Perfect Blue (1997)

Director: Satoshi Kon
Stars: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji
Runtime: 81 minutes

Synopsis: A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.

Verdict: On the internet, anyone can become anything. We’re entirely in control of what aspects of ourselves we want to show the rest of the world and which ones we want to keep hidden. It’s a scary place where reality and fiction are one and the same, and where any user can easily lose track of what’s genuine and what’s not.

This, to me, shapes Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut’s unsettling atmosphere. “Perfect Blue” follows Mima, a pop star turned actress whose career change turns out to be much harsher than initially anticipated. In order to complete her transition, she is asked to perform a vastly explicit scene in a TV show that will forever alter the public image she had built for herself in her previous career. Not only is this an obvious critique of the over-sexualization of women in the movie industry, but it also marks the first step of Mima’s mental breakdown as the line between fiction and reality starts to blur right after this incident. She starts losing grasp of who she is and what defines her, and it’s not a creepy stalker and a ghost of her past self that will help her overcome the obstacles she’s facing.

Even if I didn’t love the ending of “Perfect Blue”, it remains a modern classic of Japanese Cinema that was ahead of its time in many ways. It’s the tale of a young woman’s pursuit of her dreams that takes a nightmarish turn, and Kon’s animation style perfectly captures the duality of her situation.

FINAL GRADE: 8/10