Perfect Blue

It's a thriller of a surprisingly high caliber, and one that might've found a larger audience or even played in a mainstream theater had it been a live action flick (it was intended originally as such until the Kobe Earthquake forced the studio's budget down), but as it stands Perfect Blue is a good example instead of a film with dark and mature features that westerners would not likely expect in an animated feature. It has managed to become somewhat known amoung anime afficianados (in the US at least), and while it might hold a bit more meaning to the Japanese audience it was intended for, its well-crafted plot and well-hidden surprises certainly make it a work that can be appreciated by anyone who enjoys this genre.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the framepoint that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

I thought it might be instructive to quickly go into the setting of the movie before beginning. The movie starts and takes place largely in Tokyo's Akihabara district, an area well known for its convergence of cheap electronics, and "otaku" culture. I can't help but think that this movie benefit from a different level of understanding amoungst those who have experienced Japan (specifically Akihabara). The first time I watched this movie was just after I finished high school in america over 10 years ago. I have been living in Japan for the last 4 years, and only had the chance to rewatch Perfect Blue recently. Lot of things I caught this time around that I didn't notice the first. The word otaku that I mentioned earlier is one that roughly translates out to "enthusiast" or "hobbyist" and could be used to describe anything someone can be interested in though it's generally used to refer to those who like anime. It's practiacally entered the american lexicon with such a meaning, though in practice when it's used by the Japanese it has something of a negative connotation. The typical person on the street in Akihabara is a Japanese male and one who doesn't look like they at all care to dress trendy or cool or fashionable. Though a lot go there looking for stores with deals on technology there are also a lot of strange and bizarre hobby shops as well. Pornography lines the shelves in plain view of customers, hentai (perverted) anime, figurines, blow up dolls shaped like anime characters, etc... It's hard not to get something of a sickening feeling at times looking at what's being sold out there. I've heard there are vending machines selling used panties, and a friend once pointed out some DVD's on a shelf with child models in bathing suits and other "cute" outfits. Child pornography might be illegal in Japan, but it's not difficult to guess why the guys wandering around out there are buying the stuff.

It strikes me as well that guys in Japan, not just young adolescents, but even full grown men are into the girl groups that sing poppy-sounding songs about first love and things like that. The typical american guy is quite a different story; the guy might think Brittney Spears is cute, but is very unlikely to go and see one of her concerts, even if it were free, let alone shell out money to do so. In Japan, however, men basically are the audience for this type of music.

The main character in the film is Mima, and it is from her viewpoint that we see the events which transpire, though by the end we will most likely be questioning the accuracy of said perspective. As the movie opens we are given a glimpse of Akihabara's streets and then overhear some of the local rumors floating around about Mima as well. She's one third of a pop trio called Cham, and we next see her getting dolled up before a performance and then dancing onstage with the other group members. Mima is alot lie a doll herself and the opening shot show us. The movie cuts back and forth between the excitement of the song and dance and the monotany of her regular life, commuting by train, buying groceries at the supermarket. Her managers, Tadokoro and Rumi, argue over the decisions they'll make on the direction of her career, referring to her in the third person (though this is partly a language difference) even though she is right in front of them, in the same room. Because she has taken acting lessons, they both feel she has the ability to get farther by concentrating soley on this, beginning with dropping the singing and music for a more serious image. In her first acting part she has only one line with another character: "Who are you?" Rehearsing it to herself before the filming, she repeats it obsessively to herself: "Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?" shutting out all those around her to concentrate on what is in the end a very mundane line, though it is rather instructive to note this line, considering she'll very soon go through something of an identity crisis herself.

As Mima begins to make her announcement to leave the group, several drunk and beligerent guys in the audience begin making a commotion, hooting loudly, throwing beer cans at the stage, and provoking a security guard. Things even get bloody when one of them punches the guard who comes to deal with them. A long shot of the stage with the girls in the foreground shows us that the crowd is entirely made of men who are beginning to get loud and irrate, and we realize with some fright that it is the girls they are fighting over. One can only imagine what the girls are feeling in a situation like this. Mima breaks the argument up by shouting for every one to stop, followed by the announcement of her decision to leave Cham, much to the disappointment of her audience.

Above: the member of Cham, Mima on the far right,
Below: Cham looking out at their audience, made entirely of males

Below: members of the crowd start getting ugly, they are fighting over the girls

Mima has her share of fans. One particular plot element that shows us the age of this movie is a website called "Mima's Room"; at first she doesn't know what a fansite is, and has to be walked through and shown by Rumi how to access it (in this modern age, even those with low computer skills wouldn't have much trouble with this, but at the time of this film's release not as many people used the internet as regularly as today, nor were people as familar with it). "Mima's Room" purports to have been created by the "real" Mima, and even has a diary chronicling the daily details of her life, and even though she didn't write it, things only Mima herself should know are found on the site.

