How to watch Perfect Blue | critical notes

Below you’ll find the notes I took while preparing for our definitive explanation of Perfect Blue. I had already watched the movie once so had an idea of what would happen and what to look for. But it was confounding enough that I had to do a third watch. You can really tell the difference in depth of thought between second and third viewings.

If you have any questions, leave a comment!

Perfect Blue Second Watch

• Powertron opening
• “Don’t pressure me” first words Mima says
• Cross cut between real life and stage performance
• Rumi and Tadokoro argue about Mima’s future, acting or singing, and they’re reflected in the glass on either side of Mima. Becoming symbolic of her internal conflict.
• Me-Mania holds hand in a way that makes it look like Mima’s in the palm of his hand. Possession. 
• Me-Mania’s focus ruined by the thrown can from the punks
• “The angel of love smiles at you” lyric happens as Me-Mania smiles at Mima
  • Phantom of the Opera?
• Going home alone vs the crowd cheering for her
• Food in fridge is bad
• Forgot to feed her fish the day before
• “Bye bye Mima the pop idol”
• Sing for us forever—I can’t really do that
  • “Sing for me” Phantom of the Opera
• “I always like looking into Mima’s room.”
• “Who are you” is part of the script
• “Do you know why the culprit peels off the skin of his victims? … He wants to become one.”
• Weird reaction to the lights: 15:54
• Feels everyone is talking about her, looking at her, laughing at her, then sees Me-Mania
• As Tadokoro tells Shibuya that Mima is done being an idol, the camera is on Rumi. 
• Train appears a lot? Possible motif? Though how would it possibly be meaningful?
• Rumi talks Mima down saying letter bomb was only a prank
• Curtains drawn
• Website has creepy info
• “Who are you” repeats
• Curtain blows open
• Shot at 22:54 is creepy as hell
• Rumi and Tadokoro talk again, and Mima is between them again but this time on TV. 
• “Times are different from when Rumi Hidaka was a working pop idol.”
• “Well excuse me for not surviving…”
• Fans bemoan Mima’s limited role. Me-Mania listens.
• Mima runs out the train station, thinking someone is following her.
• Shot of sky with some blue but clouds in it too
• Tadashoi Doi hit by car
• Flashback to when Cham got started and Mima was excited and invested, contrasts her being outside the group now
• Another shot of a hazy sky and train
• R*pe scene debate. Mima once again between Todokoro and Rumi 
• Mima chooses to go all-in on acting, Todokoro in reflection
• First identity split happens on train ride home
  • pop idol Mima reflection in train window
• Me-Mania is at the r*pe scene
• Shot of lights again
• r*pist actor apologizes, all the actors seem very polite
• Rumi cries and leaves
• Everything blurs and the lights go wild
• Pop Idol Mima interrupts the scene and transitions us to the aftermath
• Comes home and fish are all dead
  • Rumi’s first kill?
  • Or Mima’s neglect?
• The dead fish cause all this emotion to come out of Mima, she didn’t want to do the scene
  • Sees Idol Mima
• Two fish are actually alive and we see no dead fish in the tank
  • unreliable narrator?
• We see Me-Mani’s place and how obsessed he is
  • String divides the scene down the middle 
    • why?
• Mima’s face gets distorted in photographer’s lens? 
  • Bigger like Rumi’s?
• Mima is happy with the increased fame she’s getting
• Fans criticize the fact Mima’s no longer a pop idol, with Me-Mania spiraling
• Mima’s room has the e-mail from “Mima” (actually Rumi)
• Mima sees her Idol self and Idol Mima is cruel
• Idol Mima appears in front of Mima
  • Is this Rumi?
• “From now on, I’ll be in the light and you’ll be in the shadows.”
• Mima sees Idol Mima jump out the window but the window’s closed. 
• Blood on Double Bind sign on writer’s parking spot
• Cham song plays, Angel of Love song
• “She is here just for you” is threatening given what’s going to happen to the writer
• “She is protecting you from somewhere nearby” is another lyric and also speaks to what Rumi’s doing
• Writer dead
• Siren ends up being toy siren on kid’s car
• Oddly colored sky in background
• Cham duo poster
• Me-Mania zooms in on empty spot between other Cham members on poster
  • Cut to Mima in the center of the screen, by herself
• Blood on tissues behind Mima? 
