Perfect Blue

• Cert: Unrated
• Cat.no: 040492
• Running time: 81 minutes
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 1 (USA NTSC)
• Chapters: 14 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English, Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: $27 (UK £17.99)
• Extras : Scene index, Trailers, Interviews, Musical Photo Gallery,Behind-the-scenes performances, Bonus Audio Tracks, Mango 2000 Previews,Manga 2000 Fan Club Info, Manga Weblink, DVD-ROM content
  

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  Director:

  Satoshi Kon

General Producer:

Screenplay:

(based on a story by Yoshikazu Takeuchi)

Music:

Cast:

Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, Masaaki Okura

Perfect Blueis the story of Mima Kirigoe, a young girl who leaves the musical sanctity of the chartsand her all-girl trio to become an actress. Her first role only offers her the chance tosay one line, the tagline above which comes back to haunt her later on, although her nextperformance as a nightclub dancer who gets raped is the turning point at which thingsstart to go downhill for her.

She’s being stalked by a weirdo who sends her letter bombs, kills her fish and sets up awebsite, “Mima’s Room”, a more disturbing version of the JennyCam, in whichher every move is followed and detailed, not only in her bedroom, but all throughout theday. The madman also posts daily updates of her life onto the website, always writing in thefirst person as if the words are coming from Mima’s mouth.

This leads to confusion, nightmares and hallucinations which seek to send her over the edgeand make her think that another part of her is still with the band and trying to take overher life.

Presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 ratio, the print isn’t anamorphic – although I understandthe UK release will be – and it has a number of drop-outs at times. It’s nothing that reallyaffects the viewing too much but there’s no reason why this couldn’t have been resolved sinceit’s not exactly an old film.The average bitrate is a so-so 5.92Mb/s, occasionally going above 8Mb/s mark.

The sound is fine, but it doesn’t really get beyond dialogue and basic sound effects, plusthe pop song played endlessly. It is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 for both English andJapanese languages.

The trailers included are a theatrical trailer, plus three trailers forother Palm Pictures DVDs – Talking Heads: Stop Making Senses, Baaba Maaland Ghost in the Shell.

Languages & Subtitles :There’s a choice of English and original Japanese dialogue, with English subtitles offeredas an extra. However, they don’t always follow what’s spoken and occasionally saysomething completely different. An hour in, for example, one name is spoken and a completelydifferent one spelled out. I won’t say what this is, so as not to spoil the plot, butit does seem daft for this to have happened. And there’s more… :All the extras are set out in “Mima’s Room” and made to look like a set ofpersonal bookmarks.

First up are the Bonus Audio Tracks, the pop tune as a studio-performed piece inoriginal Japanese and then an English version played over a static shot of Mima. Thisis followed by Musical Photo Gallery, three minutes of music played over many staticshots from the film with descriptions, plus info on currently-available Manga videos and DVDs.

“Meet some of my friends” is the cue for the 23-minute Interviews section, featuringdirector Satoshi Kon and a few members of the cast, although the only people you getto see in the flesh are the director and Junko Iwao who voiced the Japanese dialoguefor Mima. The non-English dialogue contains English subtitles burnt into the video.

The Links section provides clips of several Manga feature films mixed togetheras well as a Trailer for Perfect Blue. A Manga Weblink is availablevia the DVD-ROM content, although I had problems at first when I thought it was goingto delete old versions of Quicktime from my PC (why not just install over the top?) and thenall the text is in Japanese so have your dictionary to hand if you plan to read it. I presumeit’s from there that the Manga 2000 items are placed since I couldn’t find them fromthe extras menu.

Menu :The menus are animated and contain sound that either comes from the pop tune, orcomputer effects when you’re entering “Mima’s Room”.

Overall, the film itself is entertaining with no slow parts, although not the most originalthing you’ll see all year. The extras aren’t a great deal to shout about and I can’t see myselfgoing back to them.

Note that although this is the Region 1 DVD I’m reviewing here, which is the Unrated Director’sCut, containing graphic violence, nudity, adult language and situations (it says here), theRegion 2 disc promises to be no different and the BBFC website shows no cuts either, asusually scenes of sexual violence against women tend to be some of the first to be chopped.

The cover features a quote from Roger Corman which states it’s like a blend ofHitchcock and Disney, although it seems, in part, more like an animated remake of the70’s Roger Moore film, The Man Who Haunted Himself.

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