Having said that, with this latest watching, I have already watched Perfect Blue twice and quite optimistically consider it a near-classic movie that should be watched by many more people. Yes. Perhaps I am personally attached to this film because I remember on a peculiar level the genious portrayal of Tibetan Mima, voiced here by Junko Iwao.
I imagine that this is how it feels when watching Mima. However what is really difficult is that Mima herself is working on a television series which has probably the same plot as her life. I say ‘probably’ because it is not absolutely certain because everything is shown through Mima’s eyes and she does not hold recollection of what happened.
Usually even if a film has such an episodic structure there is always a question of how one can connect everything, why this and that happened and who was really the one behind it all. I know that this sounds paradoxical and some of you might be wondering how is it challenging oneself without crossing the borders. Nevertheless, you will understand why it contradicts when you will see the movie. Delusions: a dilemma in any characters story where only a chosen few can parade around by Perfect Blue it is understood how its done.
The only reason I say that this movie is a near classic rather than dropping that near because I feel that towards the end of the movie the sequence does not feel right with the rest is because at the end of the movie the sequence does not feel right with the rest. It’s still extremely intense and well done, but the fact that it is pulling up from some degree of the super-high standards which were set by the rest of the story implies that it does wrap up with some bit of anti-climax.
The other (small) thing stopping Perfect Blue from being an all times great for me is the quality of animation. Some of the scenes are done so well and animated in great detail that the instances of the animation being poor stands out. What should be smooth fluid motion becomes fractured images and detailed characters stand with blank faces.
Every now and then things like these actually work from a plot point of view, especially those bits where I am not too sure if that was the aim of the movie because it does also occur in places whereby it would have no plot context whatsoever. It is not a major concern, just that it is likely to disrupt one’s concentration in the story for a while, which is not very good especially when the story is a fantastic one.
Please ignore the stalker/murderer story that the movie is leading and perfect blue main target audience should be young women who aspire for a profession and or celebrity fame. Regarding the more horrible situations to be found on the first half of the movie, there is more terror in the first half of the movie because it is sensibly more real than anything that comes later on and did shock me rather opened my eyes again.
As a starting point, even the more or less innocent pop group, CHAM, that Mima is a member of, it’s already over-the-top in its sexualisation as we’re introduced to those girls wearing thigh-high hemlined and mini dresses that if for a second the girls were to move from a standstill position risk flashing their undergarments.
It’s something you will see with girl groups even today except now: there’s an awareness of diversity an sexual equality at a far greater than normal here. But even that time, it could have been about mimas sexualising as the other 2 girls wear less sexy clothes after she leaves and they too become successful despite less sex appeal.
In fact, this is only the quiet first act of what is in store for Mima in her career’s transition from being a pop idol to a ‘real’ actress. It is apparent from the beginning that she is averse towards such a change of occupation, listening to her mother who sounds rather astounded by her daughter’s withdrawal from a seemingly cherished endeavor. Mima, however, allures herself at one point that she cannot disappoint the people who were there for her career.
She is given a supporting role for the first time in a series where a murder is investigated. Even though she starts with that, she is expected to do a film that includes a rape scene. On the surface, she’s willing to embrace it to the delight of Mima who believes she is a pop idol inside, just a voice that assumes that someone who enjoys nothing like this isn’t suited for it repeats itself, when finally coming back home and seeing that her fish had died of hunger and neglect which made her mad at herself and trash her apartment and yell that yes, obviously, who ever wanted that.
For starters, how many young and hungry actresses hoping for a big break have been given such an offer, or something equally deplorable? “You want a bigger part? Well, the only other roles involve nudity/sex/rape…” And how many people have happily signed up for such roles as she did – . ‘I want to be a successful actress so I will do anything.’
The second thing that I fully realised – and not only during the shooting of the rape scene – is how mind-destroying that must be for any woman. While the audience sees the final rendition of a scene, they do not understand, that the action has been shot several times, and in the same pauses, so that the lights or the cameras can be repositioned for more effective shots.
As much as she quickly forgives him even after he apologizes, for Mima, it does still prove to be such a harrowing experience. I sympathize with any actress facing such ugly circumstances and cannot imagine how horrible it must be for them every time they bring such scenes to life.
As if that wasn’t enough, the onslaught does not stop there, as Mima is coerced into taking part in an erotic photoshoot with a male photographer renowned for making women disrobe in front of him, which more often than not leads to Mima doing an over-the-top sexual pose taken in very provocative and x-rated fashions. Once again, how many women have been caught in precisely that exact situation throughout the passage of time in question?
And, just as the scene of rape, it was a reminder of just how some of these shoots even come up. Instead, we are treated to the underlying images where the final product was taken out of what should note several of them and one was perhaps the best of the lighting and poses to highlight the naked women on the image. Quite the opposite in this case, these women would have had to pose naked in front of strangers however professional they would have been or even if it was done for a good cause.
Perfect Blue follows a standard line where the ‘script’ is normal reality (and surrealism), all hot scenes with a fair share of development but ultimately murder and assailant. there are these scenes at the beginning that even though they are completely non-violent, they are rather more horrific than the bloody scenes in the latter part of the story. The film also depict s exactly how very much doing this takes out of the life of a young woman and shatters her psychology.
There could be arguments that this is a ‘movie of two halves’ too. The first describes the appalling expectations imposed on young women, requiring them to sell their bodies for a single attention in a man-dominated industry, and the second focuses on bringing such destitute people to a level of chaos where they are able to indulge in the enjoyment of other people’s suffering.
That’s the issue with the stalker: it’s that in order to be bold enough to speak of such things, especially the stalkers, will leave any viewer with no one else younger that that and so much spoiled inst. There is so much about this such that it is typical that it will always undermine fandom that is really legate with Mima and is attired in captivity from the rest of the world.
Achievement or depressing reality that nothing has really changed in that time anyway, even if its moved a little bit forward. Many people share in these feelings and say that just because of their increased liking of Mima as a pop idol, they feel as though they own Mima. This creates in them a sense of betrayal when they see the actress changing her profession, which clearly unlike most of them, doesn’t appeal them at all.
No one gets to say it better than I do. However, I wish every one of the women around the world hopes this will be the first and last time they have to go through something so terrible. Women have been damaged through this as well, mostly at a lesser scale and not at such horrific levels of abuse. It is quite common to look out for social networking sites and see the praise or the bashing given to the popular females by the male followers for acting outside their expected norms.
Perfect Blue, while far from being perfect, is effective bordering on frightening in the way in which it articulates the way the images of women are constructed by the media to make them relevant to male audiences. But not only the media is to blame. These young iterations and their fans surround the women and the maniac, in a foreboding way, completely innocent – and of them to a particular degree guilty and to perceive it in real life, not in the literature is just as unpleasant as in the literature.
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