• When Mima smiles at herself she sees Idol Mima in another car
  • “Serves you right”
• Cut from Mima to Rumi
• Other Cham members kind of trash talking Mima
• Photographer specializes in getting girls to strip
• Mima strips
• Cham performs
• Me-Mania zooms in again on the empty space, superimposed Mima
• “I’m a pop idol.” “I’m an actress..”
• Me-Mania sees Mima singing with the group, but the other members of Cham seem freaked out. Different voice. 47:17. 
  • Rumi?
• Mima’s room posts about the performance. 
• Mima’s apartment is a mess. Hunched over in the bath, face under water, she screams. 
• Me-Mania buys all the issues of nude Mima
• We see the e-mail from Rumi. “That’s not me. That’s an imposter.” 
  • Rumi gaslighting Me-Mania
  • Does he imagine Mima or is rumi there?
• Scene with Eri about not knowing who you are.
  • How do you think you know that person you were a second ago is the same person you are now? A continuous stream of memories. Given only that, we all create illusions within ourselves saying that we each have only one fixed persona. 
  • There is no way illusions can come to life
    • Then Mima sees Me-Mania
    • Cut back a few seconds later and he’s not there. In her mind or not?
• Shot of bridge, gray sky. 
• Sees Idol Mima with Cham, gives chase. 
• Idol Mima ripples the water, while Actress Mima splashes it
• Mima wakes up from dream where truck starts to hit her
• Rumi comes by
• We go from Mima having her conversation with Rumi and wondering if there’s a part of herself that’s come to life right into the scene from the TV show where the character has a split personality
  • This is one of the first major instances of a lack of boundaries between the TV show and Mima’s life, the two blending into a stream of what’s real and what’s not
• Same scene as before, with Mima ruining the line, apologizing, then looking to the spot where Me-Mania had been. Except this time he’s there. 
• Then he’s gone
• Sky reflected in puddle on the ground, clouds visible in the blue 
• White screen
• Mima wakes up an even more dirty apartment
• Rumi is there again, “It’s been a while”
  • Repetition again
• Mima breaks her glass, starts bleeding
  • “The blood is real, isn’t it?”
• Happy Mima then cut to sad f**king Mima staring at screen
• Back to TV show
  • You mean the murderer is an illusion she created?
  • She fears an imaginary security guard and then doubles that figure with the serial murderer of top models. 
  • But illusions don’t kill.
  • But what if that illusion found someone to possess?
• Stabs the photographer in the f**king p**is
  • Looks like Mima stabbing, but at 57:23 we see that Japanese Noh mask. 
    • Noh is a dance drama where a supernatural being transforms into a human and is the hero narrating the story. One actor can wear different masks to play different characters. 
    • The mask probably is a hint that this is Rumi acting as Mima
    • The Noh mask also probably is a good introduction element, a way to ground the story, maybe?
• Cut to director saying Take 3, which recalls the show, then Mima waking up in bed, which recalls reality. Was she dreaming again? Was she acting again? She’s lost time. 
• Tadokoro says “We’re going crazy over here” and just then someone moves out of frame to reveal Rumi on the phone in the background…the person who really has gone crazy. 
• Bloody clothes in Mima’s closet.
  • When would Rumi have put them there?
• Light shining on Mima’s face
• “You think she’s cursed.”
• “Am I alive?”
• Thinks maybe the truck hit her and this is all a dream
• “You’ve just killed someone”
• Same murder weapon
• Sees the photographer, faints, and wakes up in bed.
  • Yet another transition from TV show to reality
• But then Mima’s immediately talking to Eri, so we’re RIGHT back to TV show
• “She thinks she’s a new young actress named Mima Kirigoe.”
  • Yoko Takakura, the original persona, is nothing more than a character in a drama for her. Being a ‘normal’ girl… how she was r*ped in a club…everything happened as part of her drama series. By doing so, she salvaged her heart. 
  • Mima: That’s right. I’m an actress.
• This seems like a big reveal, then the director yells cut and the visual we were watching literally rewinds, as the camera pulls back to reveal a monitor. 
  • So they’re even kind of messing with meta filmmaking aspects to disorient the viewer
• The scene repeats, except we have different dialogue
  • First time: Can you tell me your name
    • Me? I’m Mima Kirigoe
  • Second time: Can you tell me your name
    • Me? I’m Rika Takakura
  • Eri: By killing, and later becoming, her sister the top-model, she salvaged her heart. 
