HORROR MONTH #20: Perfect Blue, by Satoshi Kon (1997)

Type of Media: Animated Film

In the world of celebrity, stars are often packaged in certain ways for the public. Disney stars are required to keep an innocent, pure image whereas a gangsta rapper is expected to act tough and be connected to crime. Fans can grow attached to these broad, idealized personas, which may lead to a sense of knowing the celebrity on a personal level. But those fans don't actually know the celebrity, they just see one aspect of them displayed through their work and publicity. And when other aspects of the celebrity come to light, marring that idealized persona, those fans can turn.

Such is the situation in Perfect Blue, an anime film about a pop idol named Mami who quits her music career to become an actress. Her first role is on a gritty crime drama show as an exotic dancer who is sexually assaulted and develops split personalities that drive her to kill. However, not everyone is happy with Mami's change in career. A stalker from her pop career starts sending her threatening letters, her manager is horrified at the lurid scenes she has to shoot, and Mami starts seeing a vision of herself in her idol costume that chastises her for leaving music. Mami has such a drastic break from reality that, when coworkers from her show start dying, she thinks her idol self may be acting on its own.

Mami's stalker, who goes by the name Me-Mania, is exceptionally creepy. His eye, glassy, black, and positioned way farther away from his nose than it should be, gives him the look of a hammerhead shark. He's a man who has swallowed Mami's pure, pop idol image completely, and his sheer devotion to that image makes him seem capable of anything. However, it's Mami herself who provides the most psychologically horrific part of the movie. Torn in how she wants the world to perceive her, Mami's internal conflict culminates in a 20-minute section where she repeatedly wakes from nightmares, blurring the line between her hallucinations, reality, and the story of her crime drama show to the point where the audience doesn't know what in her life is real anymore.

Director Satoshi Kon has an incredibly cinematic sensibility with animation. He often frames characters within crowds or walls to direct the viewer's eye, and he makes great use of mirrors to not only depict the illusions Mami is seeing, but also expand the audience's sense of the setting. The shots are so well-constructed that when it released in the United States, a lot of critics wondered why Perfect Blue hadn't been live-action (and later Darren Aronofsky would basically make a live-action Perfect Blue in the form of Black Swan). The visuals in Perfect Blue are on par with any Oscar-nominated arthouse movie.

If you're a fan of psychological horror and you don't normally watch Japanese animated movies outside of the occasional Miyazaki release, do yourself a favor and track this down. One note, though: Perfect Blue was definitely created with the male gaze in mind. A couple of the more violent scenes are eroticized to an uncomfortable degree. If you're sensitive to that sort of thing, prepare yourself appropriately or sit this one out.