criticism that it presents towards the superficial pop idol/Japanese media in general. "Perfect Blue" clearly shows the unhealthy infatuation that goes into Japanese pop culture, many Japanese throw away any semblance of normal social life in order to feverishly follow media trends, people involved in media, such as pop idols and actors or fictional Anime characters. They live lives that are missing social interaction and affection, they have a void in their hearts, a void of love and a feeling of being wanted. They are shunned by society due to a variety of different reasons, as a result they turn to more desperate measures to sustain themselves. One instance as the film clearly depicts, is a man that can only be described as hideous, a man who obviously has a struggling or even non-existent social presence, finds salvation in the main character Mina, or to be more accurate, the pop idol facade Mina portrays. Living life full of hardship, causes people to search elsewhere, for that perfect love, that ideal person who will not judge them for who they are, for this man, its the pop idol Mina, her songs uplift his spirit, she is beautiful, kind and meek. Everything that a lonely man would desire, the issue of course, is that Mina is just a character, a character put out by Japanese companies to make money, a superficial facade, in reality Mina is just another person with flaws like any other. This message is explored throughout the film, however I disagree with the way that Satoshi Kon handled it, I feel the character dynamics were far too simplistic to fully demonstrate the complexity of this social issue/phenomenon. The man who is infatuated with Mina, is portrayed as being hideously ugly, monster-like, which I feel was intentional, since Satoshi Kon had a constant theme of having any unlikable/undesirable characters look utterly putrid. I am pretty sure this was done to visually symbolize the horror that is the unhealthy infatuation this man represents, but at the same time it undermines that entire group. Portraying them all as disgusting psychopaths with no empathy, which is far from the case.

The film while supposed to be this deep look into an unhealthy part of Japanese sub culture comes off as nothing more than a biased, one-sided examination. To me it would far more powerful and intense for the viewer, if that character was normal-looking and seemed innocent. Allowing the viewer to drop their guard, making for the eventual scares to have more of an impact as the viewer will not expect it, however with him looking the way he does, the film becomes predictable that this character is not a character, but just a creepy monster representing a biased view of a ostracized part of the population in Japan. The reason it bothers me so much, is because it doesn't give insight to why people fall into this type of behavior and what could be done about it, the creepy monster is only presented as a psychopath with no redeeming qualities, nothing more than a cartoon villain, it would have much more emotional weight to the audience if we learned about why he became that way, and how Mina turned into his savior, a martyr of sorts. Instead, all we get is a demonizing portrayal of a vulnerable group of people, who while of course some of them will be dangerous and go too far in their obsessions, (just like "regular people") quite a number of them are just harmless people who need to be showed support and care, not be dragged through the mud in a biased piece of media.

Now comes the part of the film that basically plays out like a mediocre high school art class, where the teacher would put up on the projector a simplistic, worthless piece of art with a very broad theme and topic. Afterwards, she would ask you, what themes and potential interpretations do you see in the work, "Perfect Blue" is pretty much that in a nutshell. The concept of value and meaning in work is nothing but a subjective farce, any piece of work can be interpreted by an individual to have numerous meanings or cultural significance, society has built up so many different cultural values and symbols that practically any piece of work can be made to seem to be filled to the brim with symbolism, when in reality it is nothing more than symbolism by accident, being confirmed by individuals with their own cultural experiences, values and symbology, essentially putting value into work that was not there to begin with. The essence of arrogance and self-righteous that humanity constantly displays, the need to feel that we are above the other simple life-forms on this planet, when in reality we are nothing but bumbling self-conscious fools. "Perfect Blue" is exactly that, with no concrete structure or proper evidence to showcase if anything being presented on screen has actual meaning or purpose. Instead, the film plays out as a number of scenes put together in order to confuse the viewer, to question what is real or not, making it seem that the film is vast and deep in nature, when in reality the viewer has no chance to put this puzzle together, because there is no puzzle, I would go as far to say that Satoshi Kon himself doesn't know what the plot actually is, because this movie is not about Mina, its not about making a solid film, its about putting in as much symbolism and philosophical ramblings into various scenes, this is simply Mr.Kon's video entry showcasing the inner workings of his thoughts and the various complicated philosophical and ideological issues he was struggling with, too bad this is not an essay, presentation or a non-fictional work discussing these things, this is supposed to be a Animated film, with a plot, a sense of structure and character, "Perfect Blue" has none of that, because none of that mattered in its production, as gifted as Mr.Kon was, he focused too much on inputting his own personal ideas into his work as opposed to just simply making a piece of media that was fundamentally sound.

