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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
Late To The Party - Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon's 1997 directorial debut, stands as one of the most influential and psychologically complex anime films ever created, still inspiring filmmakers today with its disturbing yet masterful narrative about identity and fame. The film's ability to blur the lines between reality and delusion creates a viewing experience that continues to haunt viewers days after watching, making it a timeless psychological thriller despite being over 25 years old.
• Released in 1997, Perfect Blue was Satoshi Kon's directorial debut and first feature film
• The film's animation holds up remarkably well despite limitations with current digital copies
• Narrative intentionally blurs lines between reality and delusion, creating a disorienting viewing experience
• Explores timely themes about toxic fandom, stalking, and the dark side of the entertainment industry
• Heavily influenced filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream)
• Runtime of only 81 minutes, but feels longer due to its intense, layered storytelling
• Rewards multiple viewings as the complex narrative reveals more layers on rewatch
Letterbox'd Synopsis: Encouraged by her managers, rising pop star Mima takes on a recurring role on a popular TV show, when suddenly her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered.
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Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and for this edition of Late to the Party, we decided to jump into an anime film that is not only regarded as one of the greatest anime films of all time, but one of the films that is actually inspiring other films that are made even today. So, without further ado, we are here to talk about Perfect Blue. So, without further ado, we are here to talk about Perfect Blue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are back into the Satoshi Kon filmography after talking about Tokyo Godfathers back in December, which was just a very, very well-liked movie by both of us as well as a bunch of our audiences. You know people were pretty happy that we had checked this out and it's a film that I think over time it's finding more and more people, and Perfect Blue is Satoshi Kon's first film which I did not know going into it, and it is another one that people you know as far as you know, major anime heads will bring up this movie and, as you mentioned, eric, it is incredibly influential when it comes to just cinema now, and I actually learned a few things about this movie when I was hanging out with our buddy Corey also a patron, a wait watcher just yesterday in St Augustine, because I told him we were preparing to record this episode, and I've learned some stuff about this movie that I did not know before. So we are going to dive into this thing here, eric. And one thing I will say, just to get this out of the way, because it is a little bit of a cliche I rhymed like three words in a row. I don't believe that was really true. Bars, three out of five. We say this a lot, especially me, where I say a film sits with you like for a long time, and I'm roughly a week removed from watching this and I'm still thinking about it. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? We'll unpack that here. So appreciate y'all for checking us out.
Speaker 2:If you are a first time listener or a long time listener and you need a reminder as far as to where to find the rest of our content, stick around. We'll let you know where you can find everything you need, as well as how to get some additional perks if you're interested in those. But let's get to the synopsis here from Letterboxd Perfect Blue, released in 1997, once again directed by Satoshi Kon. Encouraged by her managers, rising pop star Mima takes on a recurring role on a popular TV show when suddenly her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. So, eric, what did you know about Perfect Blue? Leading into this, of course we looked at Satoshi Kon's filmography after we very much enjoyed our time with Tokyo Godfathers we have circled Paprika and Millennium, actress, paranoia, agent All of these films we've kind of circled like diving into more of his films. Why did you feel like now was a good time to dive into Perfect Blue for us.
Speaker 1:So the thing with Perfect Blue was number one. It was an option for our Patreon month. Somebody did recommend this, while we didn't go with it. This was a nice theme for Bulma at Suri, which is happening here Juneune in jacksonville. We're going to be there, as we have been for the last five years, so finding a top tier anime film that we could cover that we haven't seen was really important for late to the party specifically and that's where it differs from international feature, where we might cover films that are a little bit lesser known even if they're anime this one is one that is talked about in so many circles.
