Perfect Blue Review
ILLUSION. IDENTITY. OBSESSION.
ILLUSION. IDENTITY. OBSESSION.
Perfect Blue is often described as one of Satoshi Kon’s best films. After watching this and ruminating on the film, I have to agree. Released in 1997, this anime film was ahead of its time. I went into this ominous piece blind – knowing only that it is categorized as Psychological Horror – and I was absolutely blown away by the mind bending and elusive story it told. I recommend watching with subtitles, not dubbed, in order to keep things from being lost in translation. .
The focus of ‘Perfect Blue’ is on Mima, a young emerging pop singer who is pressured by her management to switch to an acting career. Once she makes the switch, one of Mima’s male superfans becomes angry with her for “betraying” him and begins obsessively stalking her. He even goes so far as to set up a website called “Mima’s Room” where he chronicles everything she does throughout the day. This is especially significant because the internet was still burgeoning at that time, making the website all the more novel and scary.
Of course, when Mima tries to seek help about her stalker and raises concern, she is gaslighted by all of the people around her. Eventually, she buries her concern and stops talking about it, building onto the consistent theme throughout the film: repression. Mima suppresses so much of her emotion, that it starts to take on its own life form.
The film is about all the different forms of patriarchal violence. Mima is constantly giving herself away to these men, allowing them to consume every inch of her identity like cannibals, leaving nothing left. Towards the end of the film, things become so muddled it is unclear what is real and what is a dream. But one thing is clear: Mima is the prey and consumerism is the predator.
First, her sleezy manager crafted this “Pop Idol” image of her, and then as soon as he’s perfected it, he turns her over to perverted TV writers and photographers who force her into doing scenes of sexual violence and nudity to cement her new name as an actress. Mima feels so broken after all of this that she starts to be haunted by her pop idol persona, and sees this version of Mima everywhere. All while still being stalked by a real “fan” of hers (this fan who only really cares about her career switch because he creepily only values her innocence and that went away when she became an actress.)
This film is fantastic, and I have not even scratched the surface of the plot. It is definitely a film that will leave you thinking for days on end. A lot of people think animated content is for kids, but this movie does not shy away from mature and haunting content. The voice actors did a superb job and I didn’t even know the language they were speaking in. Additionally, the score had this eerie humming turned to chanting which will creep me out every time I hear it. Overall, a film that has taken the voice of anime in television to an ever changing level and inspired its productions of the 21st century.
Rating 4.5/5
Caroline Lannes — October 10th, 2021