There are people who are very upset at Mima for leaving her group. She receives threats and even a letter bomb calling her an imposter, reads things saying the "real" Mima is a singer, and the "Mima's Room" website at times continues as if she still were. The anger towards her only becomes more intense when she agrees to do a rape scene in exchange for a larger role in the series she is working on. That scene itself stresses the mechanical process of filming with the actors being filmed quieting down and then immediately getting back into character with each cut, and though it doesn't seem to us that the filming of it should cause any mental instability, the movie does let us know that there nonetheless is and psychologically things begin to split at this point in the story (an irony mirrored by the fact that the role Mima herself is trying so hard to get into character for goes through an identity split herself for that respective series' plot).

The threats and animousity towards her, combined with the pressures of her new job begin to wear away at Mima's rationality. In the midst of all of this a doppleganger appears wearing one of Mima's singing outfit, saying that she is the real Mima and taunting her when she tries to get closer and uncover her identity. We also get a glimpse of an obsessed fan called MeMania who appears to be behind some of the threats and violence aimed towards Mima. Things start to become very bloody and some those working closely with Mima start getting murdered in really brutal ways including one of Mima's managers, Tadokoro; the writerfor the series she's working on; and a photographer who took pornographic photos of her for a magazine spread. In the latter of these murders, Mima herself appears to be the killer and the way the film is edited, each cut she makes with the knife is a cut on film as well, flashing the images of her photo shoot as memories of anger in her mind. The lines of reality are breaking down in Mima's mind, she seems to be having trouble understanding whether or not she is herself or her series' character, and we in the audience have trouble figuring out if it is indeed her who commited the murders (whether consciously or subconsciously) or not.

Above: the doppleganger makes its appearance
Below: the room of obsessed fan "MeMania"

Below: murder of the pornographer

The answers finally come when Rumi takes Mima home after another horrific event and Mima realizes that she is not in her own apartment, but in Rumi's, who has set her own room up in an attempt to be identical to Mima's own. Rumi appears in a singing costume like one of Mima's and reveals herself to be the author of the "Mima's Room" diary as well as Mima's doppleganger (shown to us by seeing the reflection of the doppleganger as Rumi in the mirror). Rumi chases Mima across rooftops and dark alleys trying to stab her to death, but eventually ends up ripping open her own stomach on a jagged window broken in the pursuit. She even almost gets herself run over by a truck believing its headlights to be the bright lights of a stage and hearing the applause of a crowd in her own deluded mind before Mima knocks her out of the way saving her life.

Above and below: the doppleganger reflects Rumi when seen in windows and mirrors

Below: delusional Rumi raising her hands to receive applause only she can hear; those are truck headlight in front of her.

The story concludes with Rumi in a mental hospital, never fully recovering from mental ailments, though Mima continues to visit her regularly, apparently still grateful for the help and guidance she given her in the past.

* * *

Stylistically the film is very inventive and appears to know its topic very well. It captures the sickening paranoia and claustraphobia resulting from fame, intense media scrutiny, and fan devotion. Madonna purportedly used scenes from the film during one of her concerts to create an atmosphere hightened by said imagery.

As far as the mechanics of the film itself go, much can be said of the way the film conceals its own mysteries. A large part of the reason it works is because the main character, Mima, is herself somewhat delusional. While it is revealed that Rumi commited some of the murders and manipulated MeMania into doing some of the wrongful act (whether solely by using Mima's Room website or by other means as wellis never stated), it is never entirely clarified if Mima herself didn't do some of it herself or if it was Rumi attempting frame and cover up her own crimes.

The device of the unreliable narrator is at work in more ways than one in this psychological twister, since the events as we see them appear to be from Mima's perspective. Left unexplained are several questions including not only whether Mima committed some of the murders but also whether or not the doppleganger which appears to taunt her is always Rumi or not. Rumi's close proximity to Mima, would give her access to details about her daily life others wouldn't know about, explaining the diary entries, but as to whether she is always the doppleganger Mima sees (at one point even appearing in Mima's old studio building) things are left much murkier. If the doppleganger is indeed always just Rumi wearing one of Mima's undersized singing outfits, then a few of the questions left open are: "Does this mean that Mima would've discovered things earlier had she not herself been going delusional?" and "Why don't other people react with some surprise to seeing Rumi dressed like that in public?" The movie, perhaps wisely, choses to leave these details open to the interpretation of the viewer to be pondered in forums and blogs and reviews like this one.