Speaker 1:If you were to ask somebody what is your favorite or what is one of the best anime films you've ever seen, perfect blue is brought up in so many conversations. Where I heard of it first was when I watched black swan and in the year that that movie released there were a lot of comparisons to Perfect Blue and I remember saying like, oh, that is, that's super interesting, but never exploring it. And I think we learned the hard way, phil, with Satoshi Kon, like looking at his filmography. Those are all projects I've heard of, I've been aware of, but I just never took the dive into any of them, and we started with Tokyo Godfathers, now with Perfect Blue. I'm really glad that we did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're finding how ahead of his time Satoshi Kon was as well. You know, when we talk about Tokyo Godfathers and having a transgender character featured so prominently, and then now with what we've seen here in this, you know, it just really enforces the thought that Satoshi Kon was taken from us far too soon and it's really sad that he's not still around to innovate and craft stories such as this. And I will say this as well before we get started, because I will probably talk about spoilers a little bit later. We do want to give a little bit of a trigger warning here. There are some very, very graphic scenes and topics that are in this film. We won't go into full detail with them here, but if any of those things are triggering for you, I just want to let you guys know that here right out of the gate.
Speaker 2:So one thing, eric, that you know that we have and me specifically has very much struggled with when it comes to some of these older films, especially anime. So, like when we're talking about how I felt about Akira and then, obviously, how I felt about some of the Ghibli films, animation always is brought up. It's the first thing that you certainly reference when you're talking about anime and this film here's what I learned, here's the fact that I learned from Corey the other day is all digital copies of this film. Apparently and I might get some of this wrong, so correct me if I'm wrong for those of you that are listening, the original digital copies of this film were all lost in a fire. So every single copy of this film that is now uploaded to like digital where we watched it now is a VHS copy. So it's never been upscaled or like remastered.
Speaker 2:This is what the film looked like when it released on VHS back in the 90s and that certainly kind of plays. You know, comes through when you watch the film. It is a little rough around the edges. Comes through when you watch the film. It is a little rough around the edges, but that didn't bother me here, especially because some of the themes of this film made it very apparent that some of those animation choices were very intentional. So we have to start there, of course, when we're talking about anime and we're talking about a film that is so iconic, animation-wise. Eric, where did you land?
Speaker 1:It's timeless, like it's just. I know we said that Tokyo Godfather had like elements of being timeless, but when you watch this, it's not just the animation, it's the choice of visuals. Obviously, there's a lot of blurring of reality, so from a story perspective, I think that's where it can get a little bit more tricky. Visually, there is no argument Like it is visually stunning. Even now, in 2025, it was exciting for us to be able to see a movie that is this old, hold up against the test of time. When there are so many films, phil, that we've watched where we've been like you know, that movie showed its age, that movie didn't really age well, and this one, at least in the animation realm, I don't think it's an argument at all that can be made Objectively. This movie is stunning.
Speaker 2:I agree, I definitely agree. And just to transition to like story, this thing was absolutely fucking nuts. And when I thought I had an idea or a grasp of what was going on, like in the beginning, you're like oh, it's pretty straightforward. It's a girl who, you know, wants to be more than just an idol, which, of course, over there in that culture is like a huge deal. It's still a very much a huge deal. We see people like that now who make that transition from her, making that transition from, you know, k-pop to now being in Hollywood, and it was like, okay, that seems pretty straightforward.
Speaker 2:And then you add in the stalker element and it was just such a eye-opening story because so many of these things, even though this film what 1997? So it's like 30 years old, older than that, I can't do math, it's an older film All those themes are still so relevant here today and when you think that you have this movie figured out, you do not. And there were so many of those twists and turns. I've never seen black swan, so I didn't have anything to reference.
Speaker 2:So trying to navigate and get a grasp as to what was happening in this was a wild ride that I enjoy is a strong word because it is so dark and heavy and there's so many crazy twists and turns and obviously it it's very graphic, like we alluded to. But I enjoyed my time with this, from beginning until end and then, upon watching, you know doing a little bit of a YouTube deep dive. I cannot wait to watch it again. I will give it some time because of those heavy themes, but it's something that I will revisit eventually and would also like to revisit with people who have never seen the film before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's where it was tough for me, because it was like I clearly would want to show this to the right person and I would sit down and do like a watch party, be an uncomfortable watch party, maybe not a watch party.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I want to eat a charcuterie board right before we sit down and watch.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying that. I don't know that I'd want to be with just one person, though, so I feel like it's a lose-lose scenario I'm going to turn on the red LED lights up here and just stare at somebody and see if they react the same way that I do.
