Perfect Blue on DVD (1997)

Paul Baker from Bishops Stortford - England , 11/10/2004

Its almost hard to believe this is an Anime movie, but in the best possible way.

Comparable to Brian de Palma and David Lynch at their best.

Yes, this is the most western style anime i've ever seen.

It follows the story of Mima - Pop Idol and lead singer of 'Cham' an all girl trio.

After 2 years and no chart success, one of Mima's agents pursuades her to give up singing and become an actress.

What ensues is the devastating effect Mima's decision causes.

A decision that leads to several brutal murders.

He career change also drives a wedge between her agent's, one of whom see's Mima purely as a singer.

What ensues is a 'wheels within wheels' story that closely follows Mima's new career against a backdrop of the murders taking place. All the vicitms are in some way tied in to Mima's controversial acting debut in a violent TV thriller called 'Double Bind'

At times your not sure whether your watching reality, a dream, or the series that Mima is working on.

It even suggests that Mima herself may well have developed a dangerous split personality, as she is dogged by visions of her fomer 'Pop idol' self.

Few thrillers manage to be as consistanly entertaining and intriguing as Perfect Blue.

The film's title refers to the 'Perfect Blue' sky above Tokyo and is based on a novel of the same name.

  9 out of 10 people found this review helpful

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SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 18/03/2007

If David Lynch made anime he may well have come up with Perfect Blue.

This film is many things: a Hitchcockian thriller, a scathing indictment of the cult of celebrity, a backstage drama, a horror film and it's an effective example of all of these.

The story is of pop idol Mima who leaves her band Cham to become an actress. She takes a small role in a TV drama which involves difficult sequences of nudity and rape. At the same time Mima finds that she has a stalker writing in disturbingly accurate detail about her life on a website and begins hallucinating a 'real Mima' who wants her to rejoin Cham.

The first time you see Perfect Blue you may find it difficult to sift reality from fantasy, like Lynch's films it mixes them freely and to willfully confusing effect. It's a disorienting film.

The performances are top class, both in the original Japanese and the unusualy excellent english dub and the animation is truly wonderful but it's Kon's script that is the real star here. His characters are more three dimensional than most that appear in live action movies these days. They've got complex motivations, full personalities. Overall this is a staggering directorial debut from Kon and quite possibly the best anime ever made.

  6 out of 9 people found this review helpful

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nicola6 from Cambridgeshire , 07/03/2004

It’s a perennial question, isn’t it? How to respond when your favourite member of a bubblegum girl-pop trio sacrifices her evanescent slices of feel-good music for a TV career involving ‘adult situations’? Well now you know.

In many ways, ‘Perfect Blue’ is a paint by numbers psychological thriller. We’re treated to the usual array of flashbacks/dream sequences, that in turn flesh out the characterization of the principals and leave us wondering whether the movie actually makes any sense.

As the main character struggles with her own existential crises – as an actress, as a singer and as the main personae she inhabits – we marvel at the Lynchian complexity of the director’s vision, and are rewarded for our perseverance with brief flashes of cartoon tits every half-hour or so.

In truth, the whole thing is distracting enough. The soundtrack tootles along, and the aforementioned glimpses of animated fun-bags remind us that we’re a small world away from Saturday morning cartoons, but it’s hard to feel particularly overwhelmed by the film.

Where the best animes – films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell – actually exploit the medium to say something different, or tell an old story in a new way, this just feels like a budget reworking of a three star Hollywood thriller. With hand-drawn dirty pillows. So unless you’re really into Atomic Kitten or their ilk, and want tips to cope with the inevitable break-up, you might just as well leave this on the shelf.

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Portadown, Northern Ireland , 10/03/2005

I haven't seen a lot of anime, so I thought I'd rent a few, and this one came first. I can't make much of a comparison with other titles, but on its own merits, Perfect Blue is a great film. The story centres around a pop star turned actress who seems to be slowly losing her mind. Craftily, the director pulls the viewer into the girl's mental condition by keeping us on our toes, always unsure whether what we're watching is the girl acting out a scene in a movie or living her real life. The animation also looks great. Perfect Blue is based on a novel, no less!

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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A customer from 2nd row from the back, Lincolnshire , 02/09/2008

Very rare to find a Japanese animation that doesn't work but here we have one such. Starts well but gets increasingly disjointed and ultimately becomes unwatchable.

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