Perfect Blue Review

Date finished: 4/18/2022SUMMARY

Perfect Blue is a film that is, on the surface, about one thing, but ends up being about another thing. I really appreciated the story and thought it was engaging and thought-provoking. While I didn’t appreciate some aspects of one of the characters in the film, I thought overall the characterization was above-average. The animation really holds well in my eyes and there was something warm about the film. I liked it a lot and will definitely be looking for similar recommendations. SCORE: 8.9/10STORY

Perfect Blue is about a pop star who leaves the life of a pop idol to instead pursue a career as a rookie actress. While performing her duties as such, she experiences an internet stalker who seems to know her every move, and then all of a sudden people around her who start “wronging” her keep showing up dead! Crazy! Perfect Blue’s story was creative and entertaining. There is a sort of dance that happens where you think the answer to the plot is obvious, but then something happens that makes you question whether or not it is truly that obvious, and then you go back to thinking it’s obvious, and then BAM they hit you with a right hook and before you know it you’re on the ground unaware of your surroundings wondering how you ended up on a beach in another country with no organs left. I think that most people will be able to guess the ending (or at least part of it) before it occurs, but I don’t think that makes the film any less enjoyable. I thought the story was mature, engaging, and interesting. SCORE: 9/10CHARACTERS

I would say the characters in Perfect Blue are above average but not life-changing. Each character is pretty basic and there are only two multidimensional characters, though this is to be expected for a 1.5 hour long film. Still, the one criticism I have of the film is that the stalker is a physically disfigured individual. I don’t think it’s fair to hold such an old film to today’s standards, but I did feel a little icky that they chose to draw a disfigured dude as the villain. I’ve never really been one to appreciate the otherization of disfigured people and so it kind of made me feel a little icky, but again I wouldn’t remove points from the score because I don’t think the world was as accepting (especially Japan) during the time when the film was released. Still, overall I would rate the characters to be solidly above-average. SCORE: 9/10VISUALS

I’m not sure what it is about the era of animation from the 80s through the 90s. Perhaps it’s because that’s the era of animation that I grew up with so I have the deepest emotional connection to it? No idea. The point is, I loved the animation and character design in Perfect Blue. Though a few characters had some very strange facial proportions which made me chuckle, I think overall the visuals are really strong. The visuals do a really good job of disorienting the viewer when the main character is disoriented which I thought was kind of a neat detail. For an old film, the animation holds up really well in my opinion. SCORE: 9/10MUSIC

Music was a fairly small part of the film but I still enjoyed the soundtrack. The music in the film was never distracting and everything fit together pretty well, so there’s not much to say about this aspect. SCORE: 8/10ENJOYMENT

I really enjoyed this one. I’m a big fan of psycho-thrillers, and Perfect Blue is a great example of the type of film I enjoy. There were some layers to the plot, and the way the story plays out was enjoyable, engaging, and kept me second-guessing my initial predictions. While the film could have benefited from some better and more multidimensional characters, I think Perfect Blue did just fine for an old film. Honestly, Perfect Blue would probably make a great novel. I’m definitely going to be checking out the studio/staff’s other work to try and find a similar film. All around great movie. SCORE: 9.5/10