PERFECT BLUE
1998JapanLanguage: jaDirected by Satoshi Kon★ 8.3
Available in English: subtitled
Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
Themes and style
Tone
tensehauntingsurrealcold and detachedmelancholic
Pacing
escalatingdreamlikeslow build to explosion
Story
investigationunravelingpursuit
Emotion
figuring out who you areparanoiaguiltloss of innocenceall-consuming love
Themes
men and women navigating expectationscaught between worldsold ways vs. new worldcorrupt institutions
Feel
cerebralquietly hauntingemotionally wreckingdiscussion starterexhausting
Violence
graphic