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- Spoilers -
Perfect Blue is a film set in the 90's by Satoshi Kon about a girl named Mima who has recently been having some success as a singer in a pop idol group called CHAM slongside her two friends. They dress in frilly pink outfits and give song and dance concerts at small league stages (e.g. on the rooftop stage at a mall). She has gained something of a following and her fans (mostly men) lovingly call her "Mimarin." Meanwhile, her agent thinks that she would be better off being an actress so that her career will last beyond her youth. Her manager Rumi, on the other hand, who was actually a pop idol too when she was young, says that they should think about Mima's feelings and all the singing classes she's taken. Mima ends up going along with the actress plan, feeling that she should do what her agent thinks is best for her, even though she worked so hard to become an idol. She puts her desires on the back burner, puts on a brave face, and does whatever is asked of her. Unfortunately, this means going on talk shows by herself, being photographed in the nude by famous photographers, and taking film roles that feature degrading, traumatizing scenes about rape and strip clubs. One of the set workers even comments on how they are filming on a set they built because no strip club wants such a terrible scene filmed on their property. Mima saves her breakdowns for her room, where she cries and struggles with this new, overly sexual version of what the public is seeing. Her pop idol persona was innocent, sweet, and girly and now Mima has to dress like a grown woman and be seen as intensely sexual.
(Picture from Google Images)
At the same time, strange things begin to happen. A bomb inside a fan letter blows up, hurting her agent. She sees the same creepy security guard everywhere and feels that he is following her. Someone is writing a blog called Mima's Room that is written as though Mima herself is writing to her fans, and there is active debate among her fans about whether or not it is really her. As she reads through the blog, which is her first ever experience with the internet, Mima begins to see certain entries that describe exactly what Mima did during the day, down to details about what milk she likes to buy and how she gets off the train. As she transitions more and more into the life of a small time actress, she gets a fax calling her a traitor and the paranoia begins to set in day by day. She loses track of time and place to the point where even the audience is confused. Events in the TV show she stars in seem to mimic things going on in her life, or she forgets whether she was dreaming or actually visiting with her manager Rumi. Her fish die, she feels violated by her career, the director of the TV show is murdered, and she feels constantly watched. All the while, Mima sees a frilly pink pop idol version of herself taunting her from windows, mirrors, the TV, and even standing right in front of her.
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Throughout these ordeals, we see glimpses of the life of the security guard who watches Mima. Online he goes by the name "Me-Mania." He writes to her, writes for her, keeps the Mima's Room blog open on his computer, posts pictures of Mimarin the pop idol all over his room, and buys all the magazines featuring naked pictures of her so that he can destroy the dirty images and keep others from seeing them.
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The paranoia reaches a peak when she dreams about murdering the photographer who took the naked pictures of her, and the next day hears on the news that it actually happened that night and she finds a bag of bloody clothes in her closet. The audience continues to be thrown back and forth by the uncertainty of it all when it is suggested that Mima has been simply imagining that she was ever a pop idol, then we discover that that is simply her character in the TV show. After filming, Mima finds herself alone walking to her dressing room and is attacked by the security guard Me-Mania. He holds her down on the strip club set, intending to rape her and most likely kill her, but somehow Mima knock him out with a nearby hammer. She stumbles out and eventually finds her manager Rumi, but when Mima leads her back to the set to show her, the man is gone.
(Picture of the murdered director found on Google Images)
Concerned for her, Rumi takes the dazed Mima back to her apartment. As Mima tries to calm down, she suddenly realizes that the fish in the tank are still alive. She then looks out the window to see a different view than what she has from her apartment. Rumi emerges from the kitchen dressed in a bright red pop idol outfit, and pulls out the handheld ice pick that was used to stab the photographer. We suddenly know that it was Rumi who has been stalking Mima, who started the blog, and who killed the men who made Mima look bad, including Me-Mania and Mima's agent that same evening. She went so far as to copy Mima's room down to the most minute details in order to adopt her persona. A chase ensues as MIma jumps from the apartment balcony to the next building, scrambling down to the dark, deserted streets where she runs from what feels like the pop idol character she left behind. In the end, they are both hurt and almost hit by a truck. Jumping into the future, we see Mima visiting Rumi in the psyche hospital. Mima has clearly become a famous, successful actress, possibly due to publicity surrounding the Rumi case, and the hospital staff whisper as she walks by. The doctor says that Rumi still sometimes adopts her Mimarin pop idol persona, but otherwise is quiet. The film ends with Mima getting into her car, seeing herself in the rear view mirror, and proudly proclaiming "I am me."
