Perfect Blue (1998)

Director:

Satoshi Kon

Writers:

Sadayuki Murai (screenplay)
Yoshikazu Takeuchi (novel)

Release Date:

28 February 1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The color of illusion is Perfect Blue. (Japanese)

Plot:

A retired pop singer turned actress's sense of reality is shaken when she is stalked by an obsessed fan and seemingly a ghost of her past.

Plot Keywords:

Obsessed Fan | Singer | Actress | Fan | Rape

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Junko Iwao	...	Mima (voice)
Rica Matsumoto	...	Rumi (voice) (as Rika Matsumoto)
Shinpachi Tsuji	...	Tadokoro (voice)
Masaaki Ôkura	...	Uchida (voice)
Yôsuke Akimoto	...	Tejima (voice)
Yoku Shioya	...	Shibuya (voice)
Hideyuki Hori	...	Sakuragi (voice)
Emi Shinohara	...	Eri (voice)
Masashi Ebara	...	Murano (voice)
Kiyoyuki Yanada	...	Kantoku (voice)
Tôru Furusawa	...	Yada (voice)
Shiho Niiyama	...	Rei (voice)
Emiko Furukawa	...	Yukiko (voice)
Aya Hara	...	(voice)
Shinichirô Miki	...	(voice) (as Shin'ichirô Miki)

Also Known As:

Pâfekuto burû (Japan) (promotional title)

MPAA:

Rated R for animated sequences of violence and nudity, and for brief language.

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Japan:R-15 | Taiwan:R-18 | Australia:MA | Canada:16+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | France:-12 | Germany:16 | New Zealand:R18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | USA:Unrated

Company:

Rex Entertainment

Trivia:

The "Big Body" pizza box in the infamous stabbing scene usually gets a few chuckles from English-speaking viewers, who are no doubt thinking about the food's fat content. However, "Big Body" is actually an homage to Susumu Hirasawa (who would later compose music for Sennen joyû (2001) and "Môsô dairinin" (2004), also by director Kon) and his electronically band "P-Model." Big Body is the name of their tenth album, released in 1993.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the English dub version, Cham sings their song at the beginning in English. Later on, when the writer is waiting for the elevator, the radio is playing the song in Japanese.

Quotes:

Actor playing rapist: I'm really sorry.
Mima Kirigoe: Oh no, it's alright.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Yume nara samete (2002)

Soundtrack:

Ai no tenshi

Dreaming of real fame comes at a cost.

Mima Kirigoes is part of a young idol group Cham, but she decides to move on and kick-start a career as an actress with some help by her pressuring agent. To change her image, she accepts some confronting roles, which eventuates into her downward spiral between realities and virtual. She discovers an Internet site that knows her every move and those responsible for growing success in the acting industry end up brutally killed.

Well, what can I say? Simply, I forgot that I originally saw this wonderfully, stunning anime picture before. I don't know how it left my mind, because it's very chilling and effective across the board. Based on Yoshikazu Takeuchi's novel, "Perfect Blue" is an intoxicatedly, shocking psychological thriller that does resemble some works of Lynch, Polanski, De Palma and rightly so, Hitchcock. Even a giallo imprint shines heavily within the mixture.

The mature plot boldly plays it cards at a mild pace and eventually forms a structure like a rubrics cube. I wouldn't go out of my way to call it complicated, but there's stylish imagination and cerebral details that gladly doesn't fall into a convoluted mess. The characters' persona's are well defined and emotionally attachable. It can turn into an uncomfortable ride, where dazzling images of fact and fiction skews into one. You can't help but get those disorientating spells that the distraught Mima succumbs to on her journey to find her feet as an mature entertainer. Where her dreams become her anxiety, as she's too sensitive to how she's being perceived then being her true self. Her clean-cut image becomes tainted and a growing obsession towards her takes its tole on her fractured and vulnerable mind.

Paranoia, delusions and a dreamlike air are cooked up with an array of tension and creepy visuals. The animation isn't a visual goldmine, but its showered with powerfully focused and flashed up images that manage to keep the viewer at bay. The pressure building dialogues are quite biting, and the revealing twist catches you off guard because of the superb use of artificial dreams with its fast editing and exhilaratingly moody soundtrack.

You don't have to be a fan of animation to enjoy this piece. So, if you come across it, give it a chance.