Perfect Blue (1997)
A movie about chastity, sexual objectification, the internet, depersonalization, being terminally online, and disassociative personalities. What happens when the vicarious vessel we live through, the ideal of chastity, betrays that ideal by having its own will? Has the internet become a way for the most mentally afflicted to aggregate and multiply their effects? Or was it always like that?
Satoshi Kon has created perhaps the perfect psychological thriller. One that plays with the viewer's perception of reality and makes them question what is happening after the credits roll. It's a movie about control, reliving a glorious past vicariously, agency, sexuality, violence, and who we are.
The central question being asked here is: who are you? The refrain is repeated throughout the movie. Who are you, the viewer? Do your collection of continuous memories constitute an identity? Can you even trust those memories? Are dreams any less than the waking world? The dreams of our imagination or even the dreams of sleep?
Perfect Blue asks all of these questions.
Related long-form writing: Perfect Blue: Identity, the Internet and Depersonalization.
Originally published on Letterboxd. Browse all film reviews.