Perfect Blue

[rilocay]

Damn this movie is a kickass thriller!

it was on last night on sbs (Australia) and i recorded it as romeo must die was on at the same time (i hadnt seen it b4).
Perfect blue is an anime thriller about a pop idol turned actor and a fan isnt very happy with the career choices she has made, so they choose to fix this up. She starts to see herself as the past pop idol she was and isnt sure whats going on as the fan causes more havoc..

Omg had a twist all the time and was great how they got you confused between her acting and real life persona. one of my fave animes now! theres not much i can say without spoiling but this is a movie you MUST checkout, even if you arent one for anime's.... 9/10


what'd u guys who'v seen it think?

[Psychocandy]

I love this movie. It's a stunning example of what can be achieved in the medium of animation. With it's intelligent plot and frequently unnerving moments it's also one of the best arguements that cartoons don't have to be just for kids

Satoshi Kon, the director of Perfect Blue, has another movie, Millenium Actress, that's long past due a western release (it came out in Japan in 2001). I've heard nothing but great things about it. It is getting an official DVD release in October in the US. Not before time.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000AK80C.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Here's a review from Anime Jump...

Auteur director Satoshi Kon gave us a very interesting film in 1995's Perfect Blue-- his first movie was a taut, meticulously crafted, visually warped little suspense thriller. To be honest, I expected more of the same in his brand-new Millennium Actress (which only opens in Japan this month), which I had the opportunity to take in at the Big Apple Anime Fest. But Kon took me, and the rest of the audience, by surprise-- Millennium Actress employs Kon's taste for suspense and many of his excellent visual tricks, but at its heart, it has warmth and humor that Perfect Blue lacks. It's an exceptional movie, equal parts love story, period piece, and drama, with generous bits of comedy and action stirred into the mix. With Millennium Actress, Kon has easily sidestepped the "sophmore curse" that sometimes plagues directors' second films, putting forth what might just be the first truly great animated film to hit U.S. audiences in 2003.
Genya Tachibana is a documentary filmmaker who seems content to live vicariously through the movies he studies, in particular through a long string of movies starring Chiyoko Fujiwara, a starlet who'd dominated Japan's film industry in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. When Ginei, the long-since-defunct studio which produced Chiyoko's movies, is set to be razed, Tachibana takes it upon himself to make a documentary about the studio-- and ends up finding something that inspires him to set up a meeting with the now-elderly actress.

It's not that easy, though. For some reason, Chiyoko went into seclusion decades prior, and hasn't been seen in public for a very long time. She's reluctant to see visitors, but something about Genya's story inspires her to allow Genya, along with Ida, his youthful, cynical cameraman, to conduct an interview with her. Naturally, Genya is delighted (and hilariously nervous, especially considering his fierce, bearded visage and large frame) to meet his idol, and eager to learn about the details of her career-- and, perhaps, why she went into hiding so many years ago.

What follows is... well, quite frankly, pure cinematic joy. Kon skillfully uses the story outline detailed above as a vehicle to describe the life of Chiyoko, from her youth as a schoolgirl in pre-WWII Japan to her greatest successes of the late 1950s and beyond. But it's not enough for Chiyoko's life to be depicted as a simple series of flashbacks-- Kon uses portions of the fictional movies she starred in (all carefully modeled to resemble real-life Japanese movies of the time) as a means of telling her life's story. It's a marvelous cinematic trick that's a little difficult to describe, and it gets even more complicated when Genya and Ida are drawn into the action. The thing is, it's not enough for Chiyoko to star in her own flashbacks and films-- in Kon's eyes (and, therefore, the viewer's), Chiyoko's recollections are so vivid that the two men feel like they're actually witnessing her life unfold before them. And so they are, with remarkably entertaining results.

Chiyoko's life as an actress is interesting enough to support the film on its own, but again, that simply isn't enough for Kon. An encounter with a mysterious artist early in her life makes a deep impression on her, such that she spends much of her life pursuing the mystery man, desperate for answers-- and Kon eagerly follows suit, carefully editing the various scenes from her movies to reflect these themes of pursuit and yearning. Amusingly, the same characters (including a snooty older actress and a stern, scar-faced authority figure) keep making appearances, almost always playing the same 'part'. All told, the presentation of the story is dazzling and completely engrossing, and Kon pulls it off perfectly.

