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Review: Perfect Blue (パーフェクトブルー) (1997)
This movie has been hyped up for a long time for me. I was originally not going to watch it because I already knew the plot twist, but as I watch more movies I know that an ending doesn’t make the entire movie. As someone who has followed the Japanese and Korean idol industries over various stages of my life, this was an interesting watch. However, I would advise that this movie does have graphic scenes, including rape, which may be disturbing to some people. But for those who are okay with watching those, this is definitely an interesting movie.
Spoilers.
Story
Kirigoe Mima was an idol singer and part of a trio called CHAM! She left the group to become an actress, which is not uncommon for popular members of an idol group. We saw the she was often the center of the trio, and had taken singing lessons to become a singer. So leaving the group was not an easy decision, and it’s hinted that she was partially pressured to do so. I hesitate to say that she didn’t want it at all, I think she was just very unsure about what acting had in store for her.
Initially, Mima booked very small roles. She only got larger roles as her manager Tadokoro booked her more racy scenes, such as being the victim of a rape scene. Mima would eventually go on to do racier work, such as posing nude for a modelling shoot. However, the experiences began to mess with her personal psyche.
At her last performance with CHAM!, Mima caught sight of a stalker, Me-mania, who we would eventually find out ran a blog based on her, but covered extremely personal information. In addition, there was a number of murders surrounding Mima, the victims often being people relating to her career in racy work as an actress and model. As well, CHAM! was doing better than they ever were when Mima was still with them, which added to the uneasy feeling that Mima had picked the wrong path.
Mima began to lose track of time and lose track of her own self. She would get distracted when filming because she would catch sight of Me-mania in the crowds. She would dream about herself murdering the victims, usually in rage over the work she’s had to do. She also started to hallucinate a version of herself who was still a pop idol, insisting that that was the real Mima. And the larger role that Mima had booked in the drama resulted in her character being the murderer, having developed a separate personality due to her past trauma of being raped.
After finishing the filming, Mima’s manager Rumi took her home, but Mima found herself in an old version of her room from when she was still a pop idol. Rumi dressed up in an idol costume and called herself the real Mima, and told Mima that she was the fake dirtied Mima because she was doing all of those dirty things. Rumi was revealed to be the murderer as she hated what those men were doing to Mima. Rumi chased down Mima to kill her. When a car was about to crash into them, Mima saved Rumi.
In the future, Rumi was seen at a mental institution where she believed she was a pop idol. Mima was visiting Rumi, and some nurses were gossiping over whether it was truly her, implying that she was now a famous celebrity. When she returned to her car, Mima said aloud that she was the real Mima.
I’m definitely going to have a lot more to say in the themes section but we can see how this movie covers many facets of the idol industry from the obsessive relationship between idol and fan, to the suffocating pressure of being an entertainer, to the troubles of career movement.
Production
I watched the English dub, but it was mostly decent, mostly watchable lol. I appreciated the more mature animation style, with fuller frames. I especially found the dancing animation to be pretty satisfying to watch.
Characters
Kirigoe Mima
Mima was our main character, the idol-turned-actress. It seems that from youth she wanted to be a singer, and had taken singing lessons. As a pop idol I think she was decently successful, though not at the top of her game because it seemed that CHAM! still had more room to improve (and they did, after Mima left).
The movie began with talks between Rumi and Tadokoro about Mima’s career. They were arguing about whether she should move into acting. Mima herself was very withdrawn and very uncomfortable. Rumi insisted that Mima had wanted to be a singer her whole life, but Tadokoro was on the side that being a pop idol didn’t make that much money, and Mima would make more money if she moved into acting. In the end, it was implied that Mima said that she wanted to move into acting, though we see that she hesitated a lot.
I think Mima was fairly optimistic at first. Even though she only had one line, she practised it over and over again. I’m not sure of the way dramas are filmed in Japan, but it seemed that story was ongoing as it was filmed. Even the main actress who played the psychiatrist did not know of the ending. So it appears that Mima was continuously acting in this drama, just that the writers were able to find bigger roles for her if she took on more racy work.
Rumi was very against Mima taking the role with the rape scene, but Mima accepted it, probably not wanting to pass up the good opportunity. It was very odd, because obviously even false rape is traumatic, but there would be pauses between as the director wanted to redo cuts. Nonetheless, it was extremely invasive. Even if Mima was not actually raped, she was groped and held down. From then on, she started to not feel well.
