Perfect Blue

**Perfect Blue** is an action, drama, suspense, thriller, horror, psychological anime movie.  It was directed by Satoshi

   Kon, written by Sadayuki Murai, musically composed by Masahiro Ikumi, cinematography by Hisao Shirai, edited by Harutoshi Ogata, distributed by Rex Entertainment, produced by Yoshihisa Ishihara, Hitomi Nakagaki, Yutaka Togo, Masao Maruyama, Hiroaki Inoue, and famous Japanese anime Studio Madhouse.  It was based on a novel called Perfect Blue:  Complete Metamorphosis which was written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi.

## Plot

Mima Kirigoe, the lead singer of the fictional J-pop idol group "CHAM!", decides to leave the group to become an actress, believing that the idol group life is a dead end job. Her first project is a crime drama series, *Double Bind*. Some of her fans are upset by her change in career, including a stalker known as "Me-Mania". Shortly after leaving CHAM!, Mima receives an anonymous fax calling her a traitor. She also finds a website called "Mima's Room", which features public diary entries that seem to be written by her that discuss her life in great detail. She brings the site to the attention of her manager, ex-pop star Rumi Hidaka, but is advised to ignore it.

On the set of *Double Bind*, Mima succeeds in getting a larger part. However, the producers decide to cast her as a rape victim in a strip club. Rumi warns Mima that it will damage her reputation, but Mima accepts the part, wanting to be taken more seriously as an actress. The scene traumatizes Mima (as well as Rumi, who leaves the production control room crying). Mima increasingly becomes unable to distinguish reality from her work in show business.

Several people involved in creating *Double Bind*, including the show's writer and photographer, are found murdered. Mima finds evidence that makes her a suspect in those murders, based on entries on the Mima's Room website, and her increasing mental instability makes her doubt her own innocence. Meanwhile, Me-Mania is constantly shown standing amongst the *Double Bind* filming crew, and his obsessive home life is revealed when he is shown receiving emails from Mima's pop idol persona through the Mima's Room website. It is at this point that reality starts breaking down for the viewer as well: in one scene, Mima is revealed by a police psychiatrist to be the split personality delusion of a woman named Yoko Takakura, only for the *Double Bind* camera crew to yell "Cut"; in another, Me-Mania finally confronts and attempts to rape Mima, stopped only when Mima knocks him unconscious with a hammer; this too is hinted as being part of a *Double Bind* film shoot. Rumi finds Mima backstage immediately afterward, and Me-Mania's blood and body are not found on the now-empty set.

Rumi offers to drive Mima home. Upon arriving, Mima tries to place a call, but stops upon realizing that she is actually in a room decorated to resemble her own pop idol apartment at the beginning of the film. When Mima encounters Rumi, however, her manager is wearing a replica of Mima's CHAM! costume and fully believing, in a psychotic break, that she is Mima herself. Rumi is in fact the false diarist of Mima's Room, who believes she is the "real Mima". Rumi is angry that Mima—who has been suffering from *folie à deux* throughout the film—has been ruining the "real Mima's" reputation, and decides to save "Mima's" pristine pop idol image by murdering the original, who she believes is an imposter. Mima manages to incapacitate Rumi in self-defense after a chase through the city despite being wounded herself, then saves Rumi from an oncoming truck. Severely wounded and fully delirious, Rumi mistakes the truck's headlights for stage lights. Both parties collapse as the truck's occupants call for an ambulance.

Mima, now an accomplished actress, shows up at a mental institution to visit Rumi, who, believing the flowers Mima leaves for her as from her adoring fans, seems to now permanently exist in her "Mima" delusion. As Mima leaves, she overhears the nursing staff believing that she is a Mima imposter, as she would have no reason to visit an institution. Mima enters her car and, looking into the rear view mirror, declares "I'm the real thing" and smiles.

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredibly sympathetic female character.  They make you feel for her and you feel sad whenever you think something bad might happen to her.
2. Gorgeous animation.
3. The themes involve shedding light on the true horrors that can come from being an idol.  Or, as a more general stance, anyone who is admired my tones of people and constantly in the spotlight.  This is a unique premise, and it's handled very well.
4. Appealing character designs.
5. Interesting use of color pallets.  The most notable is the color red, which is very prevalent throughout the whole film as symbolism.
6. Amazing voice acting.
7. The whole movie is an intense, supsensful thrillride which never lets up even for a moment.
8. Excellent cinematography.
9. The movie accurately depicts how a person might go insane and even become delusional due to being constantly stalked by a crazy, obssessed fan.
10. First feature film from Satoshi Kon.
11. The scenes where the movie delves into the main heroines mind can be really trippy and awesome.
12. The movie is able to scare without using much gore.
13. Despite coming out in 1997, this movie can still be seen as a reflection of society more than 20 years later, which makes it a timeless experience.
14. Great, haunting soundtrack.
15. The visual tone of the film is dark and gloomy, which only adds to the creepy atmosphere.  Also, it's not too dark to where you can't see what's going on, which is good.
16. Mima Kirigoe gets lots of character development.
17. Much like two of Satoshi Kon's other feature films, Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, this movie has a really strong, interesting, likable, and deep main female character.

## Reception

The film was well received critically in the festival circuit, winning awards at the 1997 Fantasia Festival in Montréal, and Fantasporto Film Festival in Portugal.

Critical response in the United States upon its theatrical release was mixed.[14] The film holds a 72% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the Consensus saying "Perfect Blue is overstylized, but its core mystery is always compelling, as are the visual theatrics."[15] Some critics associated it with common anime stereotypes of gratuitous sex and violence. Kon responded to this criticism by stating that he was proud to be an animator and *Perfect Blue* was more interesting as animation.[9]

*Time* included the film on its top 5 anime DVD list,[16] and Terry Gilliam, of whom Kon was a fan[17] included it in his list of the top fifty animated films.[18] *Perfect Blue* ranked #25 on Total Film's all-time animated films.[19] It also made the list for *Entertainment Weekly'*s best movies never seen from 1991–2011.[20]

Tim Henderson from Anime News Network, described the movie as "a dark, sophisticated psychological thriller" with its effect of "over-obsession funneled through early Internet culture" and produces a "reminder of how much celebrity fandom has evolved in only a decade".

## Legacy

Madonna incorporated clips from the film into a remix of her song "What It Feels Like for a Girl" as a video interlude during her *Drowned World Tour* in 2001.[22][23]

In 2010 Darren Aronofsky acknowledged there being similarities between *Perfect Blue* and his film *Requiem for a Dream* as well as *Black Swan*.[24] A re-issued blog entry mentioned Aronofsky's film *Requiem for a Dream* as being among Kon's list of movies he viewed for that year.[25] In addition, Kon blogged about his meeting with Aronofsky in 2001.[26]