The reason I am so harsh on this film, is because Satoshi Kon had talent, problem was it was misdirected, the lavish praise he received from news outlets and fans didn't help matters, not allowing him to realize the muddled mess he created, reflecting on it and improving on his actual direction. Numerous theories about the actual plot of the film are plentiful on the internet, the issue with all the theories is none of them are solid, each one has gaping plot holes or illogical character behavior. For instance, if everything that happened to Mina was true, the fact that the police did not get involved is a total farce, and utterly laughable, she is connected to every murder victim, yet the studio never shuts down due to the tragedies and the police aren't immediately ringing at her doorbell asking questions is absurd. It also showcases missed opportunities for the film to actually be scary, after another murder, Mina finds in her closet bloody articles of clothing, immediately after the media are knocking at her door. What would have been actually scary is if that was the police, it would make sense and be a natural progression in terms of intensity, she discovers evidence that could convict her of a crime, the moment she finds it the police are at the door, the audience would be on the edge of their seat, anticipating how Mina will handle the upcoming critical situation. But no, that doesn't happen, instead the media barge into her home, with no police presence anywhere, and the scene lasts only 5 seconds, a pointless throw-away scene with no sense of thrill.

Now one might be asking, well what if she was simply mentally ill, and most of the film was just illusions by a person suffering from some sort of severe mental disorder. Again, the film does not have enough sufficient evidence to conclude any theory one way or the other, of course by now we realize it was meant to be this way, but I just find that notion to be a cope out for poor writing and cohesion. Going back to the example of interpretation, since as the viewer we are given nonsensical sequences one after the other, almost any interpretation is valid, really only being limited by one person's imagination and creativity. In fact, I pose a theory, the entire film is actually a movie within a movie. Some people might gawk at that notion and find it absurd, but is it really?, just like the concept of adding value to a piece of work when in reality there is none. The film is so open-ended with no sense of cohesion, any theory can be viewed as acceptable in order to explain what occurs in "Perfect Blue". This is exactly why, I don't find this film "deep", its lazy storytelling and directing, instead of creating a movie with a clear plot and structure, adding in meaning, symbolism, ideology and any other dissections of social behavior. Instead, what we are given is a film with poor structure, disguised as being purposely deceiving, in order for the audience to question what is happening, in reality what that is, is making the audience do all the work, coming up with theories, meanings and values that are not there to begin with. Putting value into a piece of work that doesn't have any value, that is "Perfect Blue" described in one statement, it is a lazy piece of work, that has garnered praise for not what it did, but for what other people who are desperate to be viewed as intellectually gifted perceived it to be.

As for the rest of the technical aspects of the film, Madhouse did a pretty mediocre job animating, their a much better looking Animated full-length features around this era. Key frames look okay, and any shots with little movement maintain decent quality, however the moment alot of movement is present, art quality drops to laughable levels. The music is fine if uninspired, reason being is I found the soundtrack to be very similar to the game series "Clock Tower", which coincidentally was released only a few years prior. In conclusion, I respect Satoshi Kon as a person, I don't think he was a good director, he had good ideas that unfortunately became a muddled mess with no direction. "Perfect Blue" is sadly no different, a overrated Anime film that while intriguing at times, falls flat on its face.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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