‘Perfect Blue’ is the 1997 anime directed Satoshi Kon. Screenwriter was Sadayuki Murai. Based on the novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi.
Mima Kirigoe is the lead singer of trio CHAM! She wants to expand her horizons. Enter a new phase of her life. At the height of the band’s popularity, she decides to become an actress. CHAM initially struggles to reinvent itself as a duo.
Cashing in on Mima’s popularity, producers of the gritty police drama Double Bind hire her. Mima is shocked at the backlash over the career switch. She’s bombarded by hate mail and attention of a stalker called Me-Mania. The worst is the website Mima’s Room. Where every detail of her life is posted for the online community. Who is this person?
Her manager Rumi Hidaka blows her off on that subject. Does she think this second stalker is helping her client? The website perfectly replicates Mima’s apt. This person seems to be inside her head. Posting her thoughts and feelings. Mima starts doubting her own sanity. Does she have another personality that she’s not aware of? Is that who created Mima’s Room? What is reality?
Mima caves to the producer’s decision for partial nudity and gang rape scene. She doesn’t want to anger them. She allows a famous local photographer to take sexually explicit nude photos. She plays up to the new tart/vixen image. Soon she’s praised for making bold choices. Mima the pop start is officially dead. She’s being taken seriously as a dramatic actress.
These events push the private and modest Mima further into isolation. Tax her fragile mind. Visual and audio hallucinations follow. Her former band mates and friends think she did the photos to promote her career. Others think it’s a sick publicity stunt. Something to distract the world from her acting.
Everyone who tarnished her wholesome image start dropping like flies. Has Mima lost it and was driven to kill? She wonders herself. Someone is cleaning house. The faux Mima frames the stalker Me-Mania for the murders. Then sets their sights on Mima.
Turns out the faux Mima is her manager Rumi. She’s been trying to salvage Mima’s reputation. By killing her detractors. It’s the only way to stop the slander. Now Mima must die as well.
The good: Ahead of its time. A psychological roller coaster. The inspiration behind Black Swan. Mima’s descent towards nervous breakdown. Like watching a documentary on the tragic crash and burn careers of young Hollywood stars.
The bad: The unrated version is difficult to watch.
The ugly: The manager/mother figure Rumi overwhelming desire to return to the spotlight led her to live vicariously through Mima. Intense jealousy, stalker mentality and untreated psych disorders made her believe she was Mima. And that the other woman was an imposter who had to die. It’s clear the rape scene is what pushed her over the edge.
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