Speaker 2:You know, when you show someone a movie, you're like all right, they're going to laugh in three, two, they didn't laugh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's where it's tough because, like as a film, I can absolutely see how this movie can be recommended to other people, but I could also understand people not liking it for certain things, like when we talk about the themes and some of the triggering stuff. Like this movie is I don't know that you would say over sexualized, because I think I don't know that that was the intention, but you know, there's a lot of nudity, there's a lot of themes that are very triggering, as we mentioned earlier, a lot of sexual themes that are explored. So it's definitely a movie that's not for everyone, but a movie that I would go out of my way to tell people to watch, which makes sense because the people that we've heard this from have done just that. Like they've said, this is an all-time classic and I don't know, phil, it's something about this movie that's been the way it's talked about. It's just a different level than how other movies have been talked about and for this being Satoshi Kon's directorial debut, by the way, also insane.
Speaker 2:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:You know how, like when you see I can't think of anybody off the top of my head right now, but like someone makes their directorial debut and it's something, just a million different layers of crazy and messed up You're like what was going on in that person's head, like where did you come up with this idea? And again, a lot of the themes in here and a lot of what's happening isn't necessarily original, but it is done so well and, and you know the obviously the intent is to make you uncomfortable. So, yeah, this isn't something you watch with your family. You don't sit down, pop some popcorn, invite, invite your family over and watch this. But in terms of, I think, where it sits, as you were kind of alluding to Eric, in terms of I think where it sits, as you were kind of alluding to Eric, in terms of, like, cinematic history, both on the animated and on animated side, uh, it, it holds its place very, very well. What other themes and what other things did you want to point out as far as um positives for this film?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when it, when it's blurring the lines of reality, uh, you know that from a story element, I think upon first watch is hard to fully digest. I know I enjoyed it and I never felt lost, but I also say that, knowing that I got lost in the film and that was its intention, like the movie specifically, is blurring those lines and making you not fully understand what is going on. It's just the way the movie executes that. That whole concept, I think, is just done really well.
Speaker 1:I'm very curious, upon a rewatch, what that will look like for me. Will my score go up? Will my score go down? I'm more leaning up and I watched this movie in sub because that was the only option on amazon to rent it. I'd be very curious to see what the dub for this was, because I think I have heard pretty good things about the dub, even for its time. I know those older animes. Some of them are hard to listen to compared to today's work. But I got to say like that was probably my favorite aspect of it was just the constant bend and weave throughout what was real and what wasn't. Those were probably the elements that were most gripping to me and how I digest that upon a second watch is going to be really key for me.
Speaker 2:There's something really satisfying about when things click for a movie that is intentionally trying to kind of confuse you and lead you down a path you think you're going and then completely swerve you. There's something so satisfying about that when it is done correctly, like so many movies. Like you see these things coming from a mile away and I thought, like I said, I thought this was relatively cut and dry oh, it's this person. Obviously, obviously, this person is who is behind all of this. And then we find out what happens. You're like that's insane. And then, when you think back and look at it, you're like, yeah, that totally makes sense. You start to connect those dots and put everything together and then, like you said, like I said, this is one of those movies where we're always big proponents.
Speaker 2:Eric and I of you shouldn't have to watch a YouTube video to understand a movie, but this is something that made me immediately go watch more about it and learn about what I maybe didn't understand because I don't have the trained eye for it and you know people talking about the cinematography and the use of, like the color red and the misdirects and all of that. So it is something that I, like I said, I will certainly watch again. I did see I don't know that I would watch it in dub just because now I've seen it, like my score is what it is and I felt so strongly about it, so I don't know that I would go back and watch the dub. But I did see some clips on some of those YouTube deep dives that I did and yeah, it didn't look too bad. But yeah, man, it is a wild ride. I don't know really how else to kind of explain this without going into spoilers, which we'll do in a moment. But it's boy, it's crazy. Has Stefan watched this?
