As you may know my favorite movie is Black Swan and when I read that director Darren Aronofsky bought the rights to Perfect Blue I knew I had to watch it. In Requiem for a Dream he has remade one of the scenes exactly. Watching Perfect Blue I could also see that Black Swan has some similar subject matter.

The movie revolves about Mima (Junko Iwao), who is part of a very successful all girl singing group with lots of (or should I say almost onlY) male fans. After having done it for a long time, she decides to leave the group and start a new career in acting. She finds out that being a very popular singer doesn’t immediately give you a head start in acting and she agrees to some questionable jobs, including a photo shoot where she bares it all and a role in a Tv show where the character she plays experience some horrible situations. During this period she slowly starts to lose her sanity as she discovers a website written in her name, describing minute details she doesn’t share with anyone. As a viewer you know this is written by an obsessed fan, who wants to defend the image of Mima which she had when she was part of the singing group. He is willing to do anything to protect that image, even murder. Mima loses her grip on reality, no longer knowing what is real.

Perfect Blue, just like Black Swan, looks at the sanity of a young girl who wants to excel in something and who slowly begins to lose her sanity. Sexuality also plays an important role in both movies. In Black Swan it is her teacher who wants to seduce her, she dreams about having sex with one of her fellow dancers. In Perfect Blue Mima has decisions made for her to do a photo shoot and agrees to do a scene in a TV show where she is raped. Despite the similarities there are differences as well. Within Black Swan it is Nina who is fighting her inner demons, but in this movie there is an external factor contributing to Mima losing her sanity. Director Satoshi Kon was also responsible for Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika (movies also worth checking out). Just like in Paprika he expertly mixes reality with dreams and nightmares, leaving the viewer to join the main character in her descent into a confused state and her struggle to deal with it. A must see for Black Swan fans, but even if you are not I think you should give it a watch.