Review: Kat Cole

Perfect Blue (1997)

Director: Satoshi Kon

Mima Kirigoe is one third of the sweet and innocent pop band CHAM!, until one day when she decides its time to enter and launch an alternative career for herself in acting. Not everybody is happy with Mima’s transition - primarily due to the sordid and horrifying, rape-involved roles that she agrees to play in order to further her profession.

Amongst the disgruntled lies the creepy Me-Mania, Mima’s obsessed stalker and Rumi, Mima’s agent who shares similar reservations as the actress does about taking on such risqué parts.  Intense mysteries and savage murders are unravelled to reveal the intense folie à deux that sums up the mesmerising lunacy that leads you through to the climatic end of Perfect Blue.

This was my first ever experience with an anime film. When the film was recommended to me by my housemate, I was informed that the film was of the psychological horror genre. I honestly thought the fact the film was animated would be enough to desensitise me of any potential scares but I genuinely found it to be very unnerving and also - to be frank - a complete head-fuck. This familiar trait of the psychological horror was amplified for me personally due to certain information being unclear or lost through translation - the version I watched was dubbed - meaning I found myself all the more confused at times.

My expectations in relation to Perfect Blue as an anime film were high, since I have predominantly heard good things regarding the genre. I am now definitely planning to investigate further into my housemate’s collection of anime feature lengths.