Perfect Blue

Based on a novel by Yoshikazu Tekeuchi, this unusual animé follows Polanski's Repulsion into some fairly grown-up areas: the vulnerability of one's sense of self, the flimsiness of a public persona, the price to be paid for female complicity with male fantasies. Mima, lead singer with a teen-idol group which has had its statutory 15 minutes, as usual submits to her manager's instructions by going solo and taking a 'bad girl' role in a TV soap. But then she finds her private diary posted on the Internet, imagines herself stalked by a slasher movie monster and is harassed by her own shadow double, a malign version of her popstar self. The old Diaboliques question arises: is she 'merely' cracking up, or is someone really out to get her? The denouement isn't very surprising or enlightening, but at its best this works as both a critique of Japan's pop culture system and an effective woman-in-peril psycho-thriller. (The animation director was Hideki Hamazu.