Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Perfect Blue (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.
Directed by Satoshi Kon. Starring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, and Masaaki Ôkura.

The use of animation to tell this story REALLY works. It adds a level of unreality to the story that plays beautifully with the motif of the main character wondering if she's losing her mind as bad things keep happening around her. There's a moment toward the end where the villain literally floats after our main character during a chase, still making us question how much of what our protagonist sees is actually happening. I read some comparisons to Black Swan, and I can definitely see that, though with fewer themes of "obsession." And the way the plot ultimately falls into place genuinely surprised me -- it's not often that a film can completely take me by surprise, so that was a delight. It was also fascinating to see how the early days of the Internet played in the horror angle here -- even in 1997 it was pretty clear how the Internet could play a role in fandom in pretty ominous ways! Overall, this is definitely worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Perfect Blue > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites
Perfect Blue > The Black Cat
Perfect Blue > Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Perfect Blue < Arrival
Perfect Blue < Ernest & Celestine
Perfect Blue < (500) Days of Summer
Perfect Blue > Naughty Marietta
Perfect Blue < Footloose (1984)
Perfect Blue > Romancing the Stone
Perfect Blue < American Psycho
Perfect Blue < Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Perfect Blue > Eyes Without a Face
Final spot: #373 out of 3261, or 89%.

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