Through this visually intoxicating cinematic technique, Millennium Actress forges its own world, a world of passion and danger and wistfulness. It's filled out nicely by the character designs of Kon himself, and further defined by the tight, lucid scriptwriting of Sadayuki Murai. I wish I could cite the film's art director, because Millennium Actress's costume and color designs are spectacular as well. Unfortunately, the cast list wasn't available to me at the time of this review, but I will say that the cast all perform excellently-- in particular, the three actresses who play Chiyoko at various stages in her life really breathe life into the character convincingly. Topping off the near-perfect execution of the film is Susumu Hirasawa's (Berserk) surging, pulsing musical score, featuring "Lotus", one of his typically hypnotic vocal songs.

It's rather difficult to summarize Millennium Actress's story, because unlike in most films, the story is not the most important part of the movie. Kon seems far more interested in communicating the moods and themes of Chiyoko's life, drawing upon the library of her films to communicate emotions rather than just pushing the story along. Like I keep repeating, it's a really interesting technique-- while not necessarily linear, it makes sense in the context of the movie, and it gives Millennium Actress a rare sense of style.

With Millennium Actress, Satoshi Kon essentially serves up a slice of magic realism that would be right at home with the works of Laura Esquivel or Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. The movie doesn't concern itself with fantasy or science fiction (despite numerous scenes of these types of movies that Chiyoko starred in, including a brilliantly-used repeating space cruiser launch sequence), but with an understated sort of magic-- magic that can alter people's perceptions in the real world, if it's communicated through the emotions of someone in love.

Satoshi Kon's done a wonderful and outrageous thing in Millennium Actress-- he's managed to sidestep or ignore pretty much every anime and Japanese cinema cliche in the book, only pausing occasionally to lampoon them in scenes from Chiyoko's movies (watch out for the carefully altered Absolutely-Not-Godzilla in one scene). Millennium Actress is a wildly visceral visual ride, but it's also a marvellous modern fairytale. Even the best movies rarely get this good.


Grade: A+

[Slim]

A great thriller and one of my favourite anime movies. Like Psycho wrote, it's an impressive example of adult animation. It's not quite hentai ;), but this one ain't for the kids. Disturbing and involving dark story about the Japanese pop-icon phenomenon.

The one thing I dislike is the lousy English translation. There are more than a few lines that sound stupid.

9/10

Looking forward to Millennium Actress. :)

[Tagia_Romero]

God yes, fantasic anime thriller indeed. It's what Hitchcock and Disney would have done if the two had put their heads together. The finale... brrrr!!!!

"Excuse me... who are you?"

[flowrchild]

I didn't like this movie, but I am clearly in the minority. I've liked every other anime movie I've seen so far though.

[Damned Martian]

Originally posted by Slim
A great thriller and one of my favourite anime movies. Like Psycho wrote, it's an impressive example of adult animation. It's not quite hentai ;), but this one ain't for the kids. Disturbing and involving dark story about the Japanese pop-icon phenomenon.

The one thing I dislike is the lousy English translation. There are more than a few lines that sound stupid.

9/10
More or less what i think of it, but i was a bit disappointed for that too explicit ending. It's like if, in the end, the director would have thought in making a more commercial ending to satisfy more people. If it had been in David Lynch's hands, i surely wiould be talking about a masterpiece. 8/10

[harosa]

There is a live action remake of Perfect Blue that was released recently.

[Slim]

Originally posted by harosa
There is a live action remake of Perfect Blue that was released recently.

And apparently it's not a very good remake.

[Damned Martian]

Originally posted by Slim
And apparently it's not a very good remake. Two questions:

1) Can you give me a link to imdb's page of the remake, or some info about it?

