Perfect Blue, 1997. Produced by Rex Entertainment
aspects that are difficult to pull off in a live-action film, but when it comes to a film that could have been filmed using live actors, the question arises as if live-action film is the default mode of film-making and animation is some kind of special case or aberration. In fact, animation came about before live-action cinema, and therefore has a longer history; one way to think of live-action cinema is simply as a form of animation that uses photorealistic elements as its raw materials. However, the common assumption is that if a film can be made as a live-action film, then it should be, although the more interesting part of the Perfect Blue is not necessarily the narrative, but how it plays out onscreen. As Mima gets more involved in the acting world, she seems to lose her grip on reality and becomes unable to tell which parts of her life are truth and which parts are fiction. Kon seems to want to impart this feeling of uncertainty to the audience as well and it is for this reason that Perfect Blue is particularly suited for animation. As animation critic and historian Fred Patten writes: ‘The use of animation rather than live-action enhances Perfect Blue’s surrealistic elements. It is harder to tell how much of “what the camera shows” is real and how much is Mima’s imagination, or what someone is trying to convince Mima is her imagination—or whether the camera is showing both.’ In other words, since the audience is willing to accept animated figures onscreen as ‘real’ people, there is already a degree of suspension of disbelief occurring. With this in mind, it perhaps becomes a little easier for a director of animated films than for a director of live-action films to play with the filmic ‘reality’ he or she has created.
Brian Ruh
78 Japan