Speaker 1:No, it is on his watch list, though, so he will watch it soon and because we like it.
Speaker 2:He will hate it. He's going to be like it's not as good as Flo, but it was good.
Speaker 1:Don't even fucking get started with me, but he did give to be fair, he loves Black.
Speaker 1:Swan. He loves Black Swan. I'm pretty sure he gave that movie a five. So he's probably going to very much like Perfect Blue.
Speaker 1:And the director for Black Swan, Darren Arnosky that's probably right, there might be an F in there, but he also did another movie called Requiem for a Dream which was also apparently highly inspired by that movie and he at one point was rumored to be doing like a live action Perfect Blue. So for that director that kind of makes sense to kind of be paying homage to this type of work. But man, it just it's so tough to think that he's no longer. Satoshi Kon is no longer with us, was unable to do more than what he did, but even what he did do is like generational, Like I'm very excited. You know, we'll talk about, we'll keep it in line with perfect blue and talk about spoilers in a moment, Cause this movie is how old, Uh, 1997. I definitely think that there are so many of these that we probably all of them we're going to end up watching on this series. Paprika, millennium actress, paranoia agent, Like I would say those are probably Paranoia.
Speaker 2:Agent's a show right.
Speaker 1:Paranoia Agent is a show. Yeah, but those are his other works, from what I can see, that are like highly, highly touted, so those will probably make their way back. But yeah, I think we do want to talk about the film a little bit more in depth. Do you want to go over scores before we do that? Again, this movie is almost 20 years old, but maybe stick with that formula.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do that because, again, if you have not seen this, please, please, watch it. Please do not stick around for the spoiler discussion because it will completely ruin the movie. Please, please do that. So let's go over scores. As far as the Tomatometer score, I'm surprised it wasn't higher. I mean, it's still solid, but it is an 84% tomato meter score and then an 89% popcorn meter score, which is the user rating, so I was surprised that was not higher.
Speaker 2:Over on Letterboxd, it does carry a very, very high 4.4 as far as its average with's see, we have 44 000 oh, hold on, let me do this a little differently 309 000, 39 of those reviews being five out of fives, um, which is, uh, obviously very, very strong. So, eric you alluded to it before we got started I gave this a very high score. As you can probably tell by the way that I'm talking about it, I gave this a 4.5. And it is we'll also talk about this in a moment as far as all of the late to the parties that we have watched, it is very highly ranked for me and I could, probably I could see why you maybe would be concerned by how I would feel about this, just based off of our experience with Akira and then Spirited Away.
Speaker 2:This thing is timeless and when we I hate to reference this because we didn't have really a good time but even though I gave it like a pretty good score with Taxi Driver, it's a movie that I understand, like why it sits where it does in terms of cinema history, but I don't ever want to watch it again. And it's completely different for Perfect Blue, where I wouldn't understand anybody giving this a score lower to a four, whereas Taxi Driver, as some people we know, you know, stefan gave it a low score. Other people now, especially in 2025, are like this is what people have been, you know, raving about. I wouldn't understand if anybody came away from this and being upset about the film itself. In terms of the movie, some of the themes, yes, I can understand why you'd be upset, but the movie itself, I don't know that you could give it lower than a four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I can see it only from the standpoint of what we kind of talked about was some of those kind of difficult scenes and some of the sexualized nature of the film, Like were they all necessary all the time? I think a discussion can be had when it comes to that. It's also a disturbing film and that's not always people's jam. But I think if you look at the movie through the lens of just how it was made, the creativity that went behind it, the story and the way that that story is told, I think it's hard to also not give this movie a four, which is why that's exactly what I gave it and that's the ranking that I give a movie when it's something that I would recommend to the right person and I would sit down and watch it with them, Like I would actively show them that movie and even as difficult as the themes are with this movie, I would still do that for the right person. And I think the other thing we didn't mention is this movie is a brisk hour 21. Like this movie.
