Editing Perfect Blue (section)

== Production ==

This film was Satoshi Kon's first directorial effort.
[[Masao Maruyama (film producer)|Masao Maruyama]], a producer at Madhouse at the time, appreciated Kon's work on the [[OVA]] ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (OVA)|JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' and contacted him to ask if he would be interested in directing in the fall of 1994.<ref name="inter02">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=3|title=Interview 02 2002年12月 イタリアから、主に「千年女優」に関するインタビュー|language=ja |date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref><ref name="inter04">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=5 |title=Interview 04 1998年1月ドイツから「パーフェクトブルー」に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> The original author, Yoshikazu Takeuchi, allegedly first planned a [[live-action film]] based on his novel. However, due to funding difficulties, it was downgraded to [[direct-to-video]] and then direct-to-video animation.<ref name="theguardianaug26">{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/aug/26/anime-satoshi-kon-japanese-cinema|title=Japan mourns anime master Satoshi Kon|language=en|date= 2010-08-26|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref name="inter05">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=6 |title=Interview 05 1998年2月 アメリカから「パーフェクトブルー」に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref><ref name="inter09">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=10|title=Interview 09 1999年12月 アメリカから「パーフェクトブルー」に関するインタビュー (オマケ付き)|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> When Kon received the initial offer, it was for an OVA project, so he made ''Perfect Blue'' as a video animation.<ref name="inter01">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=2|title=Interview 01 2002年12月オーストラリアから、主に「千年女優」に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-02-04|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> Then, it was decided to be released as a movie in a hurry just before its completion.<ref name="banger3904">{{cite web|url= https://www.banger.jp/anime/3904/|title=サイコホラーアニメ『PERFECT BLUE』を世界のアニメファンが観られたのは、"海外セールス素人"のおかげ!? (1/2) |language= ja |date= 2019-02-06|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=BANGER!!!|publisher=ジュピターエンタテインメント株式会社}}</ref> This work was originally made as a video animation for a narrow market, so it was expected to disappear as soon as a few people talked about it.<ref name="inter01" /><ref name="inter06">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=7|title=Interview 06 1998年3月 フランスから「パーフェクトブルー」に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref><ref name="inter07">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=8|title=Interview 07 2004年6月 アメリカから、監督作品全般に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> The fact that such a work was treated as a film, invited to many film festivals around the world, and released as a package in many countries was unexpected for those involved.<ref name="inter01" /><ref name="inter06" /><ref name="inter07" /> [[Psychological horror]] was not a mainstream genre in Japanese animation, and there was no precedent for it at the time, so it would normally have been rejected.<ref name="theguardianaug26" /><ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter06" />

By the time Kon was offered the job, the title ''Perfect Blue'' and the content, a story about a B-class [[Japanese idol|idol]] and a perverted fan had already been set.<ref name="inter01" /><ref name="inter06" /><ref name="inter07" /> He had not read the original novel and only read the script for the film, which was said to be close to the original and was never used in the final film.<ref name="inter06" /><ref name="inter10">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=11|title=Interview 10 2001年11月アメリカからと2002年4月イタリアからの二つのインタビューの合成 (未発表)|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> There is no [[play-within-a-play]] in the original story, nor is there a motif of blurring the boundary between dream and reality.<ref name="inter10" /> The first plot was a simple [[Splatter film|splatter]]/psycho-horror story about an idol girl that is attacked by a perverted fan who cannot tolerate her image change, and there were also many depictions of bleeding, so it was not suitable for Kon who does not like horror or idols.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /><ref name="inter10" /> Kon said that if he were free to make a plan, he would never have thought of such a setting.<ref name="inter10" /> This genre was overused, having already been dealt with in various works such as ''[[Seven (1995 film)|Se7en]]'', ''[[Basic Instinct]]'' and ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'' and was also something that anime was not good at.<ref name="inter04" /><ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter06" /> Since most of the works in that genre pursue how perverted or crazy the perpetrators, the murderers, are, Kon focused on "how the inner world of the protagonist, the victim, is broken by being targeted by the stalker" in order to outsmart the audience.<ref name="inter06" /> On the other hand, the play within a play, ''Double Bind'', is more like a parody than a straight psycho-horror, and he made it with the intention of criticizing Japanese TV dramas that are easily made by imitating Hollywood fads immediately.<ref name="inter06" />

