Midnight Specials: Perfect Blue

Adapted from the novel by Takeuchi Yoshizaku, Perfect Blue was the first feature outing by the late Japanese director Satoshi Kon. The film was a popular success after its release in 1997, winning many accolades including the award for Best Animated Feature at the B-Movie Film Festival and Best Animated Film at the FanTasia and Fantasporto festivals.

Mima, the lead singer of an idolised pop group, suddenly decides to quit music to pursue an acting career, to the great disappointment of those around her and her fans. As she gets more involved in this new venture, fiction begins to take precedence over reality. Little by little, Mima loses her bearings before spiraling into an abyss from which she will not come out of unscathed.

This magisterial and immensely popular feature is appealing for its highly realistic graphic style, which launched the brilliant career of its director who disappeared too early. Perfect Blue also announced the recurring theme of subjective reality and the narrow borderline between reality and fiction that continued in Soto’s later work.

Produced by the Madhouse studio, Perfect Blue is one of those cult films that made an impact on the history of animation and which, 20 years later, is still as fascinating as ever.

The Festival invites you to take a trip into the exciting and confusing world of Perfect Blue as part of the Midnight Specials programme.