Perfect Blue (1997)

Original title

PERFECT BLUE

Directed by

Satoshi Kon

Genre

thriller anime, mystery anime, police procedural film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 21m

Rated

R

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 3,250 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young pop idol retires from her music group to become an actress. She is stalked by a dangerous fan and starts to lose her grip on what is real and what is fantasy.

unsettlingtensepsychologicaldreamlikebleakdisturbingclaustrophobiccerebralslow-burn

What happens

Perfect Blue (Japanese: パーフェクトブルー, Hepburn: Pāfekuto Burū) is a 1997 Japanese animated psychological horror film directed by Satoshi Kon. It is loosely based on the novel Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis (パーフェクトブルー：完全変態, Pāfekuto Burū: Kanzen Hentai) by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, with a screenplay by Sadayuki Murai. Featuring the voices of Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shiho Niiyama, Masaaki Okura, Shinpachi Tsuji and Emiko Furukawa, the plot follows a member of a Japanese idol group who retires from music to pursue an acting career. As she becomes a victim of stalking by her obsessive fan, gruesome murders take place, and she begins losing her grip on reality. The film deals with the blurring of the line between fantasy and reality, a commonly found theme in Kon's other works, such as Millennium Actress (2001), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). The film garnered critical acclaim and is now regarded as a masterpiece of animation and one of the best anime films of all time. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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