Kon decided to take on the role of director because he was attracted by the allure of directing for the first time, and because the original author allowed him to change the story as he liked as long as he kept three things in mind to make the film work: the main character is a B-grade idol, she has a rabid fan (stalker), and it is a horror film.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /><ref name="inter10" /> Kon took some elements from the original work, such as the uniquely Japanese existence of idols, the "[[otaku]]" fans that surround them, and the stalkers that have become more radical, and came up with as many ideas as possible with the scriptwriter, Sadayuki Murai, with the intention of using them to create a completely new story.<ref name="inter04" /><ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> To find the film's core motif,<ref name="inter04" /><ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> Kon came up with the motif of two things that should have a "borderline", such as "dream and reality", "memory and fact", and "oneself and others", becoming borderless and blending together, based on the short film ''[[Magnetic Rose]]'' (from [[Memories (1995 film)|''Memories'']]), for which he had written a script, and the suspended manga ''Opus''.<ref name="inter06" /><ref name="inter07" /> The concept of "memory and fact" in the plot was inspired by the album [[Sim City (album)|''Sim City'']] by [[Susumu Hirasawa]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2020-08-24 |title=[今敏逝世十週年]作曲家平澤進聊今敏與他的動畫音樂 |url=https://blog.addmusic.tw/2020/08/24/%e4%bb%8a%e6%95%8f%e9%80%9d%e4%b8%96%e5%8d%81%e9%80%b1%e5%b9%b4%e4%bd%9c%e6%9b%b2%e5%ae%b6%e5%b9%b3%e6%be%a4%e9%80%b2%e8%81%8a%e4%bb%8a%e6%95%8f%e8%88%87%e4%bb%96%e7%9a%84%e5%8b%95%e7%95%ab%e9%9f%b3/ |access-date=2023-06-18 |website=加點音樂誌 |language=zh-TW}}</ref> He said, "This album is like a city that was suddenly created with a high degree of modernity without any evolutionary process".<ref name=":0" /> In the meantime, he came up with the idea that "a character more like 'me' than 'I', the protagonist, to the people around 'me' " is created on the Internet without 'my' knowledge".<ref name="inter04" /><ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> The character is "the past me" for the protagonist, and this "other me" that should have existed only on the Internet has materialized due to external factors (the consciousness of the fans who want the protagonist to be like that) and internal factors (the protagonist's regret that she might have been more comfortable in the past). And then the composition that the character and the protagonist herself confronted emerged.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> It was only then that he became convinced that this work could be established as his own video work.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> Kon decided to interpret the original story above as a story about an idol girl who was broken down by a sudden change in her environment or by a stalker who targets her, and wrote a completely new script with Sadayuki Murai.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> Initially, Murai wrote the first draft of the script, and Kon added or removed ideas from it. They spent a lot of time discussing, and many of the ideas came out of that.<ref name="inter09" /> Next, Kon wrote all the storyboards, where he also made changes to dialogue and other elements.<ref name="inter04" /><ref name="inter09" /> The drawing work was also carried out in parallel.<ref name="inter04" />

The company that purchased the [[videogrammetry|videogram]] and television rights to ''Perfect Blue'' before the film was completed advised the distributor to submit the film to the [[Fantasia International Film Festival]] in [[Montreal]], [[Canada]], so that it could be released overseas first.<ref name="banger3904" /> Since it was his first film, director Kon was still unknown. Therefore, the distributor introduced the film as the first directorial effort of a disciple of [[Katsuhiro Otomo]], the creator of ''[[Akira (manga)|Akira]]'', which had already become a hit overseas.<ref name="banger3904" /> Otomo is credited as a planning collaborator, but he never arranged for the company to ask Kon to direct the film, nor was he involved in the film. However, it Otomo apparently once advised the original author about the circumstances of the animation industry when he was touting around the animation project.<ref name="inter05" /><ref name="inter09" /> At Fantasia, the film was so well received that a second screening was hurriedly arranged for those who could not see it, and it was eventually voted by the audience as the best international film.<ref name="banger3913">{{cite web|url= https://www.banger.jp/anime/3913/|title=ロジャー・コーマン監督が惚れた『PERFECT BLUE』、南阿佐ヶ谷の机の上からベルリン映画祭へ!（2/2） |language= ja |date= 2019-02-10|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=BANGER!!!|publisher=ジュピターエンタテインメント株式会社}}</ref> This acclaim brought the distributor invitations from more than 50 film festivals, including [[Germany]], [[Sweden]], [[Australia]], and [[South Korea]].<ref name="banger3913" /> The distributor began negotiations with distributors in various European countries and eventually succeeded in selling the film in major markets such as [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[English language|English]] and [[German language|German]]-speaking countries prior to its release in [[Japan]].<ref name="banger3913" />
The distributor was successful in obtaining permission from filmmakers [[Roger Corman]] and [[Irvin Kershner]] to use their comments in recommending the film free of charge worldwide. As a result, their comments were used on international theater flyers and in worldwide promotions.

Director [[Darren Aronofsky]] was rumored to have purchased the remake rights for ''Perfect Blue''. However, when he spoke with Kon in a magazine in 2001, he stated that he had to abandon the purchase for various reasons.<ref name="theguardianaug26" /><ref name="inter12">{{cite web|url=http://konstone.s-kon.net/modules/interview/index.php?content_id=13|title=Interview 12 2001年7月 カナダから、主に「千年女優」に関するインタビュー|language=ja|date= 2007-03-16|accessdate= 2021-09-24|website=KON'S TONE|publisher=今敏}}</ref> His film ''[[Requiem for a Dream]]'' pays homage to ''Perfect Blue'' in some of its angles and shots.<ref name="theguardianaug26" /><ref name="inter12" />