Mima had also started to feel paranoid due to the stalker. When she read Mima’s room, she read some very personal information like her shopping habits or how she liked to step with one foot onto the train. She received some threatening letters in her personal mail and at work (which led to Tadokoro being injured). And then of course there were the murders.
Later on, Mima took the nude modelling gig which was probably very controversial. I don’t know about the blend between gravure and nude modelling or if they blend at all. But I think what makes this a particularly j-idol setting is because of that blend between idol and adult work. In any case, we saw one of Mima’s old team members Yukiko ridiculing Mima for taking on the nude modelling gig. While Mima wasn’t there, Rumi was, and I don’t doubt that mima personally wondered if she truly was dirty for taking on that gig.
Mima was starting to dream about herself committing the murders. We saw in her mind that they were linked with her taking on the adult work, being raped on camera, posing nude. After Mima finished filming, she was exhausted, physically and mentally, and she was getting her reality mixed up with the one in the drama.
When Mima discovered the truth about Rumi, I think she was more in survival mode than thinking about the complexities of identity. It was just a surprise that Rumi said she was the real Mima, the pure Mima. But I do think that act forced Mima to admit that she herself was the real Mima. No matter what she did, she was still herself, her actions were her own.
In the future, Mima seemed to be famous and successful. Wikipedia says that she’s an actress now and I think we can assume that. She said that she did have to thank Rumi because it was due to her that she was where she was at now. It’s a bit vague so we don’t know what exactly she’s thanking her for. At the very least, Rumi was Mima’s manager who brought her a certain level of fame as a pop idol.
I don’t think Mima necessarily took the right steps to become an actress. What I mean by that is that I don’t think a pop idol must do all of those heavy scenes in order to transition into becoming an actress. It just happened that way for Mima and there’s nothing she can really do to go back. But she seems to be at a place right now where she enjoys her life and that’s worth something.
Mima is an idol, but representative of many idols in the industry who are meant to attract fans not only by talent but with personality. If we liked someone for only their talent, we might not see as much obsessive behaviour. But the idol industry, because it thrives on literally cults of personality, it drives irrational fans, like Rumi and like Me-mania who project heavily onto Mima. Me-mania was uncomfortable close to Mima, following her and watching her every move, while Rumi saw Mima as an avatar, a person who would do what Rumi was not able to do. And the idol industry itself is not easy to climb out of. We see that Mima took a very difficult path. And I think a lot of idols now too also struggle to make a name for themselves in other areas of entertainment if they don’t have certain skills.
Rumi
Rumi was Mima’s manager. I was spoiled long before and I already knew that Rumi would be the big bad but it was still fun watching and trying to note any suspicious behaviour from Rumi. For the most part, I think Rumi acted pretty “normally.” I originally thought that Rumi was behind Mima’s room too because she was close enough to remember Mima’s words. But it seems that Me-mania was the one behind the blog instead.
Anyway, I didn’t know this until I read up on Wikipedia, but it seemed Rumi was an ex-idol, who was now managing Mima. Rumi liked the idea of a clean and pure idol image. That was why she started to get angry when Mima was moving into acting, especially with taking all of those brutal scenes and jobs.
In the end, Mima’s hallucination of “the real Mima” and Rumi dressing up as Mima blended together. I think Rumi was saying things that Mima felt the fans would be feeling anyway, that Mima was dirty now and would never be the beloved Mimarin any longer. Rumi believed that she would carry on the name of that Mimarin.
Rumi is an example of the fan who projected too much of herself onto Mima and lived vicariously through her. Mima was essentially her avatar. Rumi preferred for Mima to stay a pop idol, because Rumi wanted to become a pop idol. I do think this occurs among fans of idols, in which they want an idol to move a certain way for their career, simply because that’s the direction the fan wants and the idol’s job is to cater to the fans, right?
Rumi eventually spiralled into her own psychosis, where she believed she was still a pop idol, Mima to be exact. I think in the mental institution, she still believed herself to be Mima, though the doctor did say that on occasion she would regain lucidity as Rumi.
Tadokoro
Tadokoro was Mima’s agent who booked her jobs. He was the one who suggested she go into acting because it made more money. At Mima’s first acting job, Tadokoro was the one who opened her fan letter only for it to explode and hurt his hand. Mima had asked Rumi if they should report it to the police but Rumi had brushed it off. I’m not sure if it was Rumi or Me-mania who sent that letter though.
Tadokoro eventually booked Mima more and more risque jobs and Mima felt obligated to take them because she was trying hard to branch out. While Mima could technically refuse, I think we can mark down Tadokoro as someone who was pressuring her to take on these jobs because after all he was the one negotiating them for her.
I felt that Tadokoro represented the general male audience who liked female celebrities for their sex appeal. I think he thought he was giving the male fans what they wanted, not considering what Mima would have wanted. So Tadokoro and Rumi were on opposite ends of the spectrum because Tadokoro was thinking on the fan perspective and Rumi was thinking on Mima’s perspective (though Rumi believed she knew Mima inside and out).
Me-mania
Me-mania was Mima’s stalker. He was already obsessed with her at the beginning. At the last CHAM! performance that Mima was a part of, Me-mania got into a fight and Mima stopped it, which I think kind of made his obsession grow because in his eyes, Mima saved him.
Me-mania maintained a blog called Mima’s room. It freaked Mima out because it got into very detailed information about Mima, things that she wouldn’t have told other people because they were too small. One time when she went to her company building, she saw a warning poster to be on the lookout for Me-mania. From then on, I think Mima started to notice him more. She would notice him in the crowds when she was filming, though some of those might be hallucinations. In any case, there was no doubt that he was following her since he updated the blog regularly.
Me-mania was also obsessed with Mima. He dreamed that Mima was by his side as he updated the blog. He felt that he understood her the best. That being said, I think he projected his ideal love interest onto Mima. It’s interesting how Me-mania is pronounced similarly to Mima-nia. I think Me-mania represents a vast portion of idol fans who see idols as potential significant others. Of course, idols only show their best sides, the one that’s likable, so we only see their good traits that make them ideal partners.
I think Me-mania sent at least one of the letters/faxes because that was how Mima got the url to the blog. So regardless, even though Me-mania wasn’t the murderer, he was still stalking to a terribly invasive degree.
Rei & Yukiko
Rei and Yukiko were Mima’s ex-team members with CHAM! Right at the beginning, it seemed that Mima was favoured over Rei and Yukiko, since Mima was always front and center. And in the end, Mima left, leaving Rei and Yukiko as a duo.
One of the first times we saw Rei and Yukiko afterwards, we saw that CHAM! had achieved new heights. Mima had hallucinated herself celebrating with them, but when she snapped back to reality, she realized she couldn’t. They had very little interaction afterwards.
One of the few times we saw them, Yukiko was making fun of Mima for doing her racy photoshoots, and Yukiko characterized Mima as a slut, someone who wanted to take it all off. I don’t know if it was resentment for Mima leaving, or resentment for her thinking that she was better than them. But it’s interesting that we got this perspective because we don’t think too often of the people who get ‘left behind.’
Themes
Blending life and work
Right from the beginning, we saw scenes of Mima as an idol blended with Mima in her daily life, grocery shopping, taking the train, etc. That was already a hint that Mima as an idol could never really turn her idol persona off. She was Mima the pop star, because she went into this line of business.
However, this became more problematic as Mima began to take on more risque acting roles. She thought of it as acting, but it came to disturb her in real life. The rape scene felt like actual rape, as did the nude modelling. Though she was never truly raped, and the photographer never touched her, Mima felt violated enough that she was losing track of time, losing track of herself.
We also saw from the drama script that Mima’s life could very well become what the murderer’s life was. Mima was already beginning to dream of herself as the murderer. She felt it plausible because she had so much anger and fear built up.
However, at the end when Mima is a successful actress, she seems better adjusted. I think that’s because as she acted more, she was better able to separate life and work, just like the main actress who played the psychiatrist in the drama. And with that clarity she was also able to see Rumi without feeling fear or anger.
Career
The story line of Mima changing career paths is something that has come up recently in one of my fandoms and it was really interesting to see it acted out. The naturally trajectory for many idols is to move out of the idol industry and do something else. The most successful of available paths tends to be acting. After all, these idols are already used to being on screen. I think we’ve seen less instances of idols going into mainstream pop music.
So because of Mima’s popularity, she was pushed into acting even though her entire life she had prepared to be a singer. Again I don’t think that Mima preferred one or the other. Obviously she was more comfortable with singing but I think she simply didn’t know if this was a good pivot for her career. And that is natural, none of us know what’s in store for us until we get there. And in this situation, I guess it was not viable for her to begin acting while still in the group.
Because Mima had become an asset with high potential, she lost a lot of control over her career. Tadokoro wanted to move her into acting for the money. Rumi wanted to keep her as a pop idol for her own personal interests. Mima also dreamed that her fans would have wanted her to stay as a pop actor. She had a nightmare where Me-mania was raping and killing her and he said that she was just posing as Mima.
It’s never easy moving to a new career direction, especially not as an entertainer because you already had so many eyes on you from your previous job. And this is especially the case for idols where they are selling their personalities and now transition to a job where that personality is not accessible to them anymore.
Another instance of uncertainty we saw in Mima’s career was when Mima went back to her office and found out that CHAM! was doing better without her in it. It’s unfortunate. We don’t know if CHAM! was doing better because Mima was out of there, or simply because they got the right opportunity at the right time, but it’s not really anything Mima can do about it anymore. She took a risk and that’s part of the risk.
So I thought it was interesting that this movie did cover quite a bit about changing careers.
Adult work
Moving into the type of acting that Mima did really did a number on her. The rape scene was certainly shocking as a second acting gig. And while Mima tried to brush it off as just acting, it did traumatize her. She was being held down, groped, and her calls for help were ignored. That is terrifying.
In the nude modelling shot, Mima had to bare her entire self to the photographer and the camera. It’s hard to say that we even look at ourselves naked, and Mima had to do this to the world. What came from this was popularity, sure, but now people were calling her dirty, a slut, including Yukiko but also Rumi.
Mima begins to get nightmares from all this that she has to do. She loses track of time, she funnels her fear and anger into dreams about murder.
I did think that these themes were specific to the j-idol industry, under which the umbrella includes the gravure model industry, which are basically models who take scantily clad photos. I think all over the world, we will see female entertainers try to get a leg up by taking these more exploitative roles and I don’t doubt that some of them will suffer because of it.
And even though idol industries in other countries may not have the gravure model industry, we can see that sex appeal is becoming a larger and larger part of some of them. Take kpop and cpop idols for instance. I’ve seen some performances that are sexy for no reason. No reason because it doesn’t match the lyrics of the song at all. They are just dancing sexily to get eyes on them. And I don’t doubt that especially since idols tend to be young, they are often directed by their managers to act sexy. And they may not realize how wrong it feels until after they do it.
Fan relationships
Near the beginning, we saw some very innocent fan behaviours, like Mima receiving a fan letter before getting in her car. It’s still pretty up close and personal. For example, I would never go to see my favourite celebrities in person and give them a letter. But the damage is limited in that situation.
We have fan relationships like Me-mania’s, in which he sees her as an ideal that he wants to possess. The Mima in his mind is not quite the real one, but he thinks that if he has the real one, then he has the ideal in his mind. He follows Mima because he thinks that is the best way to be close to her and to get to know her and have her. He runs his blog based on the Mima in his mind. While he does have a lot of the physical details down (like her habits), he takes on Mima’s mind as well, doing the thinking for her in line with what he thinks is best for Mima.
Rumi’s relationship with Mima is a bit more unique. Rumi is close to Mima which is already unique. But the key here is that Rumi wants to be Mima, to the point that she will kill Mima to take control of the image. You can say that Rumi’s relationship with Mima is definitely more extreme than Me-mania, and without the romantic aspect. Mima was basically Rumi’s avatar. Mima did whatever Rumi wanted her to do as a pop idol, until Mima started to go into acting and Rumi had no way to keep control over her in that world.
The age-old question is, why are fans like this? Why don’t fans keep a distance? Like I said, I think the first example of the fan letter is basically the most innocent but still pretty hard core. Casual fans would be like some of the guys at the CHAM! performance, where they just watch the performances, buy the magazines, talk about the idols, but otherwise don’t get close to them. Me-mania and Rumi are the extreme versions, though Me-mania is likely more commong than Rumi. I don’t know why fans are like this. Maybe it’s because if you put yourself in front of a camera, you lose at least a bit of yourself to other people. People have strong imaginations, and we can imagine so much from just a picture. As long as Mima appears on TV, people will have ideas about her. That being said, it’s limited a bit for actors and actresses, because they are their characters and they don’t give themselves away.
Overall
Pretty interesting movie, definitely still relevant now.
Spoilers.
Story
Kirigoe Mima was an idol singer and part of a trio called CHAM! She left the group to become an actress, which is not uncommon for popular members of an idol group. We saw the she was often the center of the trio, and had taken singing lessons to become a singer. So leaving the group was not an easy decision, and it’s hinted that she was partially pressured to do so. I hesitate to say that she didn’t want it at all, I think she was just very unsure about what acting had in store for her.
Initially, Mima booked very small roles. She only got larger roles as her manager Tadokoro booked her more racy scenes, such as being the victim of a rape scene. Mima would eventually go on to do racier work, such as posing nude for a modelling shoot. However, the experiences began to mess with her personal psyche.
At her last performance with CHAM!, Mima caught sight of a stalker, Me-mania, who we would eventually find out ran a blog based on her, but covered extremely personal information. In addition, there was a number of murders surrounding Mima, the victims often being people relating to her career in racy work as an actress and model. As well, CHAM! was doing better than they ever were when Mima was still with them, which added to the uneasy feeling that Mima had picked the wrong path.
Mima began to lose track of time and lose track of her own self. She would get distracted when filming because she would catch sight of Me-mania in the crowds. She would dream about herself murdering the victims, usually in rage over the work she’s had to do. She also started to hallucinate a version of herself who was still a pop idol, insisting that that was the real Mima. And the larger role that Mima had booked in the drama resulted in her character being the murderer, having developed a separate personality due to her past trauma of being raped.
After finishing the filming, Mima’s manager Rumi took her home, but Mima found herself in an old version of her room from when she was still a pop idol. Rumi dressed up in an idol costume and called herself the real Mima, and told Mima that she was the fake dirtied Mima because she was doing all of those dirty things. Rumi was revealed to be the murderer as she hated what those men were doing to Mima. Rumi chased down Mima to kill her. When a car was about to crash into them, Mima saved Rumi.
In the future, Rumi was seen at a mental institution where she believed she was a pop idol. Mima was visiting Rumi, and some nurses were gossiping over whether it was truly her, implying that she was now a famous celebrity. When she returned to her car, Mima said aloud that she was the real Mima.
I’m definitely going to have a lot more to say in the themes section but we can see how this movie covers many facets of the idol industry from the obsessive relationship between idol and fan, to the suffocating pressure of being an entertainer, to the troubles of career movement.
Production
I watched the English dub, but it was mostly decent, mostly watchable lol. I appreciated the more mature animation style, with fuller frames. I especially found the dancing animation to be pretty satisfying to watch.
Characters
Kirigoe Mima
Mima was our main character, the idol-turned-actress. It seems that from youth she wanted to be a singer, and had taken singing lessons. As a pop idol I think she was decently successful, though not at the top of her game because it seemed that CHAM! still had more room to improve (and they did, after Mima left).
The movie began with talks between Rumi and Tadokoro about Mima’s career. They were arguing about whether she should move into acting. Mima herself was very withdrawn and very uncomfortable. Rumi insisted that Mima had wanted to be a singer her whole life, but Tadokoro was on the side that being a pop idol didn’t make that much money, and Mima would make more money if she moved into acting. In the end, it was implied that Mima said that she wanted to move into acting, though we see that she hesitated a lot.
I think Mima was fairly optimistic at first. Even though she only had one line, she practised it over and over again. I’m not sure of the way dramas are filmed in Japan, but it seemed that story was ongoing as it was filmed. Even the main actress who played the psychiatrist did not know of the ending. So it appears that Mima was continuously acting in this drama, just that the writers were able to find bigger roles for her if she took on more racy work.
Rumi was very against Mima taking the role with the rape scene, but Mima accepted it, probably not wanting to pass up the good opportunity. It was very odd, because obviously even false rape is traumatic, but there would be pauses between as the director wanted to redo cuts. Nonetheless, it was extremely invasive. Even if Mima was not actually raped, she was groped and held down. From then on, she started to not feel well.
Mima had also started to feel paranoid due to the stalker. When she read Mima’s room, she read some very personal information like her shopping habits or how she liked to step with one foot onto the train. She received some threatening letters in her personal mail and at work (which led to Tadokoro being injured). And then of course there were the murders.
Later on, Mima took the nude modelling gig which was probably very controversial. I don’t know about the blend between gravure and nude modelling or if they blend at all. But I think what makes this a particularly j-idol setting is because of that blend between idol and adult work. In any case, we saw one of Mima’s old team members Yukiko ridiculing Mima for taking on the nude modelling gig. While Mima wasn’t there, Rumi was, and I don’t doubt that mima personally wondered if she truly was dirty for taking on that gig.
Mima was starting to dream about herself committing the murders. We saw in her mind that they were linked with her taking on the adult work, being raped on camera, posing nude. After Mima finished filming, she was exhausted, physically and mentally, and she was getting her reality mixed up with the one in the drama.
When Mima discovered the truth about Rumi, I think she was more in survival mode than thinking about the complexities of identity. It was just a surprise that Rumi said she was the real Mima, the pure Mima. But I do think that act forced Mima to admit that she herself was the real Mima. No matter what she did, she was still herself, her actions were her own.
In the future, Mima seemed to be famous and successful. Wikipedia says that she’s an actress now and I think we can assume that. She said that she did have to thank Rumi because it was due to her that she was where she was at now. It’s a bit vague so we don’t know what exactly she’s thanking her for. At the very least, Rumi was Mima’s manager who brought her a certain level of fame as a pop idol.
I don’t think Mima necessarily took the right steps to become an actress. What I mean by that is that I don’t think a pop idol must do all of those heavy scenes in order to transition into becoming an actress. It just happened that way for Mima and there’s nothing she can really do to go back. But she seems to be at a place right now where she enjoys her life and that’s worth something.
Mima is an idol, but representative of many idols in the industry who are meant to attract fans not only by talent but with personality. If we liked someone for only their talent, we might not see as much obsessive behaviour. But the idol industry, because it thrives on literally cults of personality, it drives irrational fans, like Rumi and like Me-mania who project heavily onto Mima. Me-mania was uncomfortable close to Mima, following her and watching her every move, while Rumi saw Mima as an avatar, a person who would do what Rumi was not able to do. And the idol industry itself is not easy to climb out of. We see that Mima took a very difficult path. And I think a lot of idols now too also struggle to make a name for themselves in other areas of entertainment if they don’t have certain skills.
Rumi
Rumi was Mima’s manager. I was spoiled long before and I already knew that Rumi would be the big bad but it was still fun watching and trying to note any suspicious behaviour from Rumi. For the most part, I think Rumi acted pretty “normally.” I originally thought that Rumi was behind Mima’s room too because she was close enough to remember Mima’s words. But it seems that Me-mania was the one behind the blog instead.
Anyway, I didn’t know this until I read up on Wikipedia, but it seemed Rumi was an ex-idol, who was now managing Mima. Rumi liked the idea of a clean and pure idol image. That was why she started to get angry when Mima was moving into acting, especially with taking all of those brutal scenes and jobs.
In the end, Mima’s hallucination of “the real Mima” and Rumi dressing up as Mima blended together. I think Rumi was saying things that Mima felt the fans would be feeling anyway, that Mima was dirty now and would never be the beloved Mimarin any longer. Rumi believed that she would carry on the name of that Mimarin.
Rumi is an example of the fan who projected too much of herself onto Mima and lived vicariously through her. Mima was essentially her avatar. Rumi preferred for Mima to stay a pop idol, because Rumi wanted to become a pop idol. I do think this occurs among fans of idols, in which they want an idol to move a certain way for their career, simply because that’s the direction the fan wants and the idol’s job is to cater to the fans, right?
Rumi eventually spiralled into her own psychosis, where she believed she was still a pop idol, Mima to be exact. I think in the mental institution, she still believed herself to be Mima, though the doctor did say that on occasion she would regain lucidity as Rumi.
Tadokoro
Tadokoro was Mima’s agent who booked her jobs. He was the one who suggested she go into acting because it made more money. At Mima’s first acting job, Tadokoro was the one who opened her fan letter only for it to explode and hurt his hand. Mima had asked Rumi if they should report it to the police but Rumi had brushed it off. I’m not sure if it was Rumi or Me-mania who sent that letter though.