    • Shifts away from Mima, creating room for Rumi
• Everyone on set cheers at the final cut, Mima looks confused. We also see two of Mima, one reflected in the window. 
• Room spins around Mima, goes white again. 
• Mima faints a little. 
• Travis, look how similar Rumi and Mima look at 1:02:55
• Mima’s suddenly no longer on set, but in a hallway, once again between Rumi and Tadokoro 
• Reflective floor, hallway. 
• Calls Eri by her character name, showing a continued lack of distinction between reality and fiction
• Eri repeats the line “There is no way illusions can come to life.”
• “You should stop dreaming soon.”
• Me-Mania comes down the hallway, grabs her
• Tadokoro wants to leave. His headlights flood Rumi and brighten her (connection to the white transitions? or the earlier spells of Mima seeing lights weirdly?)
• Me-Mania has knife, yells at Mima, is on the stage where her character was assaulted. 
• Starts to repeat the scene but in reality
• She thinks he killed them
• She fights back. 
• You have to follow the script. 
• Different murder weapon than what was used. 
• Sweet music. 
• Assault scene starts to repeat again (wasn’t something mentioned earlier about happening in threes?)
• Hammer blow to the temple
• He crashes to the stage where Mima’s character had been and lays in a similar position
• Lights come on, just like they had on Rumi
• Everyone’s applauding how they had before. It was the final scene.
  • Clothes are normal again
• Rumi looking for Mima
• Now Mima’s in shambles, like in the aftermath of the fight
• But Me-Mania is gone
• Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?
• Driving home
• Mima reflected in window, but so too is Rumi, with Rumi looking more mischievous than before 
  • Note that Tadokoro is gone. Now it’s Mima, Mima’s reflection, and Rumi. So that same trifecta repeats from the very beginning of the movie, but now Mima is in a power position rather than just in the middle of everything. 
    • Probably has to do with her completing her first TV role and a sign that she’s maturing somewhat 
  • Foreshadows the coming conflict between the two 
• “I’m taking you back to Mima’s room.”
• Mima falls asleep in the car but wakes up in a room (transition is a change in lighting)
• It looks like her room but is different (can we get contrast shots?)
• Fish are alive
• Tadokoro’s phone rings from the studio. We see his body. Slumps next to Me-Mania
• Did Rumi steal the fish?
• Cham poster back on wall
• View out the window is completely different
  • Train, another train
• Pop Mima, but in the mirror it’s Rumi
  • Says she’s wearing it at tomorrow’s show
• Rumi went home. She said she’s been busy lately and was deprived of sleep. 
• Rumi starts singing the song from the very beginning, about being loved. 
• “What do you think? Perfect, huh?” 
  • Use of the word from the title
• Rumi has the dagger
• Rumi is switching in and out of visual
• Mima running and the reflection is her
• Rumi reflected and she looks awful
• Screaming for help but no one is helping, stabbed with umbrella
• Comes face to face with her reflection and sees herself, then sees Rumi
• Glass shatters
• I AM MIMA
• “Dirty old imposter” is what Rumi says about Mima, the irony
• Rumi stabs herself on glass, sees her reflection in the shards, stumbles into street, puts wig on, stands ready to be hit by the truck
• The lights of the truck make her think it’s the lights of the stage
• Both women hit by the truck
• They survive some awful injuries
• Daylight starts to spill over the buildings
• Zoom outs to Tokyo neighborhoods
  • No trains
• Shot of Tokyo and sky, clouds in sky but nice day
• Rumi walks around with flowers in a psych ward
• “But thank to her I am who I am today”
• Nurses impressed Mima is there
  • “I guess she was a look alike”
  • “No, I’m real.”

Third viewing

• “Don’t pressure me” = Mima’s first words
• The Perfect Blue title screen is on that white screen that transitions a lot of shots
  • Could have to do with the spot light? Similar to Rumi standing in front of the truck at the end?
• Cross cut of Cham performance with Mima shopping and stuff is similar to what’s happening with the TV show and the cuts between the show and Mima’s life and the blurring of the lines. We even cross cut to the tension of Mima becoming an actress in the middle of that. So we see three main tensions all within the first performance: Pop Idol, Real Life, Becoming an Actress. 
• Me-Mania is definitely a security guard at the show. Something in the TV show is about the security guard committing murders? 
