Perfect Blue

absolute cinema. Perfect Blue does a great job of putting you into the shoes of the main character, and so you feel unsettled, creeped out and downright terrified along with her. it serves as a criticism of idol culture (and, in a sense, celeb culture) all with the backdrop of an incredible story that makes you question, just like Mima, what is real and what isn’t. are we truly who we want to be, or do we live our lives as illusions that play out for the sake of others? Mima certainly becomes the latter, with the agency trading her singing career for a new one as an actress, and we see just how dangerous it can be to settle for being someone that isn’t truly you. in losing herself, she becomes little more than a tool, an object to serve the basic desires of those who employ her, and so too can the same happen with us if our own convictions crumble for the sake of pleasing others. Rumi’s role as a mirror to Mimi’s “tainted” self was so well written, so cruel, and the fact that even this “persona” almost dies suggests that even Mimi’s idealised past before her career change was also not wholly true to herself. You could even argue that perhaps this identity’s survival was actually promising though, in its desire to preserve Mima’s own personal identity, and I like to side with this thinking. It seemed as though the world itself was shifting to jolt Mima back into reality, urging her to peel back her persona and search within to find who she truly is, without all the pressures of the idol lifestyle pressing down on her. definitely a must watch, absolutely loved it and would watch again in a heartbeat