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| Heroic Cinema
Throughout October the Mercury Cinema is screening ‘Heroic Cinema’, a season of cult Asian fantasy, action and anime movies ranging from ‘Tai Chi Master’ and the kung-fu masterpiece ‘Fist Of Legend’ (both starring action wunderkind Jet Li) to the action-fantasy of ‘Time And Tide’, directed by Hark Tsui (‘A Chinese Ghost Story’ and ‘Once Upon A Time In China’). Also included on the Heroic Cinema bill is the Adelaide premiere of Satoshi Kon’s anime masterpiece 'Perfect Blue', which tells the story of young pop idol Mima Kiroge. At the instigation of her manager, she decides to leave the glamorous but ill-paying world of music behind in the hopes of becoming a serious actress. Her fans, however, do not react well to this career move, especially when her role in a murder mystery involves a graphic rape scene. One by one the people who assisted her transformation are killed, Mima receives threats against her own life and a website called ‘Mima’s Room’ records her every move. As events conspire against her, Mima drifts into a zone where the usually stable concepts of identity, time and reality begin to shift and blur. A complex and intelligent film, 'Perfect Blue' gives the lie to stereotypes of manga as films about cute, moon-eyed girls in sailor outfits or sexually-perverse cyborgs. The film explores significant issues: the virgin/whore complex - especially with regard to the Japanese obsession with young kawaii girls - and the cost to psychological stability of creating a public persona It also provides a satisfying and suspenseful mystery story: 'Perfect Blue' fits surprisingly well into the psychological-thriller genre. The subject matter is worthy of a less misogynist Brian de Palma, but the film has a surreality that, finally, refuses to be resolved. Excellently animated and scripted, 'Perfect Blue' is a rewarding experience both for lovers of anime and newcomers to the form; those who see anime as nothing more than silly cartoons for adults will find their expectations emphatically thwarted by this subtle and sinister mystery. Lara Derham
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