PERFECT BLUE: COMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS

First requested review by a friend and former classmate of mine from college. Well this is a bit late upload I was doing some tweaking and was busy from work and weekend personal business.

A full length anime film that came out 1997 (Fantasia Festival) and 1998 (Japan) with a running time of 81 minutes. Dubbed in both Japanese and English.

Given a genre of Dementia, Horror, Psychological, Drama and a rating of R+ due to mild nudity, blood, and other scenes that are not suited to younger audiences.

Ever wondered what it takes to be popular in the field of showbiz?

Pop idols, acting, hosting, directing, managing stars and other related fields when it comes to becoming a popular or known in show business. This anime film almost touches what actually happens in the life of those who wish to become popular or just to be known in the world of show business.

The film follows Mima Kirigoe the former lead singer (that is how I saw her standing in the trio) of the fictional J-pop idol group CHAM. Aiming to be an actress Mima left the group making the former trio into a duo. After leaving the idol group Mima enters the field of acting where she goes to great lengths to prove herself as an actress.

After Mima resigned as a J-pop idol she received a fan mail where it mentioned that a fan will be watching Mima’s Room which turns out to be a website and not her real room as per her manager’s information to her.

The website turned out to be about her everyday life from when she was an idol up to the time when she became an actress in a television drama titled Double Bind where she got to play a role as part of her new acting career.

As a rookie actress she was willing to take measures to prove her worth as an actress, this included her taking on a risky part where her character becomes a rape victim of men who were watching her dance in a strip club where her character works. This later caused her mentally disturbed which resulted to her having delusions which includes her mind mixing reality with her acting. I guess this is where psychotherapists comes in to help realign the mindset of actors separating their on screen characters from their real life personality.

Just like any other popular Idol or Star, there is also a hardcore fan in this film that denies the fact that his favorite idol has resigned from being an idol and chose to pursue a new career in acting. This fan follows a website called Mima’s Room a website where Mima’s daily life as a pop idol, not to mention Mima has no knowledge that this kind of website about her exists specially when she manages to get hold of a desktop and first looked at the said website she discovers that it covers almost every detail that she has done each day until she returns home.

Mima has a manager that is really close to her and thinks of her well-being every day from when she was an idol up to when she became an actress. She was also the one who objected the part that Mima's character in the drama will be a rape victim which will be one of the key points of the story where Mima begins to question both reality and the character she plays in the TV drama series. This also made an impact to her former reputation when she was an Idol, both to her fans as well as her former group members. Another turning point in this movie is when Mima was in a photo shoot where her poses were very seductive and to the point where she was instructed to show everything. This later triggered her brain to see an illusion of her previous self who was once an Idol talking to her and giving her a self guilt of why she crossed the line.

The film showed Mima starting to develop split personalty one who aims to be an actress and the other was her Idol personality who still wishes that she never quit the path of an Idol. This further escalated when both the film writer and the photographer were brutally murdered and the Mima finds the tools used for the murder in her apartment.

The film even though was an anime showed a close to reality events that may occur to those who are in the showbiz career and possibilities of what they will face just while climbing the steep path to be famous and engrave their names in the lime lights of showbiz.

For Mima she is one of those who had a simple dream of just being famous through singing and later chose to change her path and take up acting thinking that it will help her more not only because it will make her famous but also financially. Challenges and obstacles started crashing onto her path to the point that she has reached a breaking point where she could hardly tell what is real from her acting. Even getting to a point where she chases an illusion of herself saying that she is the real Mima and the Mima that she is now is a fake. But there is a twist after all those chases between the illusion Mima and the real Mima and that is something I will not say here for those who has not seen the film.

The film was a bit dark and crazy as the movie progressed showing the path that Mima chose to take from her dream of being an Idol up to the point when she took the path of becoming an actress where she faced a lot of obstacles and changes that slowly affected her everyday life.

I know this review has some spoilers since I just can't avoid hitting it, but for much better view of the story it is still better to try and watch and film.

Target audience of the film are more on mature audiences considering the "mild nudity" (which only included Mima and no other), the murder scenes were uncensored, bloody parts, topics discussed which are not suitable for younger audiences.

Another to take note for this film for those who has seen the film Black Swan before watching this film they might see scenes that are similar to both films. But that is for another review since I have not seen Black Swan yet but I have seen reviews compare both films.

Highly recommended for those into genre of dementia, horror, psychological anime. I enjoyed watching it in its Japanese dub version and I will be scheduling to watch the English dubbed version for another future review and comparison.

On to the next review.