Perfect Blue (1999)

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

First a manga comics illustrator, Satoshi Kon graduated to filmed anime with "Perfect Blue" (1997) about a pop singer stalked by a fan. 'Perfect Blue' takes its cues from the 'Giallo' of Dario Argento, whilst exploring 'otaku' (obsessive fan culture) and the condition of celebrity itself.Mima is a squeaky-clean, desexualised innocent, inhabiting a world that is ready to swallow her up. A singer in the marginally popular bubblegum pop teen trio 'CHAM!,' as the film opens Mima and her partners are performing a free concert in a Tokyo park. During the course of the set, Mima announces that she's leaving the group to pursue an acting career. Some fans are displeased with her sudden career change, particularly a stalker named Me Mania. Mima's life quickly begins to spiral when someone starts trying to drive her out of her mind; or is she just cracking up all on her own? Me-Mania, who has a mask like face reminiscent of Reggie Nalder from Argento's 'Bird With The Crystal Plumage,' is revealed to have been impersonating her on a web site / blog he created, called 'Mima's Room.' When Mima's friend and manager hooks her up to the Internet, she discovers the fanatical 'Mima's Room' site, and learns that someone knows her every waking move, leaving her paranoid and unsure of how to proceed. Things go from bad to worse when Mima's associates start dying in brutal ways. The plot of 'Double Blind' (the TV soap she gets a small role in), begins to parallel Mima's troubles and her tenuous grip on reality, as the soap has her playing a girl who believes she is a pop idol. 'Perfect Blue' like 'Double Blind' has a narrative that cuts between reality and nightmares, as Mima becomes haunted by a figmentary alter-ego who starts to elbow into her identity. The delusional states of fan and idol are shown to be complementary as well as interdependent. A notorious acted out rape scene for the TV show 'Double Bind,' results in the narrative becoming particularly fragmented just like Mima. She is disorientated and on the edge of madness.As an aside, Darren Aronofsky purchased the American rights to 'Perfect Blue' for $59,000, so he could film the brief "bath scene" with Jennifer Connelly in his own film 'Requiem for a Dream' (2000). The staged rape scene in 'Perfect Blue' also inspired a scene toward the end of Aronofsky's film in which a group of men circle around and cheer on two women using a double ended dildo.

Perfect Blue is a 1997 psychological thriller film from director Satoshi Kon. It is based on a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. To put it simply: this movie is bad. Like REALLY bad. It is confusing and mentally challenging to understand.Perfect Blue tells the story of a young women named Mima Kirigoe who is part of a Japanese pop group called CHAM. She decides to leave the group to become a actress. Then, it all goes downhill from there. You see Mima starts having hallucinations and you don't know which of her 'reality's' is real or an illusion.I will admit that while the film is really confusing, the animation is beautiful and nice to look at, and the music is pretty to listen to but that's about it. It doesn't have many good qualities to it.I give Perfect Blue a 2/10.

I had love for Miyazaki's movies because of his imagination, screenplay and story. Fortunately ran into this and started watching it as another anime movie but it was a rarity. If akira is one type, then its just another side. Both are extremes. It may bot have all the regular/imaginative ingredients of an animated movie but sure can twist your mind and it is a must watch for people who loved thrillers and non- linear screenplay movies like memento, Amores Perros, Mullholand Dr. Must watch. Its just not a anime movie; much more than that. Glad I watched it. You will feel for the main character who (although it was animated) very well. Go for the original Japanese audio movie with English subs rather than English dubbed. You will have THAT feel.

Mima: "Excuse me who are you".The story is about a retired a pop idol, worshipped by the masses until fashion dictated otherwise. In order to salvage her career, she is advised to drop music and pursue acting. A soap opera role is offered but Mima's character is less clean cut than desired. Regardless, she agrees and events take a turn for the worse. She begins to feel reality slip, that her life is not her own. She discovers (imagines) her identical twin, a mirror image that hasn't given up singing. Internet sites appear describing every intimate detail of her life and a figure stalks her from the shadows. Her friends and associates are threatened (and killed) as Mima descends into a dangerous world of paranoid delusion. She fears for her life and must unravel fact from illusion in order to stay alive. Perfect Blue represents a major change from traditional anime subject matter, analysing the pop icon phenomenon, fame and its psychological impact on the performer.It always shocks me how some people can dare to over look things, solid masterpieces out there but people still over look them and go see other films that are just stick in the mood basic films. I just adore the feeling of not knowing anything at the first then be amazed after wards and a film that get's you thinking as well, not like movies today that always play it save by doing the simple three act structure that I normally skip if I had the chance. Perfect Blue can be best described has a movie that you don't just put your feet up, sit back and have a delightful time, no in this you got to use your brain and try your best to piece it together to get the movie. Perfect Blue is Anime that got under my skin and drove the main character and me insane.A quick fun fact here but Black Swan is actually a remake of this movie, yes to those who didn't know that well you do now. If I have to compare what's the better movie I got to say that overall Black Swan is a great movie, but I liked Perfect Blue a lot more so Perfect Blue all the way.The animation in this never looked so well done, so beautiful but also scary and so haunting to look at. At times I thought I was watching a Hayao Miyazaki movie or a Stanley Kubrick film at one point, just be the switch of the atmosphere like it's peacefulness and then a utterly insane feeling to the movie.For problems: Without spoiling anything the ending to me didn't end on a good note in my opinion. It isn't terrible it's just that it left me there going "Nah".Overall Perfect Blue is an dark and twisted Anime movie with beautiful but haunting animation that sells the movie off has a deep thinking movie that you shouldn't get lost on track if you really want to understand the film. The film is a slow cult following that I will totally recommend to people who love Anime and analyzing films.