"Walt Disney meets Alfred Hitchcock"[1]
Animated films always used to get compared to "Walt Disney" when I was younger. The content was entirely irrelevant but I guess it all depends on your cultural influences - and in the past, it was only Disney that could get animated films on to the big screen. That has changed a little with computer graphics allowing more companies to break out in the west but cel-animated films are very rare.
The 90s is probably when CG really came into its own and that, in many ways, diminished the ability of animated films to depict things that would be either ridiculous or prohibitively expensive to do in live action. The two seminal films, probably the best-known anime films of the time, Akira (1988) and Ghost In the Shell (1995), would be difficult to visualise in live action without a lot of money. The Matrix took a lot of ideas (and wholesale ripped off some shots too) from Ghost in the Shell but that was a very large budget film. Perfect Blue, however, could easily be replicated in live action form and so, it has to be said, there seems little point in animating it. But then that is approaching it from the wrong angle, I think. Animated films are not, really, a genre but they have almost cul-de-saced into one with the number of Western animated films that are anything but light and fluffy pieces aimed at children fairly low. Similarly, there are seemingly few Japanese animated films that are not filled with technology and/or copious amounts of violence. In actuality, there are different animated films made, but they are often not distributed widely outside of Japan (or even inside Japan)[2] - which is something of a self-fulfilling notion of the market they can have.
At 80 minutes, Perfect Blue is barely even feature length in my opinion[3] as I feel it is a film when it is 90 minutes, although this is a personal feeling. But those 80 minutes are quite densely packed with narrative and weight with the portrayal of a young pop idol's transition to the more grown-up world of acting. Idols, in this sense, were a quite domestic phenomenon but I think they are easier to comprehend now with the multimedia nature of stardom, so the opening scene of an outdoor show of the pop act "Cham!" is easy enough to get. Cham! appear to be a middling pop group that is coming to a natural end as one of their trio is to announce her departure - although pop acts can always continue with replacements of course. As a group of two or three years standing, they have a number of fans at the show and they are introduced as partly fanatical and partly understanding of the trajectory. The departure is so that one member of the act, Mima, can pursue a career as an actress - starting with a simple role in a TV drama[4] which she hopes will lead to larger things. Actually, what she wishes seems irrelevant and we are shown her management team positioning her into roles and career moves - and Mima is happy to do what others want from her to keep everyone happy. I guess it is her way of repaying their efforts and faith in her.
At the same time as leaving Cham!, Mima also comes across the phrase "Mima's Room" which her manager tells her must refer to a website, or fansite, about her. As this is set in the 90s, this concept is not something that Mima is aware of so she gets a computer which her manager helps her set up (with a nice bit of Apple product placement) and checks in on Mima's Room - a site that seems to be a diary by Mima herself - which is kind of fun.
It appears that not all of Mima's fans have taken well to her departure and she starts receiving threatening and abusive faxes[5] as she progresses in the world of acting. The progress does entail some more "adult" scenes to which her fan reacts quite badly - as does Mima herself and it is at this point that the film takes a turn into psychological thriller territory. When Mima realises that "Mima's Room" is remarkably faithful to the reality of her day, she is quite disturbed as to what it means. Is she writing this herself? Is she being stalked? Animation is a good medium for this mind-bending stuff as you can play around with scenery and ideas quite easily in terms of the way it is portrayed and this is done quite expertly (especially for a debut feature) in the second part of the film. As the strands of the reprisals and stalking come to a head, it is a truly impressive spiral down through a breakdown as Mima falls apart.
I really enjoyed Perfect Blue as it is actually quite a "straight" film in that it is clear what is happening at the beginning and end. The whole film is quite ambiguous as to what is real and what is not (though I understand that the dubbed version is less ambiguous) as well as the conclusions but it allows the viewer to engage as they want. These kinds of layered films are often difficult to follow but Perfect Blue does not really care if you follow or not - there are a few points when it is a bit over the top as Mima is unsure if what is happening is real on top of the viewer being unsure if Mima is acting or not as much of the TV programme she is acting on is a psychological thriller itself. As the film is not particularly long, the lengths of time that the confusion reigns is actually fairly short and the explanations are soon to hand. The length also makes the film tight and well-paced - the bulk of film itself takes place over a few days with a relatively simple story arc. Watching again, a few years later is very interesting as I think Perfect Blue's influence can be seen in a few more mainstream films. Darren Aronofsky was clearly a major fan and the similarities with Black Swan and some of the shots in Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler unmistakably inspired by this film[6]. On that note, the visuals are nicely understated with good use of static shots and little in the way of unnecessary movement. The one chase scene in the film is brilliantly done with its mix of reality and imagination beautifully captured and the tension from it coming out very well. The unreal nature of what is really happening adds to the scene massively.
The story and message, for what it is worth, is quite rooted in the time but it is quite relevant today with the elevated entitlement and (cyber)stalking of fans/trolls being a recurring theme of modern celebrity culture. That balancing act and tension of being close to the fans but also the risks of that closeness are much more obvious to all now, but the film explores it quite well. I think that nature of the relationship being analogous to the growth in social media (probably most obviously twitter) is quite far-sighted for a 90s film and the duality of the character is similar to how a lot of people can be online - with a far more aggressive and extreme version online. There has been a bit of a general reappraisal of Perfect Blue, especially from when the director, Satoshi Kon, passed away and it is held in quite high regard now. At the time of release, it had a mixed reception but I would hope that some of the people that did not react positively would take the time to watch it again. It isn't very long, anyway...
Trailer here:
1. Apparently, this was in a review by Roger Corman and was the main thing I remember from the cover of the video.↩
2. In 2004, I very excitedly went to see an animated film, Appleseed, at the cinema in Roppongi Hills. I distinctly remember at the time being quite excited at being able to watch anime on a big screen and being conscious of the fact that I may never get the opportunity again. I am not sure what happened over the years that enabled anime to be released, in a limited way, in cinemas in the UK, but something changed. I have since been able to see quite a few animated releases at London cinemas - to the point where I don't feel I have to go to see them there.↩
3. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, and British Film Institute, a feature film runs for 40 minutes or longer, while the Screen Actors Guild states that it is 80 minutes or longer. My sense of 90 minutes is based on nothing other than my feeling, so it is not correct.↩
4. It is this simple role that suggests to me that Cham! were not that big - I have seen a few reviews that suggest that Cham! were quite big, but I do not think this is a story about a "star", rather it is about the chasing of stardom.↩
5. This does date the film a little, but it is interesting in this way - the pre-internet.↩
6. I thought of this film quite a lot when watching Helter Skelter (reviewed here) which has a similar story arc although the details are not necessarily the same. Again, the thrust is similar but there are some fundamental differences but the similarities with Black Swan are arguably more pronounced. As I consider both Black Swan and Helter Skelter as two of my favourite films of the decade (so far), it does suggest that I'd like Perfect Blue.↩
