Perfect Blue is still very relevant

I watched this film for the first time two years ago as they were showing it in Finnkino cinemas. Since then, it has been a film that's stayed in the back of my mind.

A quick synopsis for those of you who are not familiar with it: A young woman named Mima Kirioge is part of a fairly successful j-pop group which she leaves to pursue a career as an actor. But not everyone is happy with her new career choice, and soon she has a stalker after her. Struggling with her identity and the stalking, lines between her reality and roles begin to blur.

Fair word of warning: some spoilers ahead! 

So if you've not yet seen the film, I highly suggest you go and watch it. However, the film includes some gruesome scenes and touches a lot psychological subjects, so it's not exactly a family film.

Overly obsessed fans

As internet has become pretty much integrated to who we are, it's also a lot easier to connect with your idols and share your thoughts about your idols with other fans. Despite the film came out 1997, the way it portrays how some fans are so obsessed with their idols, who think they're the be-all and end-all on how their idol should live their life. In the film, a fan has made a website called "Mima's Room" which works as a public diary of a reality where Mima never left to pursue her acting career. As one could guess, finding the website doesn't really do wonders to Mima's mental health. Even though I don't think such behavior from fans is a new phenomenon, I do find that internet makes it a lot easier to share their thoughts even directly to their idols, which definitely puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on them. Having a young protagonist in the film highlights the problem even more, since generally younger people are more susceptible to other people's thoughts on them. Somewhat similar very recent example can be made about k-pop idols only in their 20s, taking their own lives, allegedly because of online attacks that were directed towards them; how they looked and/or what they supported (source).

Struggling with identity

In the film, it's highly noticeable that Mima very quickly starts questioning who she is. Mima wants to be taken seriously as an actor, but her "cute" image she had during her pop idol days, is still something that not all fans are ready to let go of. And especially after seeing her in some risque scenes, these pop idol Mima obsessed fans don't take it well at all, and the two opposing forces are tearing her apart from the inside. Same sort of problem could also be applied to even regular young people, but instead of agents it could be parents who might be dictating what would be the best career choice for you. In both situations, it's very much likely to not produce a good outcome on an individual's mental health and wellbeing. In the film, this struggle translates to Mima seeing illusions of herself still being a pop idol, taunting her about she tainted her "pure and innocent" image. Another thing that this comments perfectly in the present, is how many of us have a certain image of ourselves we give to other on social media platforms. But in this scenario, we ourselves are sometimes the "fans who can't let go" as we ourselves set the criteria we must meet. I know even I myself fall into this trap quite often on the rare occasion I end up updating anything to my accounts. Maybe that's just why I barely ever put out anything, deeming a lot of things unworthy to post about. 

There's a lot more that could be said, and I feel like I barely even dipped my toes into the ocean called Perfect Blue. But since it's been a while I've seen the film and it still feels like there's a whole lot more to uncover and analyze about the film, I'm now extremely into watching it yet again. 

As a bonus, the film has some seriously fitting unsettling music.