Vick_tr’s review published on Letterboxd:
My Path to 1000 Films
Recommended by Jacookie
Well, I'm going to assume that I understood something and I'm going to write something, I know that the film has an infinite number of layers and I'm only staying at the most superficial, I need to see it more times to discover those deeper layers.
Perfect Blue is a masterpiece, it is everything I expected and more, much more. With incredible surrealism, without fear of blurring the line between fiction and reality, Satoshi Kon gives us his debut feature, which so far is his best film. It tells the story of Mima, a former idol who seeks to enter the world of acting, but a series of events pushes her to the limit.
The life of a famous woman is difficult, whether you like it or not, you are controlled by a patriarchal system, in which the objectification of women, especially if they are famous, is a daily occurrence, you have your fans on one side, for whom You are only their object of entertainment, that at the slightest change they will not hesitate to destroy you anyway, and on the other side you have the agencies, who force you to follow THEIR decisions without caring what you want, you are just their little toy. In Asian countries this is multiplied by a thousand, idols are born to be the object of someone's entertainment, and they will always continue to be so, they do not have a private life, they do not have decisions about their things, they are not free.
System pressure:
Mima is a victim of this, situations like the photo shoot and the rape scene are things that Mima never wanted, but which she is forced to accept, all due to the pressure and acceptance of the system, all of this has a profound impact on her mental health, leading her to a state of breakdown. Many women are forced to accept jobs that they clearly do not want to be in, all because they are pressured to do so, either because it can destroy their reputation or because they convince themselves that they are “perks of the job.”
In 1963, during the filming of Marnie, Tippi Hedren suffered from sexual abuse by Alfred Hitchcock, after which Hedren told him that this would be their last film together and that she would cancel the 7-year contract she had with him, Hitchcock tried to convince her to stay and upon seeing Hedren's refusal he told her:
"Do what you have to do. I'm going to ruin your career."
And so he did, the producers who wanted to work with Hedren had to talk to Hitchcock first, and he told them that Hedren was not available, which caused Tippi to lose many job offers and thus caused the failure of her career.
Obsessive fans:
One of the antagonists of the film is the stalker, that disturbing presence who seems to think he owns Mima, follows her at every moment and even has a blog in which he records each of her movements. Realizing Mima's decision to leave her Idol career and delve into acting, he loses control and devises a plan to end this new Mima and revive the old one. This situation is quite “popular” among famous people in general, those obsessive fans who believe they have a special bond with the person they admire, who get deeply angry the moment they change an aspect of their life, and even they may develop deep resentment against them, leading them to take revenge.
In 1996 Ricardo López tried to murder the Icelandic singer Björk with a sulfuric acid bomb. His motives? López had developed an unhealthy obsession with Björk, upon finding out that she began a relationship with the musician Goldie, López became enraged, devising the macabre plan (Which turned out to be unsuccessful).
This is what makes Perfect Blue feel so real despite clearly being a surreal film, it is a very present theme in our culture, and the film makes us experience it to the core, that paranoia, that deep terror. It's something I won't forget so quickly.
