Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue
File:Pblue.jpg
Directed by	Satoshi Kon
Written by	Original Novel: Yoshikazu Takeuchi Screenwriter: Sadayuki Murai
Produced by	Hiroaki Inoue
Cinematography	Hisao Shirai
Edited by	Harutoshi Ogata
Music by	Masahiro Ikumi (Office 193)
Distributed by	Palm Pictures
Release date	1997
Running time	80 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Perfect Blue is a feature-length anime film, directed by Satoshi Kon (loosely based on the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi). The film is a psychological thriller about Mima Kirigoe, a member of a Japanese pop idol group called "CHAM!" who decides to become an actress. Some of her fans are displeased by her career change, particularly the stalker named Me-Mania. As her new career proceeds Mima's world becomes increasingly reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Philip K. Dick; reality and fantasy spiral out of control as Mima discovers that Me-Mania is the least of her troubles.

Tagline: Excuse me...who are you? (US release)

Tagline: The color of illusion is Perfect Blue. (Japan release)

Plot

A pop star Mima Kirigoe from a j-pop group called "CHAM!" decides to leave the group to become an actress. Her first project is a direct-to-video drama series called "Double Bind". Some of her fans are upset by her change in career and persona, not least the stalker known as "Me-Mania". Shortly after leaving CHAM!, Mima receives an anonymous fax calling her a traitor.

Mima finds a website called "Mima's Room" that has public diary entries which seem to be written by her discussing her life in great detail. She confides in her manager Rumi, a middle-aged woman and former pop idol herself, about the site, and is advised that that's just the cost of fame and to just ignore it.

Meanwhile on the series Double Bind Mima succeeds in her campaign for a larger part; the producers offer her a rape scene set in a strip club. The work traumatizes her so much that she increasingly becomes unable to separate reality from fantasy, her real life from her work in the trenches of show business.

Matters take a dramatic turn when several of those who had forced unsavory work on her are gruesomely murdered. She finds evidence which makes her appear to be the prime suspect, and in addition she can't in fact recall if she had committed any of the killings or not.

It turns out that the diarist of "Mima's Room" is herself totally delusional and very manipulative, and that an intense folie à deux has been in play. The faux diarist, who believes herself to be a Mima who is forever young and graceful, has made a cat's-paw and serial killer of the stalker Me-Mania.

Mima smashes Me-Mania with a hammer (but fails to kill him) in self-defense when he attempts to rape her, and runs to her only support she has left alive, her manager Rumi - only to find that Rumi is the false diarist, who believes she is the "real" Mima. She manages to incapacitate Rumi in self-defense after a chilling chase through the city despite being wounded herself.

In the anime's denouement Rumi remains permanently delusional and institutionalized, whereas Mima has moved on with her life.

Background

Originally the film was supposed to be a live action direct to video series, but after the Kobe earthquake damaged the production studio, the budget for the film was reduced to an OVA. Katsuhiro Otomo was credited as "Special Supervisor" to help the film sell abroad and as a result film was screened in many film festivals around the world. While touring the world it received a fair amount of acclaim, jump-starting Kon's career as a filmmaker.

A live action film was later made that is much closer to the novel called Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete (2002) and was directed by Toshiki Sato. Kon and Murai didn't think that the original novel would make a good film and asked if they could change the contents. This change was approved so long as they kept a few of the original concepts from the novel.

Darren Aronofsky purchased the remake rights in the United States for $US 59,000.

Like much of Kon's later work, the film deals with the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality in contemporary Japan.

Certification

Canada:18A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario)	R (Nova Scotia) (re-rating)	R (Alberta)	16+ (Quebec)
Argentina: 16	Australia: MA	Brazil: 16
Finland K-18	France: -12	Germany: 18/16 (edited version)
Greece: K-17	Hong Kong: III	Ireland: 18
Japan: R-15	New Zealand:R18	Norway: 18
Portugal: M/18	Singapore: M18/NC-16 (edited version)	Switzerland:16
Taiwan R-18	UK: 18 BBFC	USA:NC-17 (original rating) /R (edited for re-rating)

Reception

The film was critically well received 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, with many critics being baffled at why it was done as an animated film and many others associating the film with common anime stereotypes of gratuitous sex and violence. Despite its unorthodox nature the film is well known in western anime circles, possibly better known in western fandom than in Japanese fandom.

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 (2001).

External links

• Perfect Blue at IMDb