![]() ![]() The colour red was Mima’s former on-stage performance when she was in CHAM!. There are symbolic uses of red that become more apparent after the starting changes to her career like her inner self is always reminding her of her former life which gives her doubts about the new changes in her life. This creates a reality of confusion built a mystery around suspicious murders around Mima and the state of Mima’s mind. The animation uses elements of blocking and weaving scenes that are different than each other together. The story weaves in fantasy and out of reality with how the story is told. “Pop Star Mima” is also a delusion that Mima is not the only one who can sees it in a way. I found the existential character talking to Mima to be the doubts and expectations others had for her that Mima absorbed. “Pop Star Mima” is only seen by Mima when she is facing a moral dilemma. The character hallucinates a vision of her former self telling her things Mima thinks she would say and believe if she was still a pop star talking to her current self in a belittling corrupt way. Mima’s mind suffers because of the stress of her environment. Mima is constantly scrutinized for her actions by “adoring” fans and business associates. The film does get progressively darker after Mima starts her acting career. The themes seen in the film are toxic celebrity culture, voyeurism, stalking, sexual violence, perception, life changes and identity. They were able to do so if they were able to keep the original concepts from the novel. But director Satoshi Kon and screenplay writer Sadayuki Murai made some changes to the story since they thought the novel wasn’t a strong enough story for the film. The story was based on the Japanese novel, Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. It was originally supposed to developed into a live action film but after the Kobe earthquake the film was released into an animation instead. Screenshot of Madhouse’s Perfect Blue (1997). The more the movie progresses, the more her fans turns on her, the stalking becomes deadlier, the exploitative nature of show business is revealed more and her problems with psychosis becoming more vivid. She sees apparitions of herself warning her about her new career path and discouraging her about the change. The mental state of Mima stresses and becomes a woman divided from who she is now and the woman she once was. At this time in her early acting career, there were attacks on set from an unknown assailant, signs of stalking behaviour directed at Mima and a troubling scene Mima filmed at a nightclub that is an anchor point of the film turning more disturbing. She talks to her management team about her opportunity to season guest star on a crime drama series Double Bind. She has the usual fan base of a pop band but was mostly made of men. ![]() She was the lead singer in a three girl group called CHAM!. Mima Kirigoe is an early twenties pop star in Japan who wants to do something else because the pop star life was stifling. Furthermore, even if the film is an animated production, this film is not a children’s movie due to the thematically subject matter and graphically illustrated violent scenes. There’s so much I would like to say about this film. If you seen Black Swan, it’s heavily “borrows” from Perfect Blue. This is a trippy, cleverly directed anime that after twenty years from its original release, it’s still influential in modern cinema. Perfect Blue (Pâfekuto burû) was a film that should have been a part of the Satoshi Kon Mini Movie Marathon list, but I wanted to review it separately. ![]()
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