Perfect Blue Synopsis & Summary

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. - Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide