Forum - View topicThe Dreams of Satoshi Kon: Chapter II - Perfection
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Henry Jones
 Posts: 97 Location: Nebraska |
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I liked Perfect Blue, but I have one huge issue with it: spoiler[The ugly people are obsessive psychopaths who live their lives through the beautiful main character and all the beautiful people around her are decent and good. I know this is an unintended message, but it not only lessened the impact because it makes the movie easy to solve, but it rubs me the wrong way. Hmmmm, we already know the disgusting sloth of a man is an obsessive psycho. The movie slams it in our face. The only missing piece is who is this second person is. Gee, could it be the person whose entire character design is meant to emphasize how fat she is and is who is around all these beautiful women? She's the only main and supporting character who isn't absolutely fabulous looking (besides maybe a couple of the film crew).
Like if we're not perfect, we're going to hold these "perfect" people up on a mantle and put their personalities in a box and if they wander outside the box, they've betrayed us. The movie tells us that's wrong, which is fine, but it puts all fandom in a disgusting box while doing that. This is not all Kon's fault. This story was pretty much set up before he got there and it was more like he tailored an existing suit than making his own. It's simply......... the one element in the movie that seems overly typical Hollywood, like everything about Giovani Ribisi's character in the movie Perfect Stranger that's supposed to be a twist where they might as well put a flashing neon light with a bell that rings every time it lights up saying, "CREEPER!!!" I also have personal experience with people who have decent bodies and souls who destroy themselves because they aren't the image of perfect. It's more tragic that these people get eaten away by such things and it would've been more resonant if they had played more like that. People compare this movie to Hitchcock, but while Hitchcock at the end of Psycho shows Normal Bates completely taken over by the personality of his mother and it's simultaneously tragic and horrifying, Perfect Blue is all "These are the villains and now that they're gone, everything's perfect, the sky's blue, and the social sickness is gone! Hoo-ray!" I don't think I'm expressing myself that well, but to me, Perfect Blue is a well executed standard thriller with a few extra bells and whistles, but not really a masterpiece for me.] |
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GATSU
Posts: 15299 |
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banana:
That's why I didn't like Inception, because I pretty much felt like it held my hand through the whole thing. PB actually had some surprises. Jones: That's part of why I didn't like Tokyo Godfathers, actually. The bums might be the heroes, but they come off a little more stereotypical than they deserve to be. And yeah, maybe I'll be honest that I didn't like how the fat kid in Paranoia Agent was depicted. It made me think Kon seriously loathed otaku, which, considering what they would rather watch over his work, is fair. But, when you think about it in terms of what Mima will do to get further in her career, she's not actually that much more noble than her stalker(s). Last edited by GATSU on Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fallen Wings
 Posts: 160 Location: Australia |
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Agreed. I thought it was quite child like to call Japanese animation not anime. Kinda like calling manga not comics. But like someone else - I saw perfect blue two months ago and it didn't do much for me. I think was more of a Kon test ground like "what if I did THAT" more than "This followed by that ..." and that frustrates me personally. |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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When I first saw Perfect Blue it drew me in as few movies do.
When it ended I realized I was holding my breath and shaking, I could taste the adrenaline in my mouth (this happened the second time I saw it a few months later). I love movies that draw me in that deep and Perfect Blue became one of those. On the TV show it does not have to be regular broadcast, it could have been cable. After all MPD Psycho was a TV show and it's pretty extreme. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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I think you guys are being really over-literal and taking that single sentence out of context. I'm sure she's not saying it's literally not an anime. It is of course, an animated movie from Japan. That's the textbook definition of anime. It seems fairly apparent when you look at the surrounding paragraph that what Bamboo is addressing is the overall spirit and style of the film which intentionally bucks the typical, unrealistic appearance common in most anime, instead opting to make reality "as real as it can be" as Bamboo said. And come on, can you not express your disagreement without immediately resorting to name calling? |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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 Manga Ent. lost the licence for Perfect Blue in 2008, and have stated that it wouldn't be worth the cost of re-licensing.
Last edited by Mohawk52 on Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:40 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Fallen Wings
Posts: 160 Location: Australia |
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For starters your definition of name calling really needs a checking over because not once did I, nor the other person, call her anything. I said I THOUGHT it was child-like for her SAYING that. That is not calling her anything. Merely I thought what she said was child-like. Also I was being quite general about the thing, I was just expressing my views. Anyway lets us have a look at what she said:
For starters, I believe that she shouldn't have made that comment. It is kinda silly to go from saying it isn't anime then saying it is an animated film. As they are the same thing. Also it doesn't really convey the message properly because of that. Rather than saying "Perfect Blue isn't an anime" perhaps more giving it the description of a reflection of the society would have fitted the bill more like "Perfect Blue breaks the boundaries of these unrealistic stereotypes and flips the mirror, displaying a world of .... which surpasses the very ideas of anime itself." If she wanted to go dramatic or something like that - look I ain't no English student. Frankly I suck, but there was other ways she might have represented it without using a contradicting idea. (And by God that did suck. I leeched all the passion from that statement.) But other than that a being a bit too overly passionate while writing, it is fairly well done. The only problem that I has was that one little thing. That doesn't make it a bad write-up. She does a MUCH better job than I could do. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Who was name calling? I just said that I think the piece overhypes Satoshi Kon, I have yet to see the perfect film, I have yet to see the perfect anime. So I highly doubt that perfect blue is that pefect thing. The idea that the anime community all of a sudden decided that a guy with one film under his belt was not only Hayao Miyazaki's equal but better is a massive exaggeration. Satoshi Kon was a great director, but he also wasn't perfect. |
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Takeyo
 Posts: 736 |
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Having seen Millennium Actress, I'm forced to disagree.