Tadokoro eventually booked Mima more and more risque jobs and Mima felt obligated to take them because she was trying hard to branch out. While Mima could technically refuse, I think we can mark down Tadokoro as someone who was pressuring her to take on these jobs because after all he was the one negotiating them for her.
I felt that Tadokoro represented the general male audience who liked female celebrities for their sex appeal. I think he thought he was giving the male fans what they wanted, not considering what Mima would have wanted. So Tadokoro and Rumi were on opposite ends of the spectrum because Tadokoro was thinking on the fan perspective and Rumi was thinking on Mima’s perspective (though Rumi believed she knew Mima inside and out).
Me-mania
Me-mania was Mima’s stalker. He was already obsessed with her at the beginning. At the last CHAM! performance that Mima was a part of, Me-mania got into a fight and Mima stopped it, which I think kind of made his obsession grow because in his eyes, Mima saved him.
Me-mania maintained a blog called Mima’s room. It freaked Mima out because it got into very detailed information about Mima, things that she wouldn’t have told other people because they were too small. One time when she went to her company building, she saw a warning poster to be on the lookout for Me-mania. From then on, I think Mima started to notice him more. She would notice him in the crowds when she was filming, though some of those might be hallucinations. In any case, there was no doubt that he was following her since he updated the blog regularly.
Me-mania was also obsessed with Mima. He dreamed that Mima was by his side as he updated the blog. He felt that he understood her the best. That being said, I think he projected his ideal love interest onto Mima. It’s interesting how Me-mania is pronounced similarly to Mima-nia. I think Me-mania represents a vast portion of idol fans who see idols as potential significant others. Of course, idols only show their best sides, the one that’s likable, so we only see their good traits that make them ideal partners.
I think Me-mania sent at least one of the letters/faxes because that was how Mima got the url to the blog. So regardless, even though Me-mania wasn’t the murderer, he was still stalking to a terribly invasive degree.
Rei & Yukiko
Rei and Yukiko were Mima’s ex-team members with CHAM! Right at the beginning, it seemed that Mima was favoured over Rei and Yukiko, since Mima was always front and center. And in the end, Mima left, leaving Rei and Yukiko as a duo.
One of the first times we saw Rei and Yukiko afterwards, we saw that CHAM! had achieved new heights. Mima had hallucinated herself celebrating with them, but when she snapped back to reality, she realized she couldn’t. They had very little interaction afterwards.
One of the few times we saw them, Yukiko was making fun of Mima for doing her racy photoshoots, and Yukiko characterized Mima as a slut, someone who wanted to take it all off. I don’t know if it was resentment for Mima leaving, or resentment for her thinking that she was better than them. But it’s interesting that we got this perspective because we don’t think too often of the people who get ‘left behind.’
Themes
Blending life and work
Right from the beginning, we saw scenes of Mima as an idol blended with Mima in her daily life, grocery shopping, taking the train, etc. That was already a hint that Mima as an idol could never really turn her idol persona off. She was Mima the pop star, because she went into this line of business.
However, this became more problematic as Mima began to take on more risque acting roles. She thought of it as acting, but it came to disturb her in real life. The rape scene felt like actual rape, as did the nude modelling. Though she was never truly raped, and the photographer never touched her, Mima felt violated enough that she was losing track of time, losing track of herself.
We also saw from the drama script that Mima’s life could very well become what the murderer’s life was. Mima was already beginning to dream of herself as the murderer. She felt it plausible because she had so much anger and fear built up.
However, at the end when Mima is a successful actress, she seems better adjusted. I think that’s because as she acted more, she was better able to separate life and work, just like the main actress who played the psychiatrist in the drama. And with that clarity she was also able to see Rumi without feeling fear or anger.
Career
The story line of Mima changing career paths is something that has come up recently in one of my fandoms and it was really interesting to see it acted out. The naturally trajectory for many idols is to move out of the idol industry and do something else. The most successful of available paths tends to be acting. After all, these idols are already used to being on screen. I think we’ve seen less instances of idols going into mainstream pop music.
So because of Mima’s popularity, she was pushed into acting even though her entire life she had prepared to be a singer. Again I don’t think that Mima preferred one or the other. Obviously she was more comfortable with singing but I think she simply didn’t know if this was a good pivot for her career. And that is natural, none of us know what’s in store for us until we get there. And in this situation, I guess it was not viable for her to begin acting while still in the group.
