[Intro][Synopsis][Music][Links]
[Cham2][Cham3][Cham4][Cham5][Cham6]
Cham is a group of Japanese Pop Stars in the line of Speed or ELT. Characteristics of such groups are quite similar across the board – a fanatically dedicated following of fans, a fast rise to fame and glory, but burned out and all but forgotten within 3 – 5 years. Seeking to avoid this fate, (Cham was predicted to die out pretty soon afterwards) Mima Kirigoe, the lead singer, finds a new career in the acting business using whatever popularity she had obtained as a pop idol as additional leverage. The group survives after her departure, making even more hits as the remaining 2 singers, Rei and Yuriko, learn to live without her. (Does this smell of the Spice Girls to anyone else?)
Oh, this is Mima, by the way. She’s in the middle of the picture above of Cham, but that picture doesn’t really do her justice.
The err… laterally challenged person you see on the left is Rumi, Mima’s manager. She’s in the entertainment business because she has always been. Rumi is a veteran in the field, and more of a personal confidante or a mother to Mima than her manager. This relationship helps her through tough times. I guess everybody needs someone you can rely upon not to stab you in the back…
Double Bind is the movie in which Mima is making her acting debut. In order to gain anything more than a bit part in the movie, however, Mima must sell her body. This movie, albeit not a porno film, has a rape scene that is crucial to the plot. Rumi does not want to go through with the plan, and would rather abandon the idea of acting in the first place than see Mima expose all for her art. Nevertheless, Mima is enthusiastic about the movie and will take the part, and all it entails. I suspect that the shame of having to admit her failure to the public and the other two singers she left behind has a significant role to play in this matter.
The first sign that something is wrong happens when fans start writing to Mima regarding something called “Mima’s Room”. As she has so far invited none of them home, Mima has no idea what that is supposed to mean. Soon, a fax shows up denouncing her as a traitor. It seems as though Mima now has a stalker…
Things start getting bad real quick. A letter addressed to her is opened by the wrong person, and it explodes, injuring him. These acts of violence escalate when people start getting murdered. As the bodies start showing up, 2 things can be seen to tie these murders together – The fact that all these people had something to do with Mima’s acting career, and the presence of messages in the same style as the fax she received. To further complicate matters, these murders seem to tie in with the plot to Double Bind somehow, truly confusing the girl as to what is real, and what is not.
The rape scene is the typical male fantasy of dominating a woman against her will. One moment Mima is dancing in a bar in front of a bunch of rowdy men, the next she is being held down and violated by the same men. There is a huge difference between this and a real rape, though. They are all play-acting here, and she can call it off at any time. Indeed, her “rapist” even apologizes in advance.
Mima made some nudie pics to show the world she’s not a girl anymore. I ‘m not going to show them to you!
Well, maybe just a peek…
Whence came this mysterious man who seems to be everywhere Mima goes? In the beginning of the movie he protects her honor from a bunch of rowdy fans, but the more he shows up, the less benevolent he seems. Me-Mania is the name he adopts on the Web. I believe the name “Mima-nia” seems more appropriate, because that is how it is pronounced onscreen. (At least, in the Jap version) It is obvious he is obsessed with her, but how far will he go for his unrequited love?
Mima’s Room is the title of a web page central to the story of Perfect Blue. Set up by an unknown admirer of Mima, it contains some personal information about our heroine – her vital statistics, everyday pictures of her on the streets, her daily agenda… stuff that only true-blue fans of this pop idol could care to know about. Mima, being new to the Internet, stumbles across this room when she tries to find out what levels of fame and fortune she has acquired. At first she is amused… but not for long.
Most important on this site is a section known as Mima’s Diary, which contains some very personal information about her, containing her thoughts and feelings about leaving the music scene. There is one catch, however. Mima did not write any of her thoughts and feelings down, she does not agree with what is on the page, and she has no idea how such intimate knowledge of her has been obtained in the first place. Paranoia naturally sets in – Who is watching her? Or are these doings of her own accord?
One sign of Mima’s fall from sanity is her gradual inability to tell her acting roles from real life. Another is the appearance of this phantom from her past. Dressed in her former costume as a pop star, she insists to Mima that what the world wants is Mima the singer, not Mima the actress. Her aim seems to be to devour whatever is left of Mima’s character and to impose her will over Mima. Quite sinister for a figment of the imagination, isn’t it?
Cast
Once again, this is the cast of the show. Hopefully it will help you identify who is who when you watch it.
Now that all the pieces are in place, you might realize that there is a great deal of depth to this movie, having a plot thicker than pea soup. It is truly deserving of a position comparable to that of Stephen King’s Apt Pupil or The Silence of the Lambs, and the surprising thing is that it is in a medium traditionally meant to be for relaxing humor. It would be a shame if the viewers out there shun films like this because of the medium used. In fact, more serious topics are showing up in the animation scene, and to close your mind to such possibilities would be a shame.
And what does my close friend Hairy has to say about it?
“Just another Hentai.”
