Perfect Blue
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DVD Review
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Review
Mima was part of successful, three-girl pop group when her manager decided that it would be good for her career if she quit and went into acting before the pop bubble bursts. Not entirely happy with the idea but, manipulated all her life and eager to please, she agrees to do it - a decision that doesn't go down well with one particular fan.
Given a role in a TV psychodrama, the pressures of her new career begin to tell and when she discovers a web site called Mima's Room that describes intimate details of her everyday life, things get steadily worse and she regularly sees a mysterious figure stalking her from the shadows. When her role gets seedier and she's persuaded to pose for girlie magazines, some of the people responsible for her debasement are brutally murdered.
All of this has a devastating effect on Mima, whose grip on reality slips, descending her into a dangerous world of depression and paranoid delusions. However all is not as it seems and she must struggle back from the brink of insanity in order to stay alive.
Review
Adapted from Oshikazu Takeuchi's thrilling suspense novel set in Tokyo during the nineties, Perfect Blue deviates from the traditional realms of über-violence and science fiction storylines that are usually associated with the anime genré. This film deals with fairly adult themes and analyses the Japanese media idol phenomenon, the associated fame and its psychological impact on the performer. On top of all this is a solid psycho thriller where the tension builds steadily towards the somewhat shocking conclusion.
The plot is excellent and Hitchcock himself wouldn’t have been ashamed to call it one of his own. It portrays the life of a Japanese media star, manipulated by her agents, TV producers, a sleazy photographer and her fans until the inevitable happens and she cracks under the strain. The plot misdirection is very well handled and I even lost track of what was real and what was not myself as it got closer to the ending.
For the picture and sound – as with most anime, colours are pretty solid, which tends to give a flattish appearance to elements such as hair and clothing but that’s part of the design. Where anime excels is in the depiction of motion and mood and this is no exception. The backgrounds and set dressing for such elements as Mima’s apartment are also very well done, with lots of attention to detail.
Anime purists have the choice of a Japanese, 5.1 soundtrack, with or without English subtitles, but the rest of us get to pick from basic two-channel stereo or an excellent 5.1 surround soundtrack. The sound editing got them a nomination for a Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature in 2000 by the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA.
Winner of the 1997 Best Asian Film award at the Fant-Asia Film Festival, a Fantasporto Fantasia Section Award for 1998 Best Film - Animation and a B-Movie Award for the 2000 Best Animated Feature at the B-Movie Film Festival.
The inclusion of violence, some gore and nudity make it deserving of its 18 certificate so make sure the kids don’t get hold of it, thinking it’s another funny cartoon. As for the title, who knows - there are some references to the perfect blues of the Tokyo sky by day and night but that’s all. No one said a movie’s title has to have some connection to the story.
Extras
Suitably presented in the form of a web site homepage called Mima’s Room…
Cham – gives the option of watching a behind the scenes recording of the Japanese theme song for the pop group Cham or listening to an English version of it. Both last just under four and a half minutes.
Some photos I took – A montage of 28 stills from the movie with descriptive captions and lasting just under three minutes.
My favorite videos – four minutes worth of promos for Manga videos. Not much interesting here.
My favorite DVDs – as above but for Manga DVDs, although these are selectable from a menu, perhaps to reflect the greater flexibility of the medium (yawn).
Meet some of my friends – this is the best bit here and it comprises a set of interviews lasting over twenty-three minutes in all. The first three are with some of the actors doing the English voices - Ruby Marlow (Mima), Wendy Lee (Rumi) and Bob Marks (Mr. Me-Mania) and are played to a backdrop of scenes from the movie. These are reasonably interesting. The others are more traditional first-person interviews with Junko Iwao (Mima) and director Satoshi Kon. The latter is the longest of the bunch and I found it a bit disappointing and listening to Junko Iwao shows some scary parallels between her and her character.
My favorite links – links to related web sites www.manga.com, www.perfectblue.com and www.sputnik.com
Thanks – just a page of DVD credits.
Like most web homepages, there’s not much interesting here but if you pop the disc into a DVD-ROM drive there’s some more stuff such as images (same as those above) and a web page with links to Mima’s favourite sites (above).
Overall
The extra features don’t add much to the package but then I buy anime films for the quality and style of the feature. I bought this disc well over a year ago in a sale as it was a well-respected classic of the genré but I never got round to watching it until now, which I now regret as it made excellent viewing. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is an animated feature; it’s a cracking story with a solid plot and believable characters.
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