Year:
1997
Studio:
Manga Entertainment/Rex Entertainment
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
1/5
Perfect Blue is an
anime film which would be rated R in the USA. It's the story of Mima
(Ruby Marlowe), a pop idol who quits her trio, Cham, to pursue an
acting career. It's a direction she's not sure about, having been
pushed into it by her manager, who wants to make more money because pop
idol's don't make much money.
There are two things that go wrong. One is that Mima is pushed into
doing a rape scene and is also pushed into doing nude photos. The other
thing is that a weird obsessed fan, angry that she has turned away from
pop idolness, starts stalking her. There is also a fan web site, Mima's
Room, which has way too much detail about her life and the little
things that go on.
Mima's life is threatened. People start dying. Meanwhile Mima is
awfully depressed at how her life is turning out. As the pressure
builds, Mima starts losing hold of her sanity and we (the audience)
start to wonder if perhaps it is really Mima who is doing all the
killing.
A couple of plot twists later ending in a surrealistic chase scene and
the everything is resolved. The whole movie is a rather creepy thriller
that left me somewhat uncomfortable. There are parts that are purposely
designed to throw the audience off, such as when Mima keeps relieving
the same scenario and waking up again and again.
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This is the
first anime I've seen in the thriller genre. I thought the movie was
fairly good. Mima is the only character that's really touched at in
depth and it was pretty sad how she was breaking down. It's also quite
disturbing how small apartments are in Japan. Mima lived in like a
half-sized studio apartment and I thought it was claustrophobic
watching it.
The DVD has one extra. A videotape of the opening song by what I assume
are the three Japanese voice actresses, singing the song in a studio.
There is also the english version of the song, though without any
video. Kind of a catchy tune actually. But that's pop music -- it's
quite viral.
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