Bleaugh

Funny. You look forward to vacations all year, but then two days in, you have no idea what to do with yourself.

Went down to Neo Tokyo yesterday (London's only anime/manga/cool stuff store) and rented Perfect Blue. I have a natural aversion to anything called a 'psychological thriller', since usually the psychology angle is hamfisted and often just wrong, and my definition of a 'thriller' varies widely from what I see on screen. But this one succeeded on both counts. Well, mostly.

Many of the Japanese films I've seen recently like to play with the blurring of reality and fantasy, so much so that I wonder if it's a Japanese obsession. Films like The Grudge and Ringu spring to mind. Blue also wanders the same territory, using the vehicle of the 'pop idol'.

Japanese pop idols have so far escaped my notice, as well of most of North America's. They appear to be cute young things who can sing and/or act. Cuteness remains the main ingredient, though. Noriko Sakai seems to be a good example of this. And she likes sunflowers!

Blue tells the story of Mima, an pop idol who leaves her band to branch out as an actress. As a singer, she was the epitome of cuteness and otherwordly perfection. As an actress, though, she quickly becomes prey to the more lavicious attitudes and demands of the Japanese media circus. In short order, she gets a job in a television series, and is asked to film a rape scene. She quietly does as she is asked, but the psychological damage is done. It continues as she poses nude for a men's magazine. While she is polite and apologetic to her handlers, photographers, and screenwriters, she leaves her rage and shame until it's triggered by other events--like the death of her pet fish.

Mima also finds a website, allegedly written by her--but isn't. Then people begin to die, and our heroine begins to hallucinate, seeing herself back in her virginal pop star persona. Is she killing the people who are exploiting her? Or is all of it just a fantasy?

The film looks at the obessiveness of pop culture fans, of how clinging people can be to their unattainable idols. They need them to be perfect, and out of reach. (Which is another odd bit about the film: after Mima performs, she does her own grocery shopping, passing people on the street who recognize her, to return to a cramped apartment. In Japan, you can be a celebrity, but also walk the street, apparently. And not make any money being famous, either.) The first chance that the media gets, though, they thrust the idols through expected sexual exploitations: sex scenes to fulfill darker fantasies, as well as other forms of pornography. The consumption is then complete, and the allure of the idol is gone. The fantasy has consumed the reality of the person, leaving them damaged and empty.

This got me thinking of all the celebrities who have posed in Playboy as a last stop career salvage--and how it never works. Mimi Rogers, Charisma Carpenter, Chyna (is she a celebrity? She even went as far as to make a sex video). And now, they're C-list.

Anyway, don't hold me remembering Chyna's sex video because of Perfect Blue against it. It's a decent, thoughtful film, even if some of it is difficult to watch.