I guess that is only partially true, as he also directed a few episodes of the original Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA. But for an entire project as well as his first movie, this is where people became aware of Kon himself. I remember catching at least part of this movie when I was younger and not really liking it, I probably didn't even watch the whole thing since there was no need for me to do things like that as a child, but I loved Paranoia Agent as well as Paprika, so I'm going back and watching his movies. And honestly, I was kind of surprised when I realized he didn't do all that much compared to other well-known directors in anime.
Perfect Blue is already showing Kon's strengths as a director, but there are aspects to it that make it clear this is his first step into the role, as well as showing some of his overall lack of experience. I will say now, I came away thinking the movie was great, but there are things about it that keep it from being an all-time classic for me.
The movie follows a former Idol by the name of Mima Kirigoe, and the group she sings with is smaller. Mima, at some point, agreed to transition over to becoming an actress and left the group. We start to get into the issue I have with the movie, and that is the movie's justification for Mimi's mental instabilities going forward. See, you just kind of have to accept being both an actress and an Idol are things that cannot co-exist side by side. It may make sense if you knew more about Japanese culture at the time, but without that context, this feels like a stretch. This is a minor nitpick, but it is a minor part of the whole issue. It also feels that her giving up what could be seen as more comfortable for her, being Idle, is a major breaking point for her. This weird thing about whether or not she wanted to be an actress isn't handled very well and isn't something that gets better by the end of the movie. And since that is a key element of the story, it does hurt the overall show with how poorly it is presented, I just don't walk away buying it as a believable reason.
That said, everything else about the psychosis she experiences works fantastic. As she is going through all this internal turmoil with the stress of going into an entirely new thing, you have a rabid fan that can't stand to see the image of his favorite Idol change, especially when Mimi's character in the drama being produced begins putting her in some pretty dark places. The fan is pretty much a crazed Stalker and starts getting very violent and aggressive toward those around Mimi. All this happens while Mimi herself isn't entirely comfortable shooting a rape scene for a series, or the more scandalous photo shoots she is starting to do. This is all compounded by the mysterious website 'Mimi's Room', where someone seems to be posting fake diary entries from her perspective, and they seem to be early detailed. A few seem just like a fun little fan takes involving information most people could find out, but they start getting far more personal. I'll avoid the fantastic twist regarding that to not spoil it, but that is the twist that ended up making this movie for me. Everything kind of comes together fantastically.
Two other small things do drag the movie down for me a bit. The first is the series they are shooting in the movie, Double Bind, which is pretty much spelling out the situation Mimi herself is going through, and honestly, it feels a little too on the nose. She is playing a character who is developing an alternate personality that struggles to see reality for what it is, while she is going through the same thing in real life, it almost seems at times like the movie was trying to spell it out for the audience. I may be thinking a bit too much about this one though.
The other is that considering the nature of the movie and what happened, everything ended a bit too cleanly. At times an ending like this works, but here it feels like it undercuts the gravity of what happened. Something I don't want to go into details on though, as it will spoil the above-mentioned twist as well.
I really do recommend this movie to anyone who can handle some more dark and gruesome themes in their movies. It's clear from his first film Kon is developing a distinct style and vision for his movies that aren't like any anime out there.
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Seems a very interesting movie, I think I am going to watch it.
This movie is very interesting, the plot is very crazy.