Perfect Blue

Analyzing the movie while I was watching it was the best thing I could do, every plot twist and "dream" that occurs in the duration of the film has a lot of symbolic material to determine in which diegesis is the story developing and what things are real and what others are not. The first half has its clues to help you understand what is going on with the second (and confusing) part fo the film.

The best thing from the film is the focus on the perspective of reality from the protagonist (Mima Kirigoe), because thanks to that dreams, traumas, acting, surrealism, depersonalization, derealization, vengeance and fear are presented as a stream of events and emotions that flow scrambled without any sign of resting. The only thing that sets a standard is waking up from dreams but waking up is also an event full of doubts.

The second thing that appeared to me to be very wise was the transition of Kirigoe from music to acting. That sole argument brings to the table a double meaning: a change in work identity and a hint to the dilemma of the woman when coming face to face to what defines her beyond her profession. These ideas are a symbolic reference to the same questions that the Swedish film Persona (1966) directed by Ingmar Bergman asked: Who am I? What do they want me to be? Therefore, the film exposes with the profession of acting how she can adopt other personas and blur the lines between reality and her acting.

Acting is one part of the puzzle, the other one is music. Her transition to acting is a choice to make her career grow, but that decision wasn’t the favorite of her fans, specially one that is obsessed with her. This obsession is one of the many catalysts that have its results in the second part of the film, but it also is a note on the obscure side of idol culture in Japan.

Finally, the animation and style differences within characters and background are key to stablish a focus on the persons and express their feelings with the contrasting background. Sometimes it is a little bit obvious than other ones, for instance: a simple composition occurs when Kirigoe is in her room with her computer and the red background of her room is in contrast with her face, while metaphorical scenes like the ones in the subway can express her determination to change or her ticket to depersonalization.

I love surrealist films and I was a bit distracted from this type of films for a long time, this film only helped me to remember why I love so much that type of perspective from reality and how it can blur the line between logic and dreams. Perfect Blue shows from the perspective of a new actress and ex-idol how the effects of depersonalization and derealization (supported by harassment) destroy the thread that unifies her reality with her identity.