2) Can someone explain me the references page of Perfect Blue in imdb? It's:

References
Accused, The (1988)
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)

Referenced in
Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Spoofs
"Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" (1993)

Featured in
Madonna Live: Drowned World Tour 2001 (2001) (TV)
:confused:

[flowrchild]

Originally posted by damned martian
2) Can someone explain me the references page of Perfect Blue in imdb?

Referenced in
Requiem for a Dream (2000)

:confused:

The scene where the lead character sticks her head under water and starts screaming, is almost exactly duplicated by Jennifer Connely in Requiem for a Dream.

http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/pb/pb_shot5s.jpg

[Damned Martian]

...and i guess The Acussed is because of the raping scene?

[Fisting Ackbar]

Originally posted by damned martian
...and i guess The Acussed is because of the raping scene?

I guess so.

[flowrchild]

The Silence Of The Lambs thing is a little bit of a stretch to me. Why, because they're both thrillers?

[Slim]

Originally posted by damned martian
Two questions:

1) Can you give me a link to imdb's page of the remake, or some info about it?
http://shop.hkdvdstore.com/images/dvd-perfect_blue.jpg

Title: Perfect Blue (Yume nara samete)
Director: Toshiki Sato
Cast: Ayaka Maeda, Masahiro Toda, Nao Omori, Taro Suwa
Runtime: 103 min
Release Year: 2002

Synopsis: A bizarre and bloody tale of a former teen-idol turned actress plagued by a psychotic stalker and plunged into a world in which the delineation between fantasy and reality rapidly becomes blurred to the point of incoherence.

IMdB link: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0367257/
Review: http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/perfbyns.shtml

[Slim]

The "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" spoof is easy to catch if you've ever seen the cheesy show. I don't get the Silence of the Lambs reference either.

[Damned Martian]

Originally posted by Slim
The "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" spoof is easy to catch if you've ever seen the cheesy show. Explain?

[Slim]

Originally posted by damned martian
Explain?

Allow me to illustrate. :D

http://www.rovang.org/sentai/mmpr-rangers.jpg

This group of multi-colored individuals were the original "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers", a popular kids show that debuted in 1993. An American version of the Japanese Super Sentai series. Most notable thing about this series is that the same stock footage is used in every action sequence which occurs in an episode. In addition to that, it's very cheesy, lame and predictable.

Near the beginning of Perfect Blue, there's a short scene where something awfully similar is being demonstrated on stage.

[Damned Martian]

I didn't need the "what's a power ranger" explanation and, over all, i DIDN'T need the pic (my EYEEEEESSS!)!! But thanks for the second commentary :D

[Slim]

Originally posted by damned martian
I didn't need the "what's a power ranger" explanation and, over all, i DIDN'T need the pic (my EYEEEEESSS!)!! But thanks for the second commentary :D

Too much, eh? :)

[JCPhoenix]

great solid movie. so twisty, i loved the repeated waking up part. fantastic, it's the first time i've seen my favorite style of movie (the twisty appearancevsreality style movie) mixed into animation.

8/10

[Cronos]

i watched this a few days ago and was very impressed, its a great thriller, the animation is excellent and one of the best Animes i have seen,

the story is excellent and the twists and turns of the story make it even better

10/10

Ive heard of Millennium Actress and really want to see it now, its definitely one ill be picking up

[rilocay]

Arrow has just reviewd this flick with flying colours, check it out!

[Slim]

Wow. It's one of his all-time favourites now. The only real complaint he had was the dubbing, which is expected since the subtitles are crap as well.

[_eraserhead]

Amazing movie! I'm glad Arrow finally found it, I know he had been looking for it for a while. But I fucking loved this flick it's been my favorite anime ever since I watched about a year ago.

[XvoorheesX]

I've known about this ever since it came out in '95, but never paid any attention to it. I saw Arrow's review this morning and now I'm pumped to see it... Anything that manages to combine Hitchcock, Disney, and Lynch needs me to see it.

I'll be raiding my local stores anime section tomorrow.

[_eraserhead]

Hey, have any of you seen the live action version? I'm not sure if I should order it or not...