Perfect Blue (1997)

Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Production: 1997
Running Times: 81 mins
Format: colour     35mm
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: Dolby

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Rex Entertainment
Executive Producers: Koshiro Kanda, Yuichi Tsurumi
Producers: Hiroaki Inoue, Masao Maruyama
General Producer: Takeshi Washitani

SCRIPT
Script: Sadayuki Murai
Novel: Yoshikazu Takeuchi

DIRECTION
Director: Satoshi Kon
Supervisor: Katsuhiro Otomo

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Hisao Shirai
Lab: Tokyo Laboratory Ltd, Tokyo, Japan

ANIMATION
Animation: Madhouse; Oniro
Basic Character Creator: Hisashi Eguchi
Character Designers: Hisashi Eguchi, Hideki Hamazu, Satoshi Kon

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Harutoshi Ogata

MUSIC
Music: Masahiro Ikumi
Music Production: iNoks Records

SOUND
Sound Production: Techno Sound
Supervising Sound Editor: Masafumi Mima
Sound Editor: Shizuo Kusahashi
English Dub Dialogue Editor: Les Claypool III
Sound Designer: Shizuo Kurahashi
Sound Director / Sound Effects: Masafumi Mima
ADR Editors: Quint Lancaster, Lia Sargent

DESIGN
Art Director: Nobutaka Ike

VOICES
Junko Iwao (Mima Kirigoe)
Rica Matsumoto (Rumi)
Shinpachi Tsuji (Tadokoro)
Masaaki Ôkura (Uchida)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION VOICES
David Lucas (real name: Steven Blum)
Frank Buck
Steve Bulen (Tejima)
George C. Cole (news reporter)
Bambi Darro
Syd Fontana
Wendee Lee (Rumi)
Dari MacKenie
Ruby Marlowe (Mima Kirigoe)
Bob Marx (Me-Mania)
Melissa Williamson (real name: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn)
Devon Michaels
Kermit Beachwood (real name: Matt K. Miller)
Sven Nosgard
Richard Plantagenet (director)
James Lyon (real name: Jamieson Price) (Mureno)
Mattie Rando
Elliot Reynolds
Lia Sargent
Carol Stanzione
Gil Starberry (real name: Barry Stigler) (Tadakoro)
Sam Strong
Jimmy Theodore (Mimi fan)
Sparky Thornton (real name: Kirk Thornton) (Yamashiro)
Billy Regan (real name: Bill Timoney)
Dylan Tully (Cham manager)
Robert Wicks (cameraman / actor)

PLOT SUMMARY

Singer Mima leaves the popular girl band Cham hoping to pursue a new career as an actress. But as she finds herself drawn into the increasingly murky world of exploitation film-making, she starts losing her grip on reality.

CAPSULE REVIEW

One of the best anime features from the late 1990s, this is an unusual attempt to do a stark character study with lashings of Hitchcockian suspense and Argento flavoured giallo thrown in. The violence is genuinely disturbing, the animation is outstanding and the characters are unusually well developed. Add to this a complex, twisting storyline and you;ve got the perfect adult anime for newcomers and hardened fans alike.

AVAILABILITY

France
Theatrical Distributors: Metropolitan Filmexport

Germany
Theatrical Distributors: Rapid Eye Movies

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Manga Entertainment
DVD Distributors: Manga Entertainment (MANG40492)

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Australia
Rating: MA

Canada
Rating: 18A

France
Rating: -12

Germany
Rating: 16

Spain
Rating: 18

UK
Rating: 18

USA
Rating: R (for animated sequences of violence and nudity, and for brief language - with cuts); unrated (uncut)

AWARDS

1997
FantAsia Film Festival, Canada
Best Asian Film (Satoshi Kon) – winner (tied with Jui kuen II (1994))

1998
Fantasporto, Portugal
Fantasia Section Award Best Film – Animation (Satoshi Kon) - winner
International Fantasy Film Award Best Film (Satoshi Kon) - nominated

2000
B-Movie Film Festival, USA
Best Animated Feature (Satoshi Kon) -winner

Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA
Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature (Masafumi Mima, Les Claypool III, Shizuo Kusahashi, Quint Lancaster, Lia Sargent) - nominated

TIMELINE

1998
February
16: Germany – shown at the Berlin International Film Festival

September
19: Finland – shown at the Helsinki International Film Festival

1999
May
21: UK – theatrical release

August
20: USA – theatrical release

September
8: France – theatrical release

November
21: Taiwan – shown at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival

2000
February
11: Canada – theatrical release

May
2: USA - DVD release (Manga Entertainment (MANG40492))

July
6: Germany – theatrical release

2001
August
9: Australia – theatrical release

2002
October
9: Belgium – shown at the International Film Festival Gent

2003
April
26: Canada – shown at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema

POSTER TAGS

excuse me...who are you?

LINKS

SEE ALSO
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (1993)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

REFERENCES

MAGAZINES

Empire June 1999 p.34 (UK)
review (by Kim Newman)

epd Film vol.17 no.7 (1 July 2000) p.36 (Germany)
review (Satoshi Kon vereint Alfred Hitchcock mit Walt Disney by Hans Schifferle)

film-dienst vol.53 no.14 (14 Jul 2000) p.21 (Germany)
review (by Jörg Gerle)

Variety vol.376 no.11 (1 November 1999) p.88 (USA)
review (by Dennis Harvey)

KEYWORDS

actors, animation, anime, book into film, film-makers, film-making, hallucinations, insanity, obsession, singers, stalkers

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009