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Perfect Blue is an animated mystery thriller about a pop idol who transitions to becoming an actress at the insistence of her agent after her lack of major success in the music industry. However, she soon discovers that she’s being stalked by an obsessive fan who wants her to return to singing, and the people around her start having dangerous encounters that seem to be connected.

This film is a storytelling masterpiece. It’s incredibly complex and doesn’t directly explain anything, so it requires a lot of focused attention and possibly rewatches in order to fully understand what’s going on and how it all fits together. Even though first viewing may be very confusing, it’s still incredibly compelling with its grounded themes on the harsh realities of exploitation in the entertainment industry. This particular story is specific to Japanese pop idols in the late 90s, but its reflection on the struggles of public figures is so universal that it also applies to today’s entertainment industry in the United States as well. With a brilliant, nightmarish mystery set in an unsettling and disorienting atmosphere, the film perfectly captures the deteriorating mental state of its protagonist, both visually and narratively.

I highly recommend Perfect Blue to anyone who enjoys complex mystery thrillers and movies with a high rewatch value. It fully trusts the audience to pay attention and think critically about what’s happening on screen, so it’s constantly engaging throughout the whole film. This is definitely a movie that should be watched more than once to get the most out of it, and it’s a very rewarding experience to finally piece everything together.

Perfect Blue is currently available to stream on HBO Max. Click here to watch the Official Trailer.

– Review by Will Hopper

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