Film Club: Noam Blum / Perfect Blue (1997)
We talk to the taster of neon about beiong a big Twitter user, anime and why he loves Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue
Welcome to the Lack of Taste Film Club, where we talk to non-cinephiles and non-professional cinephiles about themselves and the movies they love. You will find a different flavour to Film Club entries going forward. We want to get to know our guest more before we talk about their chosen film. So a general Q&A will come first, and the film comes second.
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You might have heard of Noam Blum, but if you’ve ever been on Twitter, you have seen at least one of his tweets under the handle Neontaster. That is him and on that hellsite, he has more than 150,000 followers. Blum is also the Chief Technology Officer for Tablet Magazine, a lover of all things pop culture, especially anime. This is why when he tweeted this out, it was that moment I knew I have to take the chance. I talk to him about Perfect Blue, the masterful directorial debut from Satoshi Kon. I also ask him about his Twitter usage, as well as some things to know about anime.
What do you miss about being an anonymous account before it turns out you were an actual person and not the character from Beyond the Black Rainbow when I first followed you?
I guess I miss the certain "mystique" it would give. I would post a certain picture or something I made that would reveal some unexpected aspect of my life. Also introducing myself in real life to people who only knew my Twitter persona was a trip. But ultimately aside from the jarring transition, I've enjoyed being myself quite a bit.
What have you learned about being on Twitter and how have you cultivated a base that follows your every opinion?
In many ways, it moderated my tone on certain things. I wouldn't say that I self-censor but I do try to keep in mind the audience that reads my tweets and how certain points I make can be conveyed in better and worse ways. I'd be lying if I said I was perfect at it, but I do my best.
There are some people who will either call you a centrist or a conservative. How would you describe yourself?
Especially lately I've been feeling very politically homeless. I jokingly describe myself as a"tell me the issue and I'll explain at length how I feel about it"-ist.
Is there actually a connection between anime lovers and their politics? I have met weebs who are more left-wing, so I find the stereotype of the right-wing otaku quite odd.
I used to think of the anime community as very left-wing. When the culture wars first erupted, I found myself alienated from the anime circles I had felt comfortable in because of my positions on certain issues, but it's definitely popular on the right as well. I just think it took that same culture war to turn them into a more cohesively vocal group.
Do you prefer dubs or subs? And when is it appropriate to watch an anime in an English dub?
Since I studied Japanese, I've always been a subs guy, and I also enjoy the Japanese voice acting style more. That being said, watch, however, feels best for you. I do have a few shows that I even prefer the dub to the sub. Baccano and Black Lagoon are two that come to mind. Many people cite Cowboy Bebop, and I'd argue that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is at least as good in English as it is in Japanese.
So I've only watched Perfect Blue twice. The first time I saw it is through a pirated copy on YouTube; the second time was at a Film Society at my alma mater. You've seen it a million times, and so I'm wondering, what was your experience when you saw it for the first time and then with each subsequent viewing?
Circa 2004 I had a friend who ran a video store (remember those?) and he carried a lot of anime. It was through him that I watched a whole bunch of classics, and he was the one who introduced me to Perfect Blue. This was also right around the time I was getting into weirder movies that involved nonstandard storytelling and more arthouse sensibilities, so it clicked with me pretty instantly. It was just very hard to get a legal copy for many years. I ended up finding a DVD at a charity auction and the quality of the print was nearly unwatchable. I just watched it last week for the nth time and again I am struck by how meticulous every shot and every transition is. It was preplanned to perfection and sells the "descent into madness" trope better than almost anything else I can think of.
In both viewings, the most unsettling scene for me was when Mina is being filmed as a nightclub dancer being raped by the attendees. It was really long and it had the effect of shackling my own skin. After that, we see her manager Rumi burst into tears. Why do you think that happened?
At the risk of spoiling the film, Rumi had been living vicariously through Mima, living out the idol career that she had always wanted (and the movie mentions in passing that she had been some sort of idol herself). Once Mima transitioned to more adult material, Rumi felt that vicarious life slip away, and her grip on reality began to break. The rape scene basically represents the definitive end to Mima's idol career and she couldn't handle it.
The violence in Perfect Blue sends a chill down my spine, and I think it's an aspect that anime can be very effective compared to any other medium. It can range from the brutal destruction of Attack on Titan, the quiet deaths of Monster or even the fun gun-slinging from Black Lagoon. So how does Kon make the violence more distinguishable here?
I think Kon's use of colour in Perfect Blue really helps highlight the violence. The blood is a very vibrant red compared to the rest of the colour palette, and many violent moments feature disorienting camera moves and are meant to evoke confusion rather than gratuitous flashy violence. There is something very viscerally realistic about the violent moments and they don't feel exaggerated for cinematic effect. That gives it an impact.
I love how the film is edited to showcase Mima's reality becoming fractured. There will be one scene where Mima feels frightened in her home before quickly switching to the film set that she's in. I once wrote in my Letterboxd that we feel like you want to protect her from any of the events because she has limited control over them or herself, whether it's being yelled at by fans, after announcing her career switch from pop star to acting, or that rape scene, because it will be a brutal, if risky, move to solidify the big choice that she made.
I think you're right that Mima evokes a protective instinct in the viewer, and the worst part is when the person who the movie tells you is her protector turns out to have been her tormentor. You experience her sense of betrayal at that moment.
One adjective that often comes up with Perfect Blue is 'relevant' and there are many ways to associate the film with our modern age, particularly with the parasocial relationships that we develop on the Internet. In my initial review, I thought it was an indictment on the music industry and how we perceive female stars and how they choose to shed their innocence. But it isn't simply the big fat executive who calls the shots that's part of the commentary, but the fans that had the fictional version of Mima in their head. Do you think there's anything beyond this issue that made the film compelling to you?
You're very right that it speaks to parasocial relationships and also to things like Cancel Culture and public image issues. Mima becomes "tarnished" because of the roles she took and could never have gone back to being an idol. Between that and Me-Mania essentially being radicalized by the internet into believing Mima wasn't the real Mima, the movie is startlingly relevant for something that was made so long ago they refer to the internet as "that new thing people have been talking about."