• Plants in room at 10:24
  • This sequence of shots juxtaposes the series at 1:08:35
  • Plants in room at 1:08:37
• Letter seems like it’s from no one in particular
• Mom’s call is putting pressure on Mima’s decision “Don’t pressure me.” 
• Pressure from starting up a new career
• Pressure from Me-Mania
• Pressure is broad influence here
• There’s literally no indication Rumi is involved
• After the letter bomb goes off, we dissolve from Mima’s face to Tokyo at night, with the train going by. Does this indicate some connection between environment and mindset? 
• Okay, computer takes the spot of the TV in Mima’s apartment, meaning that the TV probably does move to the dresser where it is in Mima’s Room
  • Yup, 20:01, you can see it on the dresser
• 23:08 does the same “Make the TV show look like it’s actually the reality of the movie then rewind the shot” that we see later when Mima’s the psych patient and we think the TV show has been a fantasy this entire time
• We never see Mima actually interact with the Cham girls again
• Me-Mania is legitimately following her
• Stage lighting during the assault scene 
  • Is this also the breaking point for Rumi? Was she normal until this point?
• Weird music starts the scene when Mima’s still on the train, then ends the scene right before the birth of “Pop Idol” Mima
• No fish are in the tank, then Mima suddenly sees the dead fish
• Idol Mima is in the computer screen
• Two fish still alive in tank. I think Rumi came over and took the fish to put together her version of Mima’s room. Then we see Me-Mania get the e-mail for the first time. Unless that’s him typing the post and speaking in her voice?
• “From now on I’ll be in the light” and all the lights
  • We even see Idol Mima jump light to light to light
• DOES MIMA PERFORM AGAIN WITH CHAM?
• FIRST E-MAIL happens at 48:31
  • To Mr. Me-Mania: Thank you for your e-mail every day. You believe me, right? That’s not me. She’s an imposter! 
  • All the posters in his room speak Rumi-Mima’s words to him. That’s wild. How did I not notice that before. So he’s also mentally unhealthy. 
  • He imagines Idol Mima’s presence, the same way Mima does
• Gray and rainy out when Mima has the dream about getting hit by the car
  • Actual day it’s clear skies and sunny—perfect blue?
• Shot at 57:01 is in the Photographer’s apartment, with Rumi killing him. Behind Rumi is a giant projector screen with maybe Double Bind playing in the background? But the weapon on screen is the exact one Rumi is using in that moment. 
  • It’s even Mima on screen in that scene. So it’s the reveal in the TV show that she’s the murderer. But actually a twist in the movie because she’s not the murderer.
  • 57:20, Mima’s face is in the background, on the screen, and Rumi-Mima lifts her head into the foreground, so the projected face of TV Mima is over the top of Rumi-Mima. 
  • THEN WE GET THE NOH MASK
• How would the bloody clothes end up at Mima’s? Rumi leaves them there to frame Mima? Or is it a dream?
• “What happens twice happens thrice.”
  • 59:26
• Weird music returns
  • It’s the scene where we think we’re finding out Mima’s not an actress or idol at all
• Me-Mania says “Take 2” when trying to kill her, just like the director had been saying Take 2, Take 3
• Falls where the body of the guy she killed in the show was?
• Maybe it’s cutting back to that scene where she was supposed to kill someone and we cut away?
  • 59:40 
  • Breathe heavier, you just killed someone
  • Now she’s breathing heavy
• When she wakes up in Mima’s Room, she looks out the window and sees a train. So the train really is prominent. Why?
• “Perfect, huh?”
• Sky difference
  • 1:16:32 it’s hazy
  • 1:16:35 it’s blue 
• F***
  • 1:17:01, Mima walks through the psych ward holding her flowers. Behind her are windows that are completely white washed. It’s that same white light that made up the transitions throughout the film. So it shows she’s still kind of awash in the dream rather than grounded in reality. 
• Also, with Mima talking to the doctor, it recalls the scenes from Double Bind when the doctor and detective talk. Mima kind of looks and carriers herself like the actress she looked up to, Eri.
• 1:17:20, Rumi sees Pop Mima in the bright white reflection.
  • Rumi is actually in more of a green backdrop, and Mima had been in a similar green backdrop when we first see her waiting at the hospital, like right before 1:17:01
• She’s also driving herself now
• And that white light is in the rearview mirror of the final shot…geeze 
  • 1:17:46