The color of illusion is Perfect Blue. <BR>&nbsp;

The color of illusion is Perfect Blue.

Japanese animation has gained enthusiastic audiences all over the world, including many Saturday night viewers of SBS. It`s not often that an anime film gets a cinema release here but the 1997 film Perfect Blue is, because it goes beyond the usual anime territory of superheroes and excessive violence. Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller about a young girl Mima, the star of a pop group called Cham who decides to take up acting in a television soapie to further her career. She`s tempted into doing a nude photoshoot and acting in a graphic rape scene but is increasingly disturbed by her alter ego who taunts her about her fall from grace....The blurring of reality with fantasy is exacerbated by an internet stalker who seems to know her every move and by the fact that the writers of the soapie are being murdered. It`s an interesting film which explores the celebrity phenomenon and the contrast between Mima`s innocence and the sexual and violent world she becomes a part of. The problem with the film is the dialogue which really doesn`t serve the themes explored.