Where to Watch:
9.6/10
FilmFascination Rating
No one would want to watch this movie the second time. I did it just for you guys. I had to write about it someday. I decided to do it today. Anyone you ask would tell you how scary this movie is. The first time I was contemplating to watch this movie, I was scrolling through some user reviews on google. Besides the obvious appreciation for it, all I was reading is how disturbing it is. And I really underestimated it back then. I was laughing at it thinking ‘what the hell are they even talking about? It is an animated movie after all.’ You are absolutely wrong if you are thinking the way I did. You might not even be ready for the places this movie is going to take you.
‘Perfect Blue’ is about Mima who is part of a pop band called Cham. We enter her life when she is announcing the end of her career as a pop star as she plans to enter the acting industry. Things start taking a wild turn as she grows the dilemma if she took the right decision by leaving her pop star career.
The plot is amazingly executed but it isn’t about ‘what’ but really about ‘how’ that the movie impresses me so much. It is visually creative on a level you really don’t see much. Not about what you see, but how it shifts screens so smoothly and so perfectly even from the point of view of the plot. It takes a moment to realise how good the transition of one scene to another was. That is something I realised on the second viewing.
In the first viewing all I could ask was what the hell is really going on. There is no denying how twisted the movie gets. You get as paranoid as Mima about what is real and what is not. Watching it again I could see how the movie was really trying to explain itself at places it is really not possible to notice in the first viewing. The problem is one just will not dare to go at it again after you watch it for the first time. There is violence, blood, and even nudity. But even after all that one needs emotional maturity to watch the topic it covers. It is disturbingly chilling at times. After all it is so relevant!
The soundtrack of the film does so much in the sector of being scary. That humming of a woman in the film is still going on in my mind and won’t stop how much ever I try. It makes you uncomfortable in the movie. The soundtracks that are chosen for various scenes are so good in bringing the moods and emotions needed for the particular part of the film that they compel us to notice them. That is something special when you just can’t help but appreciate the efforts that can be clearly seen which have been put in choosing the right music at the right time. Even Cham’s starting song is so catchy. And how much ever lovely it actually is, the movie makes sure it gets scary if you hear it again.
I haven’t seen much of Satoshi Kon except for Paprika. But I have admired him ever since I first watched ‘Perfect Blue’. One would need to watch it to understand the level at which this movie is at. No matter how much I tell you about different scenes you have to watch it to see the magic he creates in just 81 minutes. Yes, it is that crisp. And it is worth every minute (I know that is a big compliment).
The thing one must know about Perfect Blue is that even after the second viewing there are some things that the movie leaves it to the viewers to imagine about how they must have happened. This is sometimes integrally necessary for a movie but often movies don’t get it right and end up irritating the viewer. This movie gets it right in the perfect sense. Imagination is really infinite. The limit lies in the capabilities of your mind. And this movie uses that fact to its advantage, and it makes it what it is!
Anyone who wants to start with anime movies – if you aren’t faint hearted, go watch this!
Join the FilmFascination Club!
All the updates right in your Inbox! (We will never spam you with junk mails)
You will get a message on the top of the form once your subscription is successful.