MovieChat Forums > Pâfekuto burû (1999) Discussion > Overly Pretentious?

Overly Pretentious?

posted 20 years ago by kiyeho
9 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen this movie in almost a year, so forgive me if this seems...inaccurate. Also, keep in mind, I was only able to see the dub.

One thing I learned upon seeing films like Akira and OAVs like Serial Experiments Lain; is that usually some of the best anime is also incredibly pretentious.

I didn't know this was based on a novel until very recently, so I suppose I'll have to obtain a copy to hopefully disillusion myself.

However...to me, this film kind of went over the top trying to make itself bizarre..did anyone get this kind of feeling?

Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty good movie...but something about it struck me as a trying a bit too hard to be strange to be as brilliant as I was told...

Never shall I forget the moments that murdered my God and my Soul.. --
Elie Wiesel

[–] sasamijurai 20 years ago

Not at all, it's not pretentious at all. It's really a brilliant thriller, and has a better twist at the end than anything M Night Shylayman has ever created, in fact I'd call his films overtly pretentious, because unlike him, the director of this film does not use the whole movie as a setup for one cheap twist at the end.

[–] justinlesamiz 16 years ago

no one even brought up m night. why turn the topic into your own personal crusade of hatred for some unrelated director. despite the fact that i agree with you that m night is a hack, its totally unrelated to this thread.

- www.therightclique.com -

EAT MORE COPS

[–] b_karate 16 years ago

The movie is only loosely based on the book the only 3 thing they have in common is that the movie needed to have: a singer, a stalker and horror.

[–] Neptuny 16 years ago

The MNS reference was actually relevant because it's an example. Nah, I don't think this movie was pretentious. Are there any examples of it trying too hard?

Veronica: She has that wide-eyed "Margot Kidder in a bush" look.

[–] whalleywhat 16 years ago

Perfect Blue messes with the narrative quite a bit. It's absolutely necessary for the story and helps to alter the viewers state of mind to be in line with Mimi's. I don't see what the problem is. Is that pretentious? Who cares. People just use that as a catch all pejorative for anything that aspires to be in any way artistic. Better head down to the art gallery and tell them to throw out all the paintings: they're pretentious. Sorry, William Burroughs, your books are pretentious. Dumb people might get their feelings hurt.

[–] Charlie_Strom 16 years ago

This is made for DePalma re-make, easily. Vanessa Hudgens as the retired pop idol, suddenly turned actress, and insert strange stalker.

[–] viewtiful-ian 14 years ago

I wouldn't say the film is pretentious at all, but I do think there were some things stopping it from being as good as it could have been. The repeated dreams and cliche physical projection of the main character kept the film from being as subtle as it easily could have been.

[–] my_boomstick 14 years ago

The word 'pretentious' is used by people to tag something which they do not understand. So yes, this movie can be pretentious depending on who you ask.

[–] Tommy711 (134) 3 months ago

Yea I thought the movie was okay up until she kept waking up or the movie she was acting in hit a 'cut' etc. It just made it confusing after that and I lost interest. Admittedly, the animation was stellar in certain parts of the movie, especially when Mira is pretending to be the pizza delivery guy and stabs the writer or whomever it was, and when Rumi is trying to kill Mira and her face keeps changing when getting choked etc. 5/10 as a whole, though.