Film · 1997
Perfect Blue
パーフェクトブルー
Mima leaves her pop group to become an actress, taking roles that unsettle her fans and her own sense of who she is. A stalker follows her, people around her are murdered, and visions of her former idol self make it harder to separate her work from reality.
A website called Mima's Room presents a version of her life written by somebody pretending to be her. The impersonation gives her a public self she does not control, just as she is trying to change careers. It makes the internet another place where someone else's idea of Mima can intrude on her daily life.
Kon described the opening as a way to place Mima’s stage work beside her ordinary life, with public and private experience difficult for her to separate. That approach makes the change of career more than a problem of hostile fans. The film’s shifts between performance and daily routine ask the viewer to keep reconsidering the context of an image, while Mima struggles to hold on to an identity of her own.
Standalone film · Approx. 82 min · one film
Satoshi Kon’s original 1997 animated film; Japanese theatrical release followed in 1998. Later remasters are editions of this film.