When I get my site updated (working on it now), I plan to add a bunch of
reviews I wrote on various pieces of anime. This weekend, I watched
"Perfect Blue", a DVD Nick Leifker was kind enough to lend me.
What follows is my review. WARNING: SPOILERS! I'll keep them to a
minimum, but there will still be a lot about the movie I'll be revealing, so
be warned.
THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY. I hold no grudge against you if you think
differently, and I hope that the reverse holds true as well. :) I'm always
open to discussing things, although in deference to the almighty
Tybalt-samas, we should take such discussions off the list.
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PERFECT BLUE
c. 1999 Palm Picture
Region 1 DVD Published 2000, Magna Video
Richard's Review: Pretty Packaging Around an Old Story
Ah, idol singers. I was first introduced to the concept by Lynn Minmei when
I went nuts over Robotech and tried to learn everything I could about it,
Macross, and modern-day Japanese society. It was a little to my surprise
that I found out that idol singers are usually popular for a year or so,
then they fade away to be replaced by the next fifteen-year-old. After
that, they earn money as best they can; just ask the idol singer who sang
the first season's opening theme for "Ranma 1/2".
Kirigoe Mima is a 21-year-old idol singer, part of the pop group Cham.
Hoping to use her popularity while it's still at its apex, she quits the
group to become an actress. (Ironically, Cham's popularity actually
increases after she leaves.) Mima gets a small part in the movie "Double
Bind", and slowly, with the help of her talent agency, her part begins to
grow until she's a major part of the story. Hoping to further shed her
image as a pop singer, she goes to a photo shoot that starts with her fully
dressed and ends when she's, er, not.
That's when the killing begins.
The animation is quite good in an odd sort of way. The characters are drawn
much more realistically than is usually found in anime, although Mima still
has the pop singer's big round eyes. It's drawn in a kind of minimalist
style with lots of detail, if that makes any sense.
The animators also do some very clever scene changes, where a character's
body movements in one scene flow seemlessly into the next, even though it's
an entirely different situation with an entirely different context. There
are some other clever tricks during the climactic chase scene that were
wonderful to see and carried me right along to the climax.
The songs, which ones there were, were average, neither terrific nor really
bad. There were some interesting sound tricks as well, although nothing
new.
But, as I've seen before, all the wrapping around the package does no good
if what's inside disappoints you. And I'm afraid that's what happened to
me.
The meat of the story is tired and unoriginal. I had the killer pegged
almost from the very beginning. (All you have to do is use movie logic;
what story purpose does this character serve? Why, none at all, or nothing
that couldn't be easily circumvented. Therefore, this character must be the
killer.) Oh, admittedly I got sidetracked for a bit in the middle,
wondering if someone with strong psychic powers was creating psionic images.
In the end, it was drearily mundane. The kind of B-movie you see late at
night on HBO.
Still, there were touches here and there I quite liked. During a pause in
the shooting of a rape scene, the actor who is "raping" Mima apologizes; she
tells him it's okay. You also get to watch the slow breakdown of Mima, as
people around her are getting killed and she begins to drift across the line
separating reality and fantasy; this was done quite nicely. The scene in
which the killer is revealed was quite good, the kind I like to watch again
and again just to see that "Oh ****" moment of realization.
There's a bit of nudity and a bit of gore but not too much of either,
although I (being notoriously squeamish) turned my head a time or two. I
watched it subbed first. I watched a few scenes dubbed, and the voice
acting wasn't bad.
Overall, I can't say that I liked it. But I didn't hate it, so I won't
actively discourage you from watching it. There's a very good chance you'll
like it a lot; I just was hoping for something exceptional and got something
mundane. Still, I'm glad I saw it, for the few moments I really enjoyed. I
still came away disappointed with the overall experience.
And, on one final note: what does "Perfect Blue" mean? I couldn't find any
correlation between the title and anything that happened in the movie. Any
explanations would be greatly appreciated.
Next up for me: the second Utena DVD.
-Richard