Perfect Blue 
                                       (1999)
                                   review by Deathcow

Roger Corman, no stranger to horror himself, said in regards to Perfect Blue "If Alfred Hitchcok partnered with Walt Disney they'd make a picture like this". I'd say that's pretty damn accurate, as Perfect Blue has enough plot twists and surprise endings to fill up a week's worth of Alfred Hitchcok Presents.
Just a glance at the DVD box tells you you're in for a treat, as Perfect Blue was put together by the minds that brought us Ninja Scroll and Akira, two of the greatest anime films of all time, in my humble opinion.

The film starts out strangely enough, as we have what appears to be the asian version of Destiny's Child performing in an outside festival setting, preceded by a knockoff of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Odd. We soon find out that one of the members of the girl group, Mima Kirigoe is leaving
the life of pop star behind her, to embark on a serious acting career. A small group of thugs in the audience start to cause trouble, but are stopped by a large, quiet, strange man. In keeping with the theme, he appears to be Japan's answer to Chunk of The Goonies fame. He'll go on to play a pivotal
role later in the film. As Mima starts acting on a murder mystery series, things start going awry. A fan letter intended for her nearly blows her manager's hand off. It's at this point that Rumi, her agent's assistant who has a mother/daughter relationship with Mima, argues with her manager, saying Mima should've stayed in the pop world. This will also become
important later on. Soon enough Mima starts breaking down, having visions of the pop songstress version of herself coming to antagonize her. But what seems to be a product of a deranged mind turns to be more real than Mima could ever imagine. What follows is a boatload of plot twists that will have you shouting "What the fuck!?" over and over again. Make sure to check out the awesome " murder" scene involving Mima, or so we think, and the photographer that took nude pictures of her for a magazine.

As for the ending, I can't even come close to letting that cat out of the bag. There will come a point where you think the story has been resolved, and then another fork appears in the road, leading down to more madness. This happens again and again and again! It's a guaranteee you'll want to watch
it a few times, and even then you might not catch everything.

The only problem I have with Perfect Blue is the ending.
It's a great twist, but it's never fully explained. I can tell you has to do with Mima's visions of her old self, and the true identity of that apparition. If it was explained in more detail how the person took on Mima's appearance, this flick would be an easy five skulls.

As far as extras, not much. You have "Mia's Room", which is Mia's personal webpage in the film. From here you can see some behind the scenes footage of the recording of the music for Cham, Mia's girl group, which if you like looking at barely legal asian girls is a good time. It also has some stills
from the film, a blatant shill [in three parts] for other movies Manga has to offer, and some interviews. As you can see, the "extras" are nothing more than a disguised informercial, and therefoer nothing to write home about at all.

Extras aside, another very good release from Manga Entertainment. Definitely recommended.