Mima is an Idol Singer who decides it's time to branch out into a more serious career as an actress, eventually landing a role in a sexually charged murder mystery series.Soon afterward, she discovers an internet blog that claims to be a diary of her life written by Mima herself, yet she has no memory of writing it. But the details in it are far too accurate for it to be a hoax.Is it a Stalker with a Crush? Does Mima have a Split Personality? Or is it something far, far worse?Insanity ensues.The film debut of director Satoshi Kon, who would go on to produce other work investigating the boundary between the real and the imaginary such as Paprika, Paranoia Agent and Millennium Actress.
Provides examples of:
Acting In The Dark: What the director of Double Bind does to his actors, making the parallels between the Mima and the character she plays in the movie even creepier as both start to suspect they are the killer.
Attempted Rape: Near the end of the film the stalker Me-Mania attempts to rape and kill Mima, but she knocks him out by slamming a hammer into the side of his head.
Author Appeal: In-universe - it's suggested that the seedier aspects of Double Bind are done largely so the screenwriter can indulge his own perverted fantasies.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted. When Mima poses for nude photos, her pubic hair is shown and the cleft of the vulva is very briefly visible.
Bland Name Product: features a "Niken" camera early on, only to show a "Nikon F4" camera later on. A bit of Fridge Brilliance, when you realize that they were using the "Niken" on the set of "Double Bind," while the "Nikon f4" was the photographer's personal camera.
Break the Cutie: Mima's sanity slowly erodes over the course of the movie as her identity is assaulted.
Chekhov's Gun: The mention early on that Rumi was a former idol singer herself.
Contractual Purity: In-universe example, which has some horrible consequences.
Cuckoo Nest: One of the hallucinations indicates that Mima's Detective Drama character is the real person, and her "Mima" identity was fabricated as a coping mechanism to deal with being raped in a strip club (which may or may not have been part of the show she was working on). At least, it was probably a hallucination.
Detective Drama: Mima's first post-singer role is as a rape victim in one of these.
Devil in Plain Sight: Me-Mania makes himself visible to Mima at CHAM's last performance, and several times thereafter.
Dream Within a Dream: Used multiple times (as well as showing us conversations or scenes that seem like they're really happening, only for a director to yell "cut!" — the main character was just filming a scene in the television show she's in) to ramp up the suspense and paranoia that the main character feels.
Dying Dream: Sometime after a near-death encounter with a truck, Mima speculates that this trope is in play as she doubts that she's really alive.
Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end, when visiting Rumi in the mental hospital, we see that Mima's not only a famous actress now, but also seems to be quite well-adjusted.
Extreme Doormat: Mima, at least for a good chunk of the movie.
Eye Scream: A man gets stabbed in the eye by a supposed pizza delivery guy. Another man is murdered, and later on his body is shown with the eye sockets all bloody and the eyes missing. Me-Mania gets hit in the eye with a hammer. There's basically a sample of this in every murder.
Fan Disservice: A good amount. There's the rape scenes, the scenes where Mima is getting photographed naked, Rumi in the CHAM get-up, etc.
Foot Focus: The film is littered throughout with numerous closeups of Mima's bare feet, particularly during chase scenes.
Freak Out: Mima, coming home at the end of a particular traumatic day after filming a rape scene, finds her beloved pet fish dead, and loses control for a moment, trashing her apartment. She (as well as Rumi) has numerous moments where she freaks out throughout the rest of the movie.
Go Mad From The Revelation: Rumi in the ending, is seen permanently delusional and institutionalized at a mental hospital.
Gonk: Arguably a few characters due to the art style, but most definitely Me-Mania (see Nightmare Face below).
Groin Attack: One of the murder victims is repeatedly stabbed in the crotch with a screwdriver.
Harassing Phone Call: After Mima converts to acting from her pop-idol career, she receives at least one threatening message and phone call (each from her stalker Me-Mania).
Mean Character, Nice Actor: When Mima's Double Bind character is manhandled and raped by a rowdy crowd, the actor playing said rapist quietly stammers "I'm so sorry." between takes.
The Mirror Shows Your True Self: In the final confrontation between Mima and her alter ego, both Mima and the audience see the alter ego as the phantom Idol Singer Mima that has been haunting Mima. Only the mirror reflection shows the truth — that it's really Rumi dressed up as Mima.
Napoleon Delusion: Non-Napoleon example. Rumi, Mima's manager, increasingly comes to believe that she is Mima.
Never Found the Body: Seems to be the case with Me-Mania at first, then subverted pretty hard.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: While not as extreme as many examples, Mima's persona in CHAM! seems very deliberately girlish and childlike. Her attempts to overcome this trope are what sets the plot in motion.
Reality Subtext: In universe: When they finish shooting "Double Bind", everyone congratulates Mima on her performance as a mentally disturbed woman with a split personality. She may have been that good because she herself has... issues.
In Mima's first acting role, two characters in the scene discuss a serial killer who removes his victims' skin because he wants to be a woman. That plot sounds a little familiar.
Tadakoro also mentions "Jodie whatshername" in a later conversation about Mima's career. He was specifically referring to The Accused, in which Foster plays a rape victim.
Shower of Angst: Mima takes a bath in the middle of the movie after all the shit she goes through.
Show Within a Show: Extreme type 4 example, such that at times it's unclear whether what you're watching is happening to Mima or her character (or maybe both).
And another disorder related to Schizophrenia, called Folie ŕ deux. The subjective nature of a person's image and how it may differ from that actual person, possibly even taking on a life of its own, is one of the major points of the film.
Stalker Shrine: Rumi's room is an exact replica of Mima's room.
Stylistic Suck: The show-within-a-show Double Bind features abundant sex and violence and borrows rather heavily from other well-known psychological thrillers.
Tears of Fear: Mima during the rape scene, during her Freak Out moment after returning to her apartment, and as she's running for her life from Rumi.
0 reviews 