Speaker 2:And it seems longer. It does it seems longer. But I couldn't believe. I was like oh, I'm at the end, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I would have been totally cool with a little bit more time and that's that's just like again a movie that's leaving you wanting more. Very excited that that was the case and that it wasn't a chore to go through. So very happy with that score that we have a director, another director, because you know we talked about Hosada and some of his films that we've watched. I think you just it's okay, you're not a Ghibli guy, that's alright. You've got other directors now that you can.
Speaker 2:Corey did mention. I wonder if there are Ghibli films that weren't directed by, that are not Miyazaki films.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you brought that up. Okay, I'm glad you brought that up because I'm going to be watching Grave of the Fireflies sooner than later.
Speaker 2:I think that's the movie he mentioned.
Speaker 1:Yes, and if I like it, I'm going to put it for international feature. Okay, it's a movie that everybody talks about, that's seen it, but I feel like it's still pretty unknown unknown. So I think international feature would be a better fit than late to the party. But it could even go there too, like it's a movie that people rave about and it is a Ghibli film, but not by Miyazaki but where is this in your late to the party list?
Speaker 2:did you add it or did you forget again?
Speaker 1:you say again, like I normally forget you forgot, forgot last month Did I, it was last month.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was last month Taxi Driver.
Speaker 1:Because I wanted to forget that movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, perfect Blue. On my list it is ranked eighth. Okay, and it is ranked behind the Shawshank Redemption and above the Mitchells vs the Machines. Which crazy, crazy sandwich there of films. But yeah, it's up there at eight and, honestly, upon rewatch, not only could I see myself putting it higher on our late to the party series list, I could see that score going up as well. So that's where I landed. What about you?
Speaker 2:Seventh for me, seventh sandwiched in between klaus and the big sick.
Speaker 1:so yeah, you just there's a lot of context needed before we say these type of things, you know it's gonna take.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine what it's gonna take to crack my top five. I know our top fives are are kind of similar because, like I have goodfellas obviously one of my favorite movies of all time interstellar, which is reachingellas, obviously one of my favorite movies of all time, interstellar, which is reaching the status of one of my favorite films of all time, chernobyl is three Paddington two, which is a masterpiece, stefan and then five is Shawshank Redemption, yeah, so yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:My top five right now sit at Chernobyl 1, interstellar 2, pretty Woman 3. Crazy.
Speaker 2:You do love Pretty Woman. I fucking love Pretty Woman. It's a great movie.
Speaker 1:Paddington 2 and then Top Gun Maverick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say Top Gun Maverick could move up. I haven't. It's so much fun I should probably move that up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I could see Perfect Blue cracking that for sure.
Speaker 2:Like I've got space to give after Paddington 2 for that fifth spot. It's love that we have two Paddington faces staring at us here.
Speaker 1:Where do you have the first Paddington? I have it at 12. I have it at 14. Okay, above Goodfellas, right above it.
Speaker 2:You know, for Paddington it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, so that is where we stood on it, phil. Uh, from a spoiler perspective, um, I'm not sure if phil will even bother giving you the warning because, again, this movie is so old please also.
Speaker 2:Please just leave. Please, please just leave and come back please we're gonna talk spoilers and then we'll talk.
Speaker 1:Uh, we'll talk about would you rathers? Uh, probably afterwards. Uh, unless you want to do that first. But yeah, no, let's do. Would you rathers first?
Speaker 2:probably afterwards uh, unless you want to do that first. But yeah, no, let's do, would you rathers first?
Speaker 1:would you rather first, okay, yeah, so don't leave quite yet, come back, come back, hey, hey, hey, get back here. So let's go ahead and jump into. Before spoilers, let's fit in this activity. Would you rather watch Perfect Blue or this movie? And I'm going to use both IMDB's list and I'm going to also use Letterboxd, since we've had a little bit of luck. So would you rather watch this Perfect Blue or Tokyo Godfathers?