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There are many reasons why Perfect Blue is well done. The main is probably the level of immersion into Mima's confusion that it manages to produce. Even a viewer following along closely might think that the easiest answer is the right one. There are many clues that point towards the security guard Me-Mania as the main villain, and only a few that point towards the manager Rumi. On top of that is the constant concern over the image of the pop idol Mimarin that follows Mima around and pays attention to Me-Mania.
There are two scenes that best sum up how misleading this film can be. The first is not really one scene but a series of scenes that follow the same pattern. These are the scenes that get us to question Mima's sanity, while at the same time she is questioning it. Salvador Dali once said that "there is only one difference between a madman and me: I am not mad." The viewer spends a lot of time wondering if Mima is crazy and is aware of her decline, and whether or not that makes her truly mad. The fact that she is questioning the strangeness of everything, including the impossible visions of Mimarin, gives the viewer some hope that she is of a sound mind and merely trapped in a mystery. Unfortunately, that hope begins to fade as Mima becomes more and ore confused about what day it is, where she is, and what she is doing, and then is that hope is snuffed out when she finds a bag of bloody clothes in the closet. Has Mimarin been getting to her? Did Mima subconsciously try to take back those naked photos by killing the man who orchestrated them? This buildup of doubt also follows the trend of Mimarin seeming to become more real, not just showing up in Mima's reflection but appearing right before her eyes, which really makes Mima seem mentally ill. Her recurring role on the TV show Double Bind also adds to the complicated time and location settings because the character ends up being a mentally ill murderer who thinks she is a famous pop idol. In those moments, we wonder if the TV show was all in Mima's mind based on the reality around her. Confusion sets in again when we learn that is not the case.
The second scene that really leads you along is when Me-Mania is in his little apartment surrounded by pictures of his favorite pop idol posted all over the walls. This definitely points to a stalker sort of personality, but interestingly all the photos are of Mimarin the pop idol and none of them are of Mima in her day to day life, which her stalker clearly knows about based on the blog Mima's Room. Me-Mania has the blog open on his computer while the ghostly figure of Mimarin stands by him and hugs him. He types various lines that seem to be from the perspective of Mimarin and seem like they might be posted to the blog, but we never actually see him do anything beyond type them out in a word document or perhaps a chat. There is some possibility that Rumi discovered him and used him for her needs, although she does not seem at all against dirtying her own hands with the blood of those who would destroy Mimarin's image. This whole scene at first suggests that Me-Mania is the stalker who works at every venue where Mima performs, who takes pictures of her to put up in his room, who keeps a blog chronicling her life, and who is the most angry about the new, sexual, grown up Mima being shown to the public. However, by the end of the film we realize that there were some very subtle hints to the contrary, and then we finally learn for sure that Rumi is the culprit. This whole scene really makes it seem like the obvious person did the terrible deeds.
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As for the actual culprit, Rumi was once a pop idol, presumably called something cute like "Rumi-chan," who is now overweight and works to support other young women who wish to become pop idols. For most of the film, she seems like a wonderful support character to Mima. She teaches Mima to use the internet, she stands up for Mima when her agent insists she give up the life as a pop idol she worked so hard for, she protests against film roles that will put Mima in uncomfortable and possibly traumatic situations, and is always sweet, soft-spoken, and considerate. Although I did not suspect Rumi throughout the film, I did notice when I first saw her character that her eyes are drawn fairly small and very far apart, and the only other character with eyes sort of like that is the scary security guard Me-Mania. By the end of the film, I began to wonder if this design similarity was intentional. Anyway, there are little clues that tell us that Rumi might be Mima's stalker. She knows where Mima lives so it would be easy to follow her around, and probably knows many of her habits. Mima also has Rumi over on multiple occasions, so Rumi knows what the entirety of Mima's apartment looks like, including what stuffed animals she has and what kind of fish she takes care of. This ties in to how we see at the climax that Rumi has copied everything about Mima's room that she could, although she apparently did not kill the fish. Another interesting moment is after Mima goes through with the filming of the rape scene. Rumi and Mima's agent are sitting at the back of the set, and Rumi cries. The audience and the agent of course assume that Rumi is crying for Mima's sake, but by the end you wonder if she cried to see the last of the pop idol Mimarin's innocence disappearing.