I'm guessing that some of Perfect Blue's detractors also aren't big Terry Gilliam fans. Kon's works always remind me of the former Python when he was at his best. |
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Animehermit
 Posts: 964 Location: The Argama |
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first off an animated film is not the same thing as an anime. an animated film could be film from America or Europe or whatever. Anime often described as an art style or type of character design. for instance some would say that Avatar: the last airbender, is "anime-style" second anyone with half a brain stem can understand the point that Bamboo is trying to make. you take a sentence and a half out of context and yeah, it doesn't make any sense, but if you actually read what she wrote, it makes perfect sense. |
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glitteringloke
 Posts: 160 |
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Of all of Kon's works, Perfect Blue and Paprika are fighting for that top spot.
For those that had a problem following and the 'wtf' factor, i'm reminded of what Kon himself had told us at the paprika premiere in washington DC. Watch it as if it's a roller coaster. just enjoy it. (something along those lines). and it seems to hold true for me - in any movie that's "supposed" to be complicated (ie: inception). It takes the fun out of it if you're thinking so hard through the movie, when you get to the end, it's not nearly as enjoyable. and can make it that much harder. watch it, then think about it, then watch again if you need to. I showed this to my anime-hating roommate in college. she loved it  It's something that surpasses the anime 'standard' and can be appreciated by more than just 'otaku.'
and now i have the CHAM song in my head... |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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Here's to hoping that 'Perfect Blue' sees a remastered release. It deserves it. It's a excellent movie. I remember when it came out some years ago and friends of mind were watching a subbed copy (VHS days folks). It could only be described in his words as the greatest "mind f*ck" ever. I recommended the VHS to my job years later when the anime market started picking up. I needed to see this film in it's entirety on my own. I finally sat down years later and watched it. After seeing his later works. And I was amazed at his method of showing the eerie reality from the fantasy. And the one scene that I remember standing out toward the end was the whole chase and reflection scene. The movie does baffle. I definitely had to own it. Not to long after seeing this film out of coincidence the story of 'Selena' aired on TV (as it's aired numerous times). The only similarity is the fact that both revolved around an upcoming upcoming talent and some screwed up agent. Both equally disturbing.
I think I'm going to have to sit and watch that one again. But definitely worth seeing. Definitely worth releasing again remastered. |
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Peroxid
 Posts: 210 |
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My favorite Satoshi Kon Movie. It's fantastic and I believe that his huge success was his biggest curse, since for the next movies the thematics was always this Dream/Reality dichotomy. I'm not saying that they were bad, talking about Millenium Actress and Paprika. I love both feature films, and they're one of my favorites anime movies out there, still I would like to see something different out of him, which from the preview's it looks like Yume Miru Kikai would be.
It's ironical, how I believe that the same thing happen, but in a worse way, to Katsuhiro Otomo, where Steamboy is an epic fail of an attempt to create something as good as Akira. I you read Kanojo no Omoide, you'll find that Katsuhiro Otomo was experimenting various genre of manga, with deversive one-shots, and Fireball was one of those (who lead to the creation of Domu and them Akira). Still the othe one-shots differ immensely to Fireball, and most of them are hilarious comedy/parody one-shots. Still due to the huge success of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo never left that kind of anime (although one could consider that Ryoujin Z if a sci-fi parody, it doesn't compare to the comedy of Stink Bomb, which hasn't any participation of Otomo, other than providing the original story, that was conceived before Akira). Still I can't be very sure if Satoshi Kon had these other talents hidden inside him, that never came out, due to the high success. Still now that he left us, I have the feeling that he had so much more, that he could give us... |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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You didn't like how the fat kid was depicted as a kind-hearted kid just looking to make a fresh start that ends up winning the student body president before being thwacked by Shounen Bat/Fox? I'm really confused at how you can take a stance against such characterization. If anyone looked bad in that episode, it was Ichi, the "popular" kid. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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Perfect Blue is probably the only Kon work I'm not sure I'll ever watch again. Kon's movies have the ability to evoke a specific feeling in me... for example, Tokyo Godfathers (my favorite of his flims) results in a warm feeling, a reflection on who I am and the people I've known, and a general reaffirmation that humanity has some good in it. Perfect Blue, on the other hand, gives me a creepy feeling... that I'm participating in some voyeuristic peepshow, that people are capable of going to some very dark places, and I'm just as bad for looking on- worse if I'm enjoying it.
It's been several years since I saw it, mind you, so I might pick it up under the pretense of showing it to my mom (who loves horror/thriller but hates gore, this could be right up her alley.) I'm just not sure if I want to feel that kind of 'dirty' for watching a movie again. |
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