Perfect Blue; 4 of 5 stars ... unfortunately

• June 2, 2007
• James Skemp
• dvd / movie, review

I just finished watching Perfect Blue online (via Netflix). Believing that they do influence what movies are recommended, in a good way, I had to give it four stars, out of five. In Netflix terms, that's the difference between a "Really Liked It" and a "Loved It." However, I really wanted to give it a five stars ...

All-in-all, it's probably one of the most interesting films I've seen. The animation quality, with the exception of the environments and select main characters, was fairly plain, for a film produced around 1997. For example, Royal Space Force - Wings of Honneamise, was created back in the late 80s, but characters in this movie are quite visually more appealing.

Yet, on the other hand, the style of the characters actually suggests something of their character. At the beginning of the film, for example, we are introduced to a character that adores the main character of the film. Later, he gets creepier and creepier, and we see that he is no 'hunchback', but rather truly monstrous.

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In fact, the main character's friend, who we believe to be good-hearted, is also drawn fairly bad, but by the end of the movie we find that she is not quite what she seems.

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But, the animation doesn't really impact the movie too much, or at least it shouldn't.

Perhaps the only thing that really holds this film back, after watching it, is the amount of violence. However, whether or not it's truly as violent as other films of it's genre (psychological thriller) is debatable. Perhaps it is it's animated nature that makes one believe that is more violent than it really is ...

But, that's why it gets four stars instead of five. Again, I thought the movie was great, but I would be unable to tell most of the people I know that they should watch this film. Of course, the film is hard to find, so perhaps it's best left to those few of us anyways ...

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As an aside, I'm a bit upset that Netflix never told me that I could watch movies online, and that I had to find out while watching a commercial for their service. Perhaps I don't watch enough television, but I would have liked to have known before May was up ... if you know what I mean.

• perfect blue