Tong: Perfect Blue Review

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Satoshi Kon's 'Perfect Blue' is one heck of a film! It's a psychological thriller that focuses on the life of an ex-pop star-turned-actress. Though 'Perfect Blue' is a "cartoon," it presents highly involving real-world themes regarding celebrities, their expected roles in society, and much, much more.

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Mima Kirigoe used to be part of a Japanese pop trio, called 'CHAM!', until she decided she wanted to move her career onto acting.  Her decision receives split feedback from her fans. One fan in particular, Uchida, is obsessed with Mima and stalks her every move. As Mima chooses controversial things to do, such as act in a rape scene and posing nude for a magazine, some believe her image is being tarnished, especially Uchida. While all of this is happening, a website called "Mima's Room" gains popularity on the internet, and its posts detail aspects of Mima's life very closely.

The first half of 'Perfect Blue' is, for the most part, straightforward. We see Mima making arguably wrong career moves, and slowly descend into mental instability. When the psychological aspect of 'Perfect Blue' kicks in, that's when the film truly becomes great. Why the film succeeds in its psychological thrills is due to the fact that director Satoshi Kon ('Paprika' & 'Millenium Actress') executes 'Perfect Blue' so well. We the audience experience the paranoia and confusion Mima goes through because the film puts us in her position. We see everything Mima sees, which tend to be out of context and unexplained. 'Perfect Blue' frequently cuts between Mima's real life, the character she portrays on her television show, her dreams, and her delusions, as if they were all one in the same. Satoshi goes from one reality to another seamlessly, and it definitely pays off with the film becoming a highly involving psychological thriller.

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'Perfect Blue' displays something that happens quite often in real life. Regular people these days seem to be involved in the lives of celebrities, though from a distance. People make a great deal over what a celebrity is wearing one day, or what he or she is eating, their personal relationships, their drama, etc. There's gossip and more gossip over every single aspect of a celebrity's life, and people obsess over it. Celebrities are really just regular human-beings, too, who just happent to entertain for a living. And what's worse is when celebrities do something bad, people go nuts and start ostracizing them. Celebrities are just people, too, but we make them out to be greater than us. We want them to be perfect, and do-no-wrong. And I'm sure celebrities try to keep their images perfect, and to set good examples for their fans and other people. But when they make mistakes, they all-of-a-sudden become enemies and receive heavy back-lash from us "regular people." 'Perfect Blue' demonstrates this in Mima's career choices, such as when she leaves her pop group. Her fans are disappointed, and some even go crazy when she (according to them) tarnishes the "Mima Image" by playing in rape scenes and posing nude. The people want Mima to go back to singing, and only singing. But Mima doesn't want to do just that, so in the end Mima gets into deep trouble because she's not doing what her fans want.

Celebrities are also treated as products frequently, also demonstrated in 'Perfect Blue'. Mima's managers argue and debate over what Mima should and shouldn't do in her career, though it's ultimately up to Mima to decide.

'Perfect Blue' is an extremely well-executed psychological thriller by the great anime director Satoshi Kon, and one of the best anime films I'd ever seen. The film is very provocative and spirals out of control, which is a good thing.

Extra Notes:

• 'Perfect Blue' is a lot like last year's 'Black Swan' (my review), which was one of the best films of 2010. In fact,  'Black Swan' director Darren Aronofsky admits similarities between the two films, though he mentions he wasn't technically inspired by 'Perfect Blue'. Both films feature a central female character who slowly lose their minds as their professional careers progress, and both films do a great job at depicting reality and delusions as one-in-the-same, and have rewardingly tricky third acts.
• Here's a song that slightly relates to 'Perfect Blue':