Perfect Blue [Blu-ray/DVD]

Overview

Without the exploding mutants and robotic high school babes that most Americans associate with Japanese anime, this film is a taut psychological thriller. At the behest of her agent, Mima leaves both her moderately successful girl-pop band and her virginal image for an acting gig in a sexy television drama. Her new career and new look does not please all of her fans, though. She soon finds herself being stalked by a shadowy figure with long hair and bad teeth, and she discovers that someone has posted disquietingly intimate details about her private life on the web. Later, the architects of her new image, a photographer and screenwriter, are found stabbed to death. But what unnerves Mima most is that she feels increasingly threatened by an evil incarnation of her former pop icon self. Is she being pursued by an irate Mima impersonator or has she slid into some kind of delusional psychosis? Perfect Blue is directed by noted anime screenwriter Satoshi Kon.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/26/2019
UPC:	0826663195774
Original Release:	1997
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Sales rank:	9,137

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Junko Iwao	Mima Kirigoe
Rica Matsumoto	Rumi
Shinpachi Tsuji	Tadokoro
Masaaki Okura	Me-Mania
Stephen Apostolina	Actor
Steve Blum	Actor
Bob Buchholz	Actor
Christopher Carroll	Actor
Dyanne DiRosario	Actor
Don Fischer	Actor
Sam Fontana	Actor
Bridget Hoffman	Actor
R. Martin Klein	Actor
Dari Lallou	Actor
Michael Lindsay	Actor
Steve McGowan	Actor
Randy McPherson	Actor
Matt K. Miller	Actor
Richard Miro	Actor
Jamieson Price	Actor
Paul St. Peter	Actor
Barry Stigler	Actor
Kirk Thornton	Actor
Bill Timoney	Actor
Yôsuke Akimoto	Tejima
Yoku Shioya	Takao Shibuya
Hideyuki Hori	Sakugari
Emi Shinohara	Eri Ochiai
Masahiro Ikumi	Composer

Technical Credits

Sadayuki Murai

Satoshi Kon	Director
Hiroaki Inoue	Producer
Masao Maruyama	Producer
Sadayuki Murai	Screenwriter
Marvin Gleicher	Executive Producer
Laurence Guinness	Executive Producer
Haruyo Kanesaku	Producer
Yutaka Maseba	Producer
Takeshi Washitani	Producer
Hisao Shirai	Director
Hideki Hamazumm	Director

Editorial Reviews

An extraordinary fusion of animation art and live-action narrative technique, Perfect Blue has been described by legendary producer Roger Corman as "Alfred Hitchcock partnered with Walt Disney." As it turns out, that seemingly glib assessment perfectly suits Satoshi Kon's graphic, forceful thriller. Perfect Blue uses a film-within-a-film plot structure familiar to most genre fans: Pop singer Mima Kirigoe, having abandoned her music career to become a film actress, lands a key role in an erotic thriller. Soon, life imitates art as her associates are systemically stalked and murdered by an unknown killer. Director Kon orchestrates his symphony of terror with visual cues from live-action fright films, faultlessly transposed in animation imagery. And he makes Mima a fully rounded character, even more so than some of her three-dimensional counterparts. Those impressive accomplishments have earned Perfect Blue a well-deserved place in the pantheon of anime classics.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Following the lead of Dario Argento more closely than the typical conventions of Japanese animation, Perfect Blue mixes the former's elements of mystery and suspense with the latter's more surreal elements to create a frightening cocktail of delirium and obsession. An interesting study in celebrity obsession, viewers witness not only the haunting delusions of a troubled fan who is unable to accept the protagonist's new career direction, but also visually experience the protagonist's doubts and deepening regret for taking that direction, which affect her ability to function under her new and more mature image. Bringing traditional elements of the mystery genre into the modern age via advances in technology such as the Internet, it's truly unsettling to view the increasingly interchangeable elements of anonymity and celebrity; in the increasingly voyeuristic age of technology, no one is ever truly alone.

All Movie Guide - Jason Buchanan