Because Mima had become an asset with high potential, she lost a lot of control over her career. Tadokoro wanted to move her into acting for the money. Rumi wanted to keep her as a pop idol for her own personal interests. Mima also dreamed that her fans would have wanted her to stay as a pop actor. She had a nightmare where Me-mania was raping and killing her and he said that she was just posing as Mima.
It’s never easy moving to a new career direction, especially not as an entertainer because you already had so many eyes on you from your previous job. And this is especially the case for idols where they are selling their personalities and now transition to a job where that personality is not accessible to them anymore.
Another instance of uncertainty we saw in Mima’s career was when Mima went back to her office and found out that CHAM! was doing better without her in it. It’s unfortunate. We don’t know if CHAM! was doing better because Mima was out of there, or simply because they got the right opportunity at the right time, but it’s not really anything Mima can do about it anymore. She took a risk and that’s part of the risk.
So I thought it was interesting that this movie did cover quite a bit about changing careers.
Adult work
Moving into the type of acting that Mima did really did a number on her. The rape scene was certainly shocking as a second acting gig. And while Mima tried to brush it off as just acting, it did traumatize her. She was being held down, groped, and her calls for help were ignored. That is terrifying.
In the nude modelling shot, Mima had to bare her entire self to the photographer and the camera. It’s hard to say that we even look at ourselves naked, and Mima had to do this to the world. What came from this was popularity, sure, but now people were calling her dirty, a slut, including Yukiko but also Rumi.
Mima begins to get nightmares from all this that she has to do. She loses track of time, she funnels her fear and anger into dreams about murder.
I did think that these themes were specific to the j-idol industry, under which the umbrella includes the gravure model industry, which are basically models who take scantily clad photos. I think all over the world, we will see female entertainers try to get a leg up by taking these more exploitative roles and I don’t doubt that some of them will suffer because of it.
And even though idol industries in other countries may not have the gravure model industry, we can see that sex appeal is becoming a larger and larger part of some of them. Take kpop and cpop idols for instance. I’ve seen some performances that are sexy for no reason. No reason because it doesn’t match the lyrics of the song at all. They are just dancing sexily to get eyes on them. And I don’t doubt that especially since idols tend to be young, they are often directed by their managers to act sexy. And they may not realize how wrong it feels until after they do it.
Fan relationships
Near the beginning, we saw some very innocent fan behaviours, like Mima receiving a fan letter before getting in her car. It’s still pretty up close and personal. For example, I would never go to see my favourite celebrities in person and give them a letter. But the damage is limited in that situation.
We have fan relationships like Me-mania’s, in which he sees her as an ideal that he wants to possess. The Mima in his mind is not quite the real one, but he thinks that if he has the real one, then he has the ideal in his mind. He follows Mima because he thinks that is the best way to be close to her and to get to know her and have her. He runs his blog based on the Mima in his mind. While he does have a lot of the physical details down (like her habits), he takes on Mima’s mind as well, doing the thinking for her in line with what he thinks is best for Mima.
Rumi’s relationship with Mima is a bit more unique. Rumi is close to Mima which is already unique. But the key here is that Rumi wants to be Mima, to the point that she will kill Mima to take control of the image. You can say that Rumi’s relationship with Mima is definitely more extreme than Me-mania, and without the romantic aspect. Mima was basically Rumi’s avatar. Mima did whatever Rumi wanted her to do as a pop idol, until Mima started to go into acting and Rumi had no way to keep control over her in that world.
The age-old question is, why are fans like this? Why don’t fans keep a distance? Like I said, I think the first example of the fan letter is basically the most innocent but still pretty hard core. Casual fans would be like some of the guys at the CHAM! performance, where they just watch the performances, buy the magazines, talk about the idols, but otherwise don’t get close to them. Me-mania and Rumi are the extreme versions, though Me-mania is likely more commong than Rumi. I don’t know why fans are like this. Maybe it’s because if you put yourself in front of a camera, you lose at least a bit of yourself to other people. People have strong imaginations, and we can imagine so much from just a picture. As long as Mima appears on TV, people will have ideas about her. That being said, it’s limited a bit for actors and actresses, because they are their characters and they don’t give themselves away.
Overall
Pretty interesting movie, definitely still relevant now.