Speaker 2:Perfect Blue.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm not going to ask about Akira don't, don't, do that not worth it. Would you rather watch perfect blue or your name?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, yeah, your name, we. We just talked about how it's also difficult to get through perfect blue, even though it's a fantastic film. But your name at least I know I'll be happy at the end.
Speaker 1:That one I just literally threw in for me. Yeah, would you rather watch Perfect Blue or American Psycho?
Speaker 2:Probably American Psycho yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, would you rather watch Perfect Blue or Silence of the Lambs?
Speaker 2:Oh God, we're getting into tough territory here. That first Silence of the Lambs is so good. I know I'm going to go. Silence of the Lambs that performance from Anthony Hopkins is chilling, it's so good though it's good, I do have to ask this as an obligatory question.
Speaker 1:Would you rather watch Perfect Blue or the Shining?
Speaker 2:Pass.
Speaker 1:You know God, would you rather watch Perfect Blue or Joker?
Speaker 2:Perfect Blue Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The further we get away from joker.
Speaker 1:Like you said, you don't feel great no, I, I do, uh, I do agree. Yeah, the rest of these phil. This is like and this is why I'm so shocked about your score like I know, you're a big fan of american psycho, but like this is just not a genre that we typically find ourselves in yeah like did you watch shutter island? I did. Would you rather watch perfect blue or shutter island?
Speaker 1:probably just because I'm such a leo stan, I'd probably go shutter island yeah yeah yeah, but a lot of these movies like I can't imagine you've seen them. I've seen a little bit more than what I think you have, but like. So this is. This is weird being on here. Would you rather watch perfect blue or the first saw perfect?
Speaker 2:blue. Okay, I guess maybe psychological torture wise like, maybe, maybe, yeah, yeah, there there are quite a few things I'd watch before saw but yeah, so there you have it.
Speaker 1:That's the more like this. Would you rather watch section of the episode?
Speaker 2:now is your spoiler warning now you should probably probably leave. It's great that Purple Blue is his first movie and it is his highest rated on Letterboxd. Still, I think the lower score out of all these is a 3.9, which is I think that Good Morning, yeah, good Morning. These is a 3.9. Yeah, which is I think that Good Morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good Morning. And then also, whatever this Ani Curry is, I don't know what this oh, it's a 15 one-minute shorts, okay, so maybe he just has a short on here and it's not all. So, yeah, as far as his films, a 3.9, I think, is the lowest, which is crazy. But, yeah, spoilers. So if you haven't seen the movie, please, if you feel like those themes are not going to be too much for you, definitely go check out Perfect Blue. But, yeah, eric, so I just want to. We'll start with, obviously, who we believe is running this website. Who is in charge of all of this? I mean, did you think this was going to be relatively cut and dry? Did you know? Because you've watched black swan, so, like you knew, you know kind of like some of these themes going into it already. So just walk me through your, your thought process here.
Speaker 1:You know there were. There were a lot of things I was expecting, but you know one thing I wasn't rape.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, no, no, no, no. I'm so sorry I got to put that clip in now.
Speaker 1:We need it for context. Not funny, it is not funny, but that clip is kind of just a little bit.
Speaker 1:I didn't expect that. So that there was, yeah, there being a sexual assault scene. No, it was a little bit unexpected. But outside of that, like, like did I expect much? Like I knew once we were seeing that this character was an idol.
Speaker 1:Because I have watched, uh, like a show like oshinoko, which I've talked about before. I really really like that show, uh, the first season, the first episode, specifically, like I actually I love that episode. It's like a prologue of sorts, but it lets you kind of know, like the darker side of the idol industry in Japan and like just in general, and because I came in knowing that I had a little bit of a feeling, like, you know, there'd be a stalker, there'd be that competition, there'd be that kind of degrading of women as well, like when you have all these men that are behind the scenes doing that type of stuff. Like again, you mentioned it earlier not anything that has reinvented the wheel, it's been done before and I've seen it other places but I did have a little bit of a sense of what's going on. It just then continued to take turns into deeper areas that I just wasn't prepared for to take turns into deeper areas that I just wasn't prepared for.
