Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue has been out of print on DVD/BluRay for the longest time, so imagine my surprise to see that The Charles had it playing during their Anime Night programming. It’s the only film of Satoshi Kon’s that I had not seen, and I planned to catch it no matter what.
Being his first film, it is rough around the edges. It has a very 90s anime feel to it, and it didn’t help that the Charles had what seemed to be a bootleg — it looked like the aspect ratio was wrong as the faces were somewhat distorted. I’ve seen other images on the web from this movie. They looked better. Also, the sound was slightly too loud. I’m not sure that the Charles did a good presentation of the film, but I was glad to catch it. At least, they fixed the crack in the screen wall of the theatre such as not to distract from the film.
Perfect Blue is about a Japanese idol who decides to graduate from her group and become an actress. She wants to move past her idol persona and became her own person as an actress. Her fans may not approve. Lots of the film bounces between those two worlds — the idol and the actress. You see her shed that innocent idol image by taking up adult roles and doing sexy gravure shots. Her fans may not approve.
Kon displays his trademark switching between scenes. They focused on Mima’s life as an idol or as an actress. They switched back and forth morphing reality with scenes she plays in a movie or scenes of the movie. She tries to find her real self — the idol or the actress. She gets involved in murders because her fans may not approve of her choice. In the end, it became a mystery to solve for her.
Imagine all the idol watching I’ve done in the last 6 months. Now imagine all of that – about the fans approval – coming around in this movie. Do we, idol fans, like them for who they are or who we think they are? Are we complicit in their act? Are we complicit in the happiness, or unhappiness, of their lives? I am not too sure; I’ve wrestled with it for the last 6 months myself. Idols are idols and they are who they are. I’m just here to support them in their line of business.
4 of 5 stars.
