Perfect Blue
Forsaking the usual anime fantasy terrain for a straight suspense plot that might easily have been executed in live-action form, director Satoshi Kon's debut pic, "Perfect Blue," is a psychological thriller that intrigues without quite hitting the bull's-eye. Animated feature is currently getting limited U.S. release in an English-dubbed version. At the urging of her agent, innocuous heroine Mima has decided to leave her mildly popular girl-pop trio for an acting career, starting out with a small role in a TV dramatic series. But this change doesn’t go down well with some fans, in particular one who posts disturbingly intimate details about her life on a Web page. She’s also being shadowed by a menacing man with long hair and bad teeth. Soon the screenwriter and photographer who have given her a sexy new image turn up dead, brutally stabbed. Even more unnerving, Mima starts experiencing strange visions of her former pop-star self — a malevolent alter ego seemingly b...