Ani-MAY-tion: Perfect Blue (1997)

Mima (Junko Iwao) is a member of the J-pop group CHAM! She is idolised and adored by fans, but they are upset when she announces that she is leaving the band to become an actress. While getting used to the art of acting, her first job gives her only the one line that she frets over and rehearses again and again, Mima also has to deal with the fact that she seems to have a stalker, there's a website that purports to be her personal diary online, and people around her are starting to die.

If you think that Perfect Blue sounds like a standard thriller then you'd be right. But there are other elements in place that make it stand out. The main one being the fact that this is another animated movie from Satoshi Kon. You also get some wonderful moments that blur fantasy and reality, as you would expect from Kon.

I'm not going to beat about the bush here. I have seen three features from Kon (this one, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika). I gave those other two movies 9/10 ratings. This, his first feature as director, is his masterpiece. 10/10. It drew me in from the very beginning and kept me entranced throughout the runtime, even if the grand finale felt a little bit weaker than anything else that came before it.

The script, by Sadayuki Murai, is based on a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. Not only does it sketch out the main characters and throw you quickly into a strange reality you can find both familiar and also new and unsettling (unless you have experience of being a J-pop star). It provides the standard tension and thrills, and there's a fake rape sequence that is somehow more disturbing because of the animation making it harder to completely separate bodies from one another, while also looking at what people do as they pursue fame, what others believe they are entitled to claim from celebrities, and the slippery slope from admiration to obsession.

Iwao is very good in the main role, Rica Matsumoto is also fine in a main supporting role (playing her manager, Rumi), and Masaaki Ōkura plays a stalker who may or may not be the biggest threat in the movie, but I am not going to pretend that their input is essential. It feels like the voices here come second to the visuals and the style of Kon, who is the main name drawing people to the film.

It may sound strange to say this but . . . everything in Perfect Blue feels so believable and authentic that it resonates much more than it otherwise would. There are some over-the-top murders, of course, but everything around the fresh corpses makes sense, even if watching a character have a delusion that involves an imaginary character talking to her. The glare of the spotlights, the desperate need to do well that leads to someone doing something they may regret, the creepy actions from fans that people handling a star will dismiss while they reassure their client that everything is fine.

I suspect that you could pick any Satoshi Kon movie as your absolute favourite on any given today. This is mine for today. That could change, although I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

10/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can get it here.

Ani-MAY-tion Month: Paprika (2006)

Uh oh, how do I begin to write a review of Paprika? Well, I think that it's best to start off by explaining that this little review on this little blog couldn't possibly begin to do it justice. Oh, I'll try, but I think it will be best for everyone concerned if expectations are kept low. In fact, that's a general rule of thumb when reading anything that I write.

The next thing I will mention is that a LOT of people throw this film in the faces of people who were bowled over by Inception. The two films are remarkably similiar, I'll admit. Anyone can see that. But it's not the first time that we've had movies released within years of each other that have been remarkably similiar, and I'm willing to give Christopher Nolan the benefit of the doubt here, especially as Inception was pitched, apparently, after the completion of Memento. So there will be no more Nolan chat here.

Director Satoshi Kon, who also wrote the script with Seishi Minakami (based on the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui), presents viewers with a world of dreams. Bright, lively, thrilling dreams. These dreams are being manipulated by a device called the DC Mini, which can help people by manipulating their dreams to, hopefully, cure physical ailments. Unfortunately, when that device is stolen it looks like only a matter of time before dreams and reality bleed together in a way that will leave most people vulnerable and unable to figure out their own realities. It's up to one doctor, and her dream incarnation (Paprika), to help put a stop to things before it all becomes impossible to fix.

Now you see why I wrote what I wrote in that first paragraph. The brief description that I've just supplied for this movie doesn't even begin to give people an idea of the real constant sense of wonder that Paprika provides. I've not even mentioned any of the other characters, who sometimes help and sometimes hinder Paprika, with the best one being a detective who is being helped through dream therapy, and who ends up using some of the information gleaned to help out during the unfolding crisis.

The voice actors - including Megumi Hayashibara, Akio Otsuka, Toro Furuya and numerous others - all do a great job, but Paprika is all about those astounding visuals, and the wealth of dream imagery in almost every sequence. The fact that it provides such a great visualisation of dreams while also providing a coherent, though densely layered, narrative is very impressive indeed.

This is one of those films that you really should watch before reading to the end of this review. Not because this review has spoiled anything. Nope. Because the film is THAT good.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paprika-Blu-ray-Region-Free-Satoshi/dp/B0011FTQ6M/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1390863130&sr=1-1&keywords=paprika

Don't forget, every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself).

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.