Today’s quick review: Perfect Blue. Pop singer Mima Kirigoe leaves her idol group behind to pursue a career as a dramatic actress. Her new success comes at the cost of questionable jobs that tax her psyche and tarnish her public image. To make matters worse, a fanatical stalker objects to her career shift and takes out his frustrations on those close to her. With the pressure increasing from all sides, Mima begins to lose her grip on reality.
Perfect Blue is a Japanese animated psychological thriller from director Satoshi Kon. Perfect Blue follows Mima Kirigoe as her sanity begins to fray and she loses her sense of self. The movie features clever plot dynamics, inventive direction, and a rich animation style. Tight writing ties even the tiniest details to Perfect Blue’s main themes, and the film’s many fake-outs and competing interpretations of its events are disturbingly effective.
Perfect Blue’s greatest strength is its cinematography. Satoshi Kon cuts abruptly between events to capture Mima’s growing disorientation. The cuts are subtle at first, but as Mima spirals further away from reality, the dissonance of the cuts increases. Key segments of the movie are fevered blurs of fact and fiction. Yet Perfect Blue never loses its way; its chaos is deliberate, and each shift in perspective contributes to the greater whole.
Perfect Blue also makes measured use of horror. There are no proper jump scares, and the film’s bursts of violence are not much worse than a mature crime drama’s. The tension builds slowly as Mima tries to settle into her new life. Mima’s stalker, the specter of murder, and the unraveling of her conscious mind all contribute to an unsettling atmosphere, but the payoff of the film is its psychological themes, not its shock value.
Perfect Blue is a polished and engaging story that delves into the mind of a troubled individual. Psychological thriller fans will appreciate Perfect Blue as a fresh, dynamic take on the genre. Those unable to stomach tension or ambiguity should give the movie a pass. For a surreal fantasy done in the same style, check out Satoshi Kon’s Paprika. For an even darker psychological thriller that toys with reality, check out The Machinist.
7.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for an impressive blurring of delusion and reality.