Mima Kirigoe is a bouncy pop star whose profitability has almost been exhausted by the music industry; Mima's agent wants her to make the difficult transition into acting despite the protests of her manager, Rumi. Mima's fans from her pop career aren't happy about this change either, and tensions turn violently quickly. But who is committing these vicious acts?
Satoshi Kon makes us question what we perceive publicly may not be what happens privately. He uses this dichotomy to criticise how people are run into the ground by the entertainment industry, privately these people are trading their dignity for fame, but to those on the outside, such as Mima's stalker, it all seems glamorous or even self- indulgent. Kon, however, doesn't just ridicule people who run the industry, but asks what type of person wants to enter this industry, and what does it take to succeed in it? And he believes it can only be the mentally unstable.
This belief frames the film; Kon chooses to give the film a psychotic tone and feel, as an audience we are disconnected from it all. Kon uses editing to blur the boundaries of reality; in the scene where Mima first reads her stalkers blog, Kon jumps back and forth between the two slowly warping her stalker into Mima herself.
The script also obscures the reality of the characters, if you look at that blog it does not just detail Mima's movements but her exact thoughts and feelings. These two characters seem to share a psychosis, and the constant repetition by Mima of saying "Who am I?" makes it obvious how Mima feels about herself. Yet I was left unsatisfied.
The animation is the first thing I had a problem with, Kon draws the characters in a clichéd Anime manner. Mima for example is big breasted, and has large facial features. Kon also uses bold colours to distinguish the characters from the background; this felt like a budget constraint rather than a style choice. The backgrounds are lethargic as well, and this becomes apparent when the action is fast paced, especially in the climactic scene of the film where it becomes hard to understand how things are happening. This is highlighted even more by some of the interesting scenes, especially the scene in the bath.
I wasn't worried about the characters either, now I know this is intentional, but when you consider that the film is trying to unravel a mystery it is hard to care about that when those effected by it are unlikable. Mima is annoying airhead, her manager is weak and self-absorbed, her agent is sleazy, and her stalker is just weird. Adding more scenes like the one in the bath would have made me feel more engaged, the run time is only 85 minutes so this wouldn't have slow things down and added depth.
Kon took a huge risk in picking such a complex topic for his debut film but it feels like an incomplete artistic vision.
Satoshi Kon makes us question what we perceive publicly may not be what happens privately. He uses this dichotomy to criticise how people are run into the ground by the entertainment industry, privately these people are trading their dignity for fame, but to those on the outside, such as Mima's stalker, it all seems glamorous or even self- indulgent. Kon, however, doesn't just ridicule people who run the industry, but asks what type of person wants to enter this industry, and what does it take to succeed in it? And he believes it can only be the mentally unstable.
This belief frames the film; Kon chooses to give the film a psychotic tone and feel, as an audience we are disconnected from it all. Kon uses editing to blur the boundaries of reality; in the scene where Mima first reads her stalkers blog, Kon jumps back and forth between the two slowly warping her stalker into Mima herself.
The script also obscures the reality of the characters, if you look at that blog it does not just detail Mima's movements but her exact thoughts and feelings. These two characters seem to share a psychosis, and the constant repetition by Mima of saying "Who am I?" makes it obvious how Mima feels about herself. Yet I was left unsatisfied.
The animation is the first thing I had a problem with, Kon draws the characters in a clichéd Anime manner. Mima for example is big breasted, and has large facial features. Kon also uses bold colours to distinguish the characters from the background; this felt like a budget constraint rather than a style choice. The backgrounds are lethargic as well, and this becomes apparent when the action is fast paced, especially in the climactic scene of the film where it becomes hard to understand how things are happening. This is highlighted even more by some of the interesting scenes, especially the scene in the bath.
I wasn't worried about the characters either, now I know this is intentional, but when you consider that the film is trying to unravel a mystery it is hard to care about that when those effected by it are unlikable. Mima is annoying airhead, her manager is weak and self-absorbed, her agent is sleazy, and her stalker is just weird. Adding more scenes like the one in the bath would have made me feel more engaged, the run time is only 85 minutes so this wouldn't have slow things down and added depth.
Kon took a huge risk in picking such a complex topic for his debut film but it feels like an incomplete artistic vision.