I missed the anime Perfect Blue when it played at the now-defunct Arbor Theater last November 12th, but finally got around to watching it on DVD last night. It reminds me of the live-action, Japanese thriller Angel Dust, but I found Perfect Blue to be far more satisfying.
The story concerns Mima, a Japanese pop-idol, who has grown out of her coy, little girl image and go into acting. However, her pop-idol image is not easily shaken off. Mima is literally stalked by her past, and maybe a crazed fan. Between her past image, her new image, and the part she is playing in a murder-mystery film, Mima descends into such an identity crisis that she (and the viewer) soon have no idea what is real and what is dream. The fact that those working closely with her on the film have a nasty habit of turning up dead make her descent into terror more than a psychological study.
I love this kind of anime, which could have just as easily been a live-action film. Because Japan is drawn instead of filmed, the movie captures the details of Japan in an iconic way. To me it looks more like Japan than any photograph. I was amazed at how much Mima's apartment looks just like the one M2 had in Oita-shi. Not having been back in Japan since 1996, I also was fascinated by the integration of cell phones, laptops, and camcorders into daily life. In one scene, a friend is trying to explain the internet to Mima. She talks about URLs and homu-paji. I turned to Alex and said, "Wow! We can understand Japanese." Mima turns to her friend and say, "Can you explain that again in Japanese."
If you are one of those Americans who still equates anime with cartoons for kids, read The New York Time's Dave Kehr's article Anime, Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age He likens the director, Satoshi Kon to David Lynch and explains "Within the context of a psychological thriller, Mr. Kon explores the crisis of Japanese women entrapped by the crippling shojo image, which is seen as spreading its pernicious influence over several generations."
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Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn What Are Shoujo Manga?
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
May 11, 2002
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Because Japan is drawn instead of filmed, the movie captures the details of Japan in an iconic way, which looks more like Japan than any photograph.