Super Eyepatch Wolf on YouTube made a video called Why Perfect Blue is Terrifying. He talks about how Mima's pop idol persona evolved from being her own self being presented to the world into an avatar that is more powerful, more arrogant, and more assertive than she is. The pop idol Mimarin who glows, floats, and speaks to Mima through mirrors and windows at first seems like a product of Mima's disturbed mind, or perhaps some sort of science fiction or fantasy character, but she is actually much more than that. As mentioned before, we see her with Me-Mania, supporting him and hugging him. I also said that Rumi was protecting Mimarin's image. Her image is the most important thing to both Me-Mania and Rumi, for they have both bought into the avatar so much that they cannot care for the real person who originally created that persona. Me-Mania loves Mimarin desperately and Rumi desperately wants to be Mimarin. Her delusion is shown throughout the film alongside Mima's own visions of the glowing Mimarin, so when we see the murder of the photographer, it really looks as though Mima is committing it. While it is possible Rumi had Me-Mania kill the director and the photographer, I think it is most likely that Rumi herself chose the stab and bleed these men to death, especially since she does so at the end to Me-Mania and the agent, even managing to drag their bodies to some out of the way corner. If she is strong enough to do that, then despite looking out of shape Rumi probably has the strength to run after Mima the way she does. Along with that, when Me-Mania actually spoke for the first time, I was surprised by his oddly high voice for such a large, looming, intimidating character. It really made me doubt that he was as scary as he initially seemed and making me more confused about who Mima's primary stalker is.
The whole climax is very surreal because it pulls together everyone's feelings about Mimarin the pop idol as an avatar, an alter ego, a living character, and a conscience. When Rumi steps out dressed in her new Mimarin outfit, the audience does not immediately see that it is Rumi. Mimarin talks for a little bit before we get a glimpse in the nearby mirror that tells us it is Rumi dressed up. Both Mima and Rumi perceive the presence of Mimarin, although in different ways. Rumi has adopted Mimarin as another version of herself, the pop idol dream that she had to let go of years ago. She sees herself as a beautiful, glowing, powerful being of star power. Mima sees her this way too because in this moment the avatar she unknowingly created and released into the minds of others is coming after her. She did not return to being a pop idol and now she is being punished. Mimarin chases after Mima with impossible ease, floating through the air like a fairy and skipping along like a child. Through the occasional reflection in a closed shop window we can see that Rumi is sweating and working very hard to chase Mima down, but even in Rumi's mind she is a weightless pop idol predator. With a murderer behind her, Mima sees Rumi in the same light, for she is keeping up with Mima at what should be an impossible speed for someone heavier and older. In Mima's mind, Rumi might as well be flying after her with that ice pick in hand. Therein lies the intense immersion of the film's storytelling and visual choices, as many films would probably just switch to Rumi acting like Mimarin rather than continue to show her as the pop idol character. At the very end when Rumi panics after losing her wig, we do see her as Rumi for a few moments, but once she has the wig back on she returns to being Mimarin because that is who she feels she is and that is the avatar who Mima understands her to represent.
(Picture found on Google Images)
Even Mima (pronounced "mee-mah") and Me-Mania's names seem to be clues. In Japanese, long words are often shortened to two or four syllable abbreviations. I would say that "Mima" actually sounds like it could be short for "Me-Mania." Or, a simple thing like a girl named Mima can turn into something big and scary like Me-Mania, swallowing many people.
(Picture found on Google Images)
