Saturday Matinee: Perfect Blue

“Perfect Blue” (1997) is a psychological thriller anime directed by Satoshi Kon, written by Sadayuki Murai, and based on the novel “Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis” by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The film follows Mima Kirigoe, a member of a Japanese idol group, who retires from music to pursue an acting career. As she becomes a victim of stalking, gruesome murders begin to occur, and she starts to lose her grip on reality. Like Kon’s later work, Paprika, the film deals with the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality in contemporary culture.

Watch the film on Hoopla here: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12319819

Saturday Matinee: Paprika

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“Paprika” (2006) was the final feature-length anime masterpiece directed by Satoshi Kon, who died a few years later at age 46 of pancreatic cancer. Paprika is seemingly influenced by the novels of Philip K. Dick and films of Terry Gilliam, with a plot involving a radical psychotherapy treatment using a technology which allows one to view and interact with other people’s dreams. When a mysterious culprit steals the technology and uses it to cause the deaths of two scientists, it’s up to a determined detective and Paprika, a dream world avatar, to solve the mystery and prevent a chaotic merging of dreams and reality.