Perfect Blue
1997. Movie. 80 min. Drama/thriller. org Yoshikazu Takeuchi (novel). dir Satoshi Kon. scr Sadayuki Murai. des Hisashi Eguchi, Satoshi Kon, others. -bc
Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller set in the world of contemporary Japanese pop culture as it shows what happens when a pop idol changes her image and arouses the ire of a crazed fan. Playing skillfully with the viewer’s sense of time and reality, the film established Satoshi Kon as a director to watch.
Mima Kirigoe, an idol singer with pop trio Cham, quits to become an actress in a TV drama called “Double Bind,” a move advocated by her agent, Tadokoro, but opposed by her manager, Rumi. It also infuriates some of her fans, one of whom operates a Web site called “Mima’s Place,” in which he poses as Mima in the first person. When Mima buys a computer just so she can see the site, she is first delighted at how accurately its daily “diary” reflects her mood and thinking but gradually grows alarmed at the way her every move is charted in such chilling detail.
Meanwhile, the producers of the TV show are impressed with Mima and the publicity value she generates, and give her a bigger role in the show, including a graphic rape scene at a strip club. When a photographer takes nude photos of Mima for a magazine, the fan who operates “Mima’s Place” gets even more outraged. At the same time, Mima herself begins to doubt what she is doing and is tormented by frequent visions of herself in the pink party dress that was her Cham costume, giggling eerily at her and calling her the “fake Mima.”
Soon, three people involved in Mima’s career are targeted by an unknown avenger who sends a letter bomb to one and brutally murders the other two, acts which appear to be the work of an enraged fan. For Mima, fantasy and reality begin to overlap and affect her ability to perform. Eventually the culprit is revealed to Mima at a moment and in a place where she has no one to protect her.
As in director Satoshi Kon’s later work, specifically Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, the film gets so many of the details of modern Tokyo just right, from the subway cars Mima rides and her cramped apartment to the convenience stores she visits, the magazine stand where her fans stand and gossip, and the office buildings where much of the business is conducted. An opening sequence details an outdoor performance of pop trio Cham preceded by a juvenile live-action Power Rangers–style act. It’s so dead-on accurate in its re-creation, including the row of photographers and the gathering of male fans, that it could easily have been modeled on live-action video of just such an event. A great deal of effort is made throughout to create an air of realism, so that when Mima begins to confuse reality and fantasy, the viewer must share that confusion. Interestingly, the realism is so pronounced that when we see an anime poster on the door of a magazine shop we have no problem distinguishing that poster as a “cartoon,” completely different from what we’re watching.
Most of the characters are designed to look unmistakably Japanese, another trademark of Satoshi Kon’s. Mima herself has eyes a little wider and rounder than the others, a necessary concession to facilitate the wider range of emotions she has to convey, from glee and happiness to despair, confusion, and fear.
Perfect Blue was Satoshi Kon’s first directorial credit. Previously, he’d worked chiefly as an art director and scriptwriter, doing both for the “Magnetic Rose” section of Memories. He went on to direct Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, and Paranoia Agent. Sadayuki Murai wrote Perfect Blue’s screenplay from a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, and went on to cowrite Millennium Actress with director Kon, and Steamboy with Katsuhiro Otomo. Murai also wrote the screenplay for Otomo’s live-action movie Mushishi (Bugmaster, 2007).
The violence and trauma connected with a pop idol’s change in image may seem like an unlikely plot hook for a psychological thriller. Familiarity with idol culture in Japan, however, will help viewers appreciate just how plausible such a scenario is. Fans of this culture themselves might even reluctantly identify with some aspects of the crazed fan who stalks Mima in the film. As a window into contemporary Japanese pop culture, the film lays out the all-too-typical career arc of a young, attractive female performer. We first see Mima in her pop singing stage in a frilly pink party costume performing a catchy but saccharine pop song with her partners in Cham for an audience of overage adolescents who prize the girlishness and innocence of her persona. We see her act in a TV drama where she tries to prove she’s a “serious” actress, although she is exploited by the writer and producer and put in a graphic rape scene strictly designed to titillate the TV audience and attract publicity. She is then photographed in a series of full frontal nude shots, all seen on camera, that are published in a magazine, putting the nail in the coffin of her squeaky clean idol image. The film does not seek to judge Mima for her actions, but to critique the system that puts her in one kind of image and then punishes her for breaking out of it.
We also see an early depiction of the role the Internet played in fan culture. In 1997, the Web wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Mima herself is startled to learn about “Mima’s Place” and has to ask what it is. She must then buy a computer and get her manager, Rumi, to set it up so she can see the Web site.
The film plays clever tricks with time and perception, a strategy Kon would employ later in both Millennium Actress and Paranoia Agent. During one turbulent sequence of events, Mima wakes up in the same position, in the same way, as if from a dream, four times. Were the preceding events all dreams? Apparently not. Every Groundhog Day–style wake-up appears to be real, even when the exact same piece of TV news is repeated. Various questions go unanswered when the true culprit terrorizing Mima is ultimately revealed, and we’re not even sure the mystery has been solved or things have been tidied up. There are three possible suspects and each of them could be guilty of at least one of the violent acts that occur.
The film offers intriguing glimpses of the fan component of idol culture as it existed in Japan in 1997. In the opening sequence, the surly male fans waiting for pop trio Cham’s live performance have to first sit through a hackneyed Power Rangers–style opening act. In the middle of Cham’s set, lead singer Mima stops to announce that she’s leaving the trio. One group in the audience, fueled by beer, heckles Cham and unnerves the rest of the crowd. A single-minded volunteer security guard stops the commotion before it gets out of hand, but gets beaten up for his trouble. Throughout this whole sequence, we hear snippets of fanboy conversation and gossip about Mima and, in later scenes, we see the evidently college-age male fans congregate at a magazine stand where they diligently follow the comings and goings of Mima in her new career and those of her former partners in Cham.
The year this film was released, 1997, also saw the creation of a new Japanese pop phenomenon, Morning Musume. Beginning with five members, all runners-up in a “Star Search”–like TV show, the all-girl group grew each year, adding new members while “graduating” older ones, often to solo careers, until at one point the group had fifteen members. While Morning Musume doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with Cham (their songs are much better, for one thing), their taped concerts reveal an audience of older male fans not unlike their counterparts in Perfect Blue.
violence Extreme bloody violence in the murder scenes. Sex: A rape scene is acted out for the cameras in the production of the TV drama. nudity Full frontal nudity is seen when Mima poses for a photographer.