Speaker 2:The scene in the garage is terrifying, with the boom box and the. Was that the director right that went first, or was that the photographer that was in the?
Speaker 1:garage. No, the director went first. The guy in the elevator went first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was the director, right, so that was the director. The photographer was the one that got stabbed over and over again.
Speaker 1:He just wanted a pizza. I'm pretty sure he got stabbed in the dick.
Speaker 2:I think so as well. I think so, yeah, but the photographer also had a really bad reputation too. But yeah, you think this is relatively straightforward. Obviously it's the stalker. You know, they kind of set up. He is creepy in the beginning and is definitely obsessive and, like we said, it is so chilling that this still goes on today. It's not even just an idol thing, it is just a it can be a pop star thing.
Speaker 2:How many stories do we hear about a year about a stalker? What was there? Sonia deville, former wwe wrestler, had a stalker incident as well. So it's so terrifying that like this is just part of their life and they have to. Who was the actor? There was an actress also recently. Like this one person kept showing up at their q a panels and all this stuff. So it is so, so crazy. But yeah, you just think like, oh, obviously the stalk. He's running the website and maybe it's like. I did kind of think of a multiple personality thing where maybe he was emailing himself, but I didn't really think that like, oh, could it be like someone else obviously ended up being Ruby, but I did have the thought process of like man who was emailing him and telling them that he, that they are mima.
Speaker 1:But I just thought maybe it was like an alternate personality and he was emailing himself like so yeah yeah, it's tough, and it's it's hard too because like I don't fully know everything and that's like the purpose of the movie is, like it's left to some some interpretation as well. But I definitely like want to dissect the movie a little bit more to understand some of the directions and like what's real, what's not. But it's kind of like and that's what I like about it it's like the inception, you know, ending, where it's kind of left up to that interpretation for you to kind of guess. But instead of it just being the ending, it's like the whole film is like that. So it's just very, very well done. And man, just so many breasts, there were so many so many nipple scenes.
Speaker 2:Lots of nudity. I mean, it's all Mima, but it is definitely uncomfortable. Remember looking back at it and thinking about especially when I was watching some of these youtube videos like how obvious it was that she wasn't waking up in her actual room. And then you're like, oh yeah, but you're just so wrapped up in like, oh, my god, is she actually killing these people? Is she actually having like mental breakdowns at work and is she really seeing like another mima somewhere else?
Speaker 2:And you know, obviously I didn't even know if, like the scene where Mima was supposed to supposedly be performing with, like her idol group, again I was like, oh, is that? It was that Rumi that was up there because, like the other two, her, her two idol mates were like looking, when you see on their faces, they look a little uncomfortable. So did that scene actually happen? Did she think it happened? And, like I said this thing, I have been so excited to get to this episode just to talk to you about it, because I was like man, I don't know what actually happened, what did or did not, and it's very rare that that happens, even though we've watched a lot of really, really good movies on this series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again Late to the Party being. The series that it landed on is perfect. It's like when we did Spirited.
Speaker 2:Away Perfect Blue.
Speaker 1:That's the Hello I'm done. I don't want to do this, no more. We've been recording too long. I don't want to do this. Yeah, it's, I thought you set me up. Sorry, I don't want to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought you set me up Sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't say the word perfect anymore. So yeah, no, I'm good, I'm solid, I'm good.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start working in the name of the film into every episode. Going forward now, man that movie was mad Boy Kumail.
Speaker 1:Nanjiani's wife was sick Like big sick, big sick, fucking Christ. I hate that.
Speaker 2:Some of these are going to be really interesting.
Speaker 1:Was it Top.
Speaker 2:Gun. Some of these are going to be interesting. Good thing Tucker and Dale teamed up versus Evil. It's going to be interesting Like man. Good thing Tucker and Dale teamed up versus evil. It's going to be a lot harder than I thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're doing that thing tomorrow. Is it the edge of tomorrow? Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing? I don't. What are you doing? How are you going to do? Nope.
