The story is an instantly familiar one- a tale that, if you follow the music and film industries at all, have heard many times: the rise and fall of the Disney Pop Princesses. Since the earliest days of child stars- they often times wash out, turn to substance abuse, or some other descent into madness- but a few make it out and turn into respectable, talented actors and actresses. Many of these former child prodigies have trouble finding success and being able to reinvent themselves, transcending their "cute kid" act, and trading it in for more credible adult roles. This is the essence of Mima's trials and tribulations. She is your Britney Spears. Your Lindsay Lohan. Your Miley Cyrus. Coming from a beginning of relative success- but wanting more- to mature, to eclipse the role of the teenage star and take on a more mature platform in life, and in status, no longer relegated to a typecast. But, our pasts follow us- and Mima's life is no different.
Torn is the word that best describes her feelings towards her newly minted career in acting. Ambivalent. While Mima's fans clamor for the dainty, sparkly pure pop singer, she pushes forward in a grittier, more mature direction, seeking to distance herself from her past- and as such, goes to some rather extreme lengths, even shocking, to do so. It's the knee jerk reaction that we see from the teen pop stars here, too. An ever repeating, never ending saga of tragedy. Mima takes on any role that she's given, without question. Scenes that involve rape, or murder, she's fine with it because she "wants to be an actress" (irregardless of the fact that these are often seen as "damaging" roles to budding actors and actresses). In her personal life, she shrinks from her former friends, and draws away from her fans, wholeheartedly embracing this new life and career. But, she's still haunted by the mental image she has of herself as the Pop Idol.
In a turn for the psychological, Kon weaves a narrative that plays out masterfully on the screen- particularly through his cinematography. The use of match cuts is phenomenal- particularly with the use of screens, and then pulling back to reveal that what we were seeing was actually on the set (since the movie is about a film/tv actress). Closeups of faces, pulling away to reveal them in a new setting are used to good effect too, along with textbook mirror shots. He also makes excellent use of jump cuts to create a jarring, unreliable narrative where we're not sure what to make of what's going on on screen and is further obfuscated when we see another layer of perspective in each successive cut. This all serves to create a mind bending visual perspective- but it's not without its faint cues to let the audience know what's real and what isn't, if you're paying close attention. This brings me to another thing that Kon is a wizard with: detail. He rewards the audience by throwing out esoteric bits of imagery and small changes in the setting or characters that, when pieced together, give you a better understanding of the plot in what could otherwise be a real mess. I would not call Perfect Blue predictable, but knowing Kon's style and through paying close attention, one can discern part of the twist- but there are more than just a few "gotcha" moments.
The weakest element of the movie is easily the sound. My copy of Perfect Blue is a hard subbed original Japanese audio- and the sound itself is very quiet, and the equipment used to record with was obviously not the highest caliber (scratchiness, slight echoes, or fuzz). The music too, was very sparse. This may have been an artistic choice, but I thought that it would have benefited from more music, rather than just in moments of action or tension. The voice acting was acceptable- not as oaky as my desk, but not nearly as dynamic as other productions. Bridget Hoffman is a bright spot as Mima in the English version, however.
All in all, Perfect Blue was a great entrance for Kon, and an interesting psychological narrative in the vein of Memento, or The Usual Suspects (though it's definitely not as good as either). If you like mind benders with a very mature tone and content, you can't do much better than this.
