Perfect Blue

Director: Satoshi Kon

1997 / 81min / DCP

Rising J-pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress and model—but her fans aren’t ready to see her go. When she takes on a recurring role in a popular television detective show, her handlers and collaborators suddenly start turning up murdered, and Mima begins to lose herself—and her mind—in her role. Harboring feelings of guilt, haunted by visions of her former life, and hunted by a stalker who grows ever nearer, Mima will succumb to a frenzied paranoia that blurs reality and fantasy in this surreal animated psychological thriller. Based on a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, animation visionary Kon’s feature debut is a justly lauded, mind-bending journey into the snares of fatal fame that will keep you off-balance right up to the unbelievable, gory climax.