Speaker 2:Well, she just runs away and she says nope, Doesn't that happen? I guess it's true. I'm going to rewatch. No, by the way, I think I was too harsh on it.
Speaker 1:You may have Maybe.
Speaker 2:I gave it three and a half. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:I was like I think I gave it a, didn't I give it a three? I gave it three and a half too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 1:Maybe we weren't that harsh, but anyway, perfect blue. What we weren't harsh on was perfect blue. No, we, uh, but yeah, we, we derailed pretty much here at the end. So, yeah, I unless there's anything else, phil, that you want to talk about from a spoiler perspective and again, the reason I'm somewhat limited here is because I still want to, like you mentioned, do those youtube deep dives, yeah, understand the film a little bit more and probably rewatch it. Like, again giving it a four.
Speaker 1:The difference between that and a three and a half for me. I have to constantly explain this because you know there's one person out there specifically, but I've got to always do it, just in case there's. There's a difference between like, oh, it's on and I'd want to watch it, versus like I actually actively want to rewatch it. And that's where the four territories are different for me. Like, this is a movie I definitely would like to put on again at some point, to reevaluate it and solidify that score, because I think a movie needs to be watched at least twice for you to really lock that score in. And that's what I do want to do with Perfect Blue at some point or another.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with Perfect Blue at some point or another, yeah. So if for some reason you stuck around and you have not seen the movie, definitely go check it out. We'll close this out by highlighting some of these letterboxed reviews which we like to do. This one, from 2020, says imagine your card declines at therapy and they show you this. This one's a 5 out of 5. It just says what the actual fuck. This one says the most fucked up movie that opens with a Power Rangers could ever be.
Speaker 1:I forgot.
Speaker 2:That's how the movie opened I was like did I buy the right movie?
Speaker 1:A smart, sexy and seriously funny comedy. Edit. Just finished reading the Wikipedia summary. How do I delete this?
Speaker 2:This would take a drink every time you're confused. Yeah, yeah, so again, a lot of very, very high, four and a half size. Google's perfect blue explained that's really really good. So yeah, but anyway, that is perfect blue folks for this month's episode of Late to the Party. So if you want to find any other films or TV shows that Eric and I were late to the party on, make sure you check out the Linktree link in the show notes of this and every single episode. You'll find all the rest of our content as well.
Speaker 2:If you want to support the show, you can do quite a few different things. You can head on over to Apple Podcasts, spotify, leave us a five-star review. All of that stuff goes a very, very long way in terms of getting our podcast out there to more prospective listeners. You can also follow us on social media, the important ones being Instagram, tiktok, our growing and flourishing discord community, as well as over on Twitch, where we are streaming a whole lot. Eric especially is whenever he's just sitting down and playing a game like, yeah, I'll hop on there.
Speaker 2:So if you ever want to hang out, we are probably over on Twitch, usually a little bit later in the evening, sometimes even like on a weekend stream as well. So make sure you check all of that out, and then you can also tag us, let us know that you're listening, let your friends know that you're listening and enjoying the show. We very, very much appreciate that. So wherever we see you, whether it online or in person, we appreciate all of that support. But maybe you're finding yourself like man, I have to wait so long for these episodes to come out. I want them like early. Well, eric, there's a way that they can do that if you want to let them know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not only getting early access, but behind the scenes looks at things that we schedule, we set up and we do with the podcast. Only you get to see it on Patreon. And patrons of the show Briar, stefan T3Kato, vintage, macaroni, corey from the World's my Burrito and Nick Casbarro, the author of the Vidularium series, are just some of the people that are involved in supporting us on that platform and helping us grow that community. So come be a part of that team. If not, you can't do it. Be a part of that team. If not, you can't do it. You're not in this situation where you can. All the free stuff is still very much appreciated and it makes a world of difference for shows like this one. With all that being said, my name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my co-host, philip Filipino, and please don't forget, we release new episodes for the podcast every Wednesday and all you got to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:This is the Wait For it Podcast.
