The Dark Road to Perfection: Perfect Blue (1997)

Perfect Blue (Japanese Animation, 1997)
Rating: ****
Starring: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji

Japan really got it made as one of the many powerhouses when it comes to animation, covering scopes of topics widely ranging from the comedic and innocent, to the weird and dark. In Satoshi Kon's directorial animation debut, Perfect Blue (1997)'s a story of one woman's aim to change, the price it costs and people around her dying from ice pick murders.

Mima Kurigoe is a former pop idol and central singer of the J-Pop crew Cham. She is now taking a career in acting in hopes of broadening her image, but her decision to quit her idol career is met with vicious backlash from fans, especially from an online stalker who somehow found a way to publicly post her diary.

Still, her friends remain supportive of her choice, eventually landing her a small acting role as a rape victim in a dark thriller film, Double Bind. The stress from her role, as well as the continuous negative fan reactions, soon begins to affect and blur Mima's line of what's real and not, as certain events in her life starts to mirror those from the Double Bind film, a constant barrage of tragedy and heartbreak. Adding to this issue are the strange string of ice pick murders leaving victims stabbed to death and their eyes gouged out. Has Mima finally succumbed to madness? Or has somebody taken their obsession for the former idol to a whole murderous level?

The film did a fine job establishing its central character with a sense of utter realism; behind the curtains, Mima's an ordinary person who's prone to the demanding weight of her choices, mainly her decision to move away from her idol image to make something of herself. The first third of the film essentially builds this; attempt after attempt to do more for her life, Mima's bombarded repeatedly with hate letters and harassed in both real and digital world. She's reduced to exploiting herself under the chagrin of her manager to gather attention, all the while the fact that her former J-Pop group is doing better without her is simply salting her wounds. These scenes are hard to watch as it not only show the plausible psychological traumas haunting entertainers who aren't ready to face them, but also the emotional blowback it brings. At some point, the uncertainty of Mima's own beliefs would gradually take effect and it's just a matter of time before this massive strain to her well-being would really get to her.

This is when the second act starts and so does the bodycount; while most are done off camera, one or two murders showcase a level of brutality that, even for Japanese animation, seems pretty disturbing. It's occasionally hard to make animated murder to have the same realistic effect as the ones done in live action, but the film's build and tone really help anchor the dread from these killings. One murder even went as far as editing in flashes of Mima in provocative positions during one of her photoshoots, a disturbing contrast of mayhem and lurid fantasy.

The film's take on psychological terror and bloody murders easily labels it as an animated version of an Italian giallo, murder mysteries done with a touch of horror and art house. And as any gialli, the climax in Perfect Blue (1997) welcomes all the occasional trappings such as pseudo-revelations and bizarre twists, bloody killings and sexual imagery done in an expressionist angle.

Based on a novel, the original idea for this film was supposed to be a live-action film with multiple changes from the book. But due to budget (and a devastating earthquake around that year) the script was applied into animation, under director and animator, Satoshi Kon. The man would later continue to do widely acclaimed anime movies such as a The Matrix (1999) /Inception (2010)-esque Paprika (2006) and the heart-warming holiday comedy drama Tokyo Godfathers (2003) which shows Kon's talent on animated storytelling that caters to adult audiences. I would even dare say that Perfect Blue (1997) transcends a level of mature entertainment without wallowing into the otaku culture Japan is partially known for, an opinion I gladly wear with pride.

For this, I find Perfect Blue (1997) to be one of the best examples of a creative take on a familiar grounding; while it may not appeal to the lot who prefer their animated content to be more "fun", those who're willing to indulge to something maddening and yet beautiful, I urge you to see this title and lose yourself to its prowess.

Bodycount:
1 female found stabbed to death (film)
1 male found stabbed to death, eyes gouged
1 female hit by a truck (dream)
1 male stabbed to death with ice pick
1 male hit on the head with hammer
1 male stabbed to death offscreen, eyes gouged out
Total: 6