4K Restoration Of Satoshi Kon’s ‘Perfect Blue’ Coming To U.S. Theaters This Fall
During a panel at the Anime NYC convention, GKIDS announced that a 4K restoration of late director Satoshi Kon’s legendary mind-freak feature from 1997, Perfect Blue, will be stalking U.S. theaters beginning on October 3rd. The subsidiary of Tokyo’s mega-entertainment giant Toho has established a reputation for preserving anime masterworks over the years, and this release will give generations of American fans the opportunity to see the celebrated cerebral suspense classic on the big screen.
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Loosely based on the 1991 novel, Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis, by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, it tells the surreal story of Mima Kirigoe. A famous singer of a J-pop group called “CHAM!” who decides to cast aside the life of lip-synced luxury for a career as a serious actor in film. Which leads to the inevitable fan backlash, ridicule in the media, and stalker websites. Overburdened by the pressure of a tough new acting gig, guilt of leaving the pop group, and a string of murders connected to her, Mima embarks on a strange journey that has the singer-turned-thespian questioning reality, and viewers get to see what the price of fame can cost a person.
It was a critical/financial success that seared itself into the minds of anyone who watched it. The film also inspired directors like Darren Aronofsky to shamelessly steal elements from it to bolster his own pretentious spin on motion pictures. Satoshi Kon followed up his debut feature with Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), the series Paranoia Agent (2004), and the mesmerizing Paprika from Madhouse (2006), but it all came to a tragic end when Kon died from pancreatic cancer in 2010 at 46 years old.
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GKIDS (short for Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate, interestingly enough) and Fathom Events screened the film in 500 U.S. theaters in September 2018 for a special two-day event that gave fans a chance to watch it subtitled, or dubbed with American voice actors. The screenings earned $420,881 (USD) at the box office. GKIDS, Iconic Events Releasing, and Anime Expo also screened it as part of Anime Expo’s AX Cinema Nights screenings in September 2023 to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, but that’s the closest this film has to come getting a theatrical run on our side of the Pacific Ocean.
Perfect Blue remains Satoshi Kon’s most popular work. It’s a raw, unsettling look into the world of celebrity life, along with harsh truths about identity and exploitation. This upcoming re-release will give many American fans the chance to see it in theaters for the first time. Most of whom discovered the film through word-of-mouth, or stumbling across a bootleg VHS in a seedy used video store in the early 2000s (guilty!). It’s available to rent on Prime, for those who’d rather save a few extra yen.
