Every filmmaker has influences that shape their respective body of work;George Lucas, for example, craftedStar Wars: A New Hopebased on his love ofFlash Gordon(as well as the fact thathe couldn’t actually get the rights toFlash Gordon.) But what about the filmmakers who become major influences themselves, likeAkira KurosawaorSatoshi Kon?While Kurosawa’s impact on film —particularly the space operaand the Spaghetti Western— is common knowledge, Kon’s body of work more than deserves a mention, especially when it comes to its impact on modern-day filmmakers. One of those filmmakers isDarren Aronofsky,who said that Kon’sPerfect Blueinspired his work onRequiem for a Dream.
Perfect Blue
A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.
‘Perfect Blue’ Is A Terrifyingly Trippy Classic - As Well As Satoshi Kon’s Directorial Debut
Satoshi Kon’sPerfect Bluecenters on former pop idol, Mima Kirigoe (Ruby Marlowe), who is leaving behind the glitz and glamour of her former life to try to become an actress. However,multiple events cause Mima to lose her sense of safety and her grip on her sanity. Not only does she have to deal with a deranged stalker, but also visions of her past self as an idol and a multitude of traumatic experiences on the set of her first movie. The most disturbing element is the website known as “Mima’s Room,” which contains highly personal details about Mima’s life — yet she isn’t the one who created the site.Events escalateuntil Mima learns that the person trying to ruin her life is her fellow idol Rumi (Wendee Lee).Having developed a split personality based on Mima’s idol days, Rumi intends to kill Mima and replace her until Mima saves her from being run over by a truck.
Perfect Bluewas Kon’s directorial debut and was based on a 1991 novel. AuthorYoshikazu Takeuchihad been trying to get a film adaptationof his novelPerfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosisoff the ground, but it kept running into a major roadblock: lack of funds. Kon, having come off directing the OVA (original video animation) ofJojo’s Bizarre Adventure, took the jobbecause of the allure of directing a feature filmwithPerfect Blue. He also was able to inject horror elements into the narrative after a discussion with Takeuchi;this led to an entirely new narrativeafter meetings with screenwriterSadayuki Murai.
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Perfect Bluewas whereKon started his narrative trend of blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. Throughout the story, Mima — as well as the audience — isn’t sure of what’s real and what’s fake. For example, the film Mima is working on ends with the reveal that her character murdered her own sister and assumed her identity; the fact that this is exactly what Rumi plans to do to her adds another level of surrealism that people now expect to find in a Kon film . But even when Rumi is placed in a mental hospital, there’s a final scene with Mima thatthrows everything the audience has been watching into question. Kon would continue to perfect this technique in his future films, most notably the sci-fi thrillerPaprika—which brought him into the orbit of Aronkofsky.
‘Requiem for a Dream’ Contains a Remake of a Shot From ‘Perfect Blue’
Following its debut at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 1997,Perfect Bluedrew a wellspring of positive criticism — as well as a major fan in Aronofsky. In the documentarySatoshi Kon: The Illusionist, Aronkofsky said thathe happened to watchPerfect Bluewhile writing the scriptforRequiem for a Dream. “InRequiem for a Dream, I was probably in the script process…I think I was looking for a scene to kind of get the internal mindset of Jennifer Connelly’s character, Marion,” he said. “And, probably at the same time, I sawPerfect Blue. Aronofsky was apparently “blown away” after watchingPerfect Blue, to the point where it ended up shaping major elements ofRequiem for a Dream. A scene where Marion (Jennifer Connelly) is kneeling in a tubis a remake of a shotfromPerfect Blue —and it didn’t escape Kon’s attention.
“There are scenes inRequiemthat were heavily influenced byPerfectand shots that were copied in their entirety,“Kon wrote in his personal blog. The two wound up meeting for dinner in 2001; while Aronkofsky had nothing but praise for his fellow filmmaker, Kon was more mercurial —and downright vicious when recalling the event in a 2007 interview. “When I asked him about it, he said that it was a homage,” Kon said. “And who’s doing this scene inRequiem for a Dream? Jennifer Connelly. She’s doing this scene. Just like in my storyboard!” To top it off, he even mentioned that he was on a flight with Connelly and never brought the incident up. “No, you can’t go, “Hey, Jennifer! Damn you, you copy-catted me.” Well, not like she was the one who did it.”
There Are Similarities Between ‘Perfect Blue’ and ‘Black Swan’
That wasn’t the only time an Aronkofsky film would be linked to Kon’s work. His 2010 psychological thrillerBlack Swaninvolved quite a bit of debate,especially since its plot seemed to be a direct mirrortoPerfect Blue. A ballerina named Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is competing for the part of the Black Swan in a performance ofSwan Lake; in the process, she loses her grip on reality and winds up dealing herself a presumably fatal wound in the final performance. Many have pointed out that there are more than a few similarities betweenBlack SwanandPerfect Blue, including the fact that both protagonists have similar-sounding names and deal with a similar psychological breakdown.There’s even another bathtub scene!Aronkofsky denied the connection, saying “There are similarities between the films, but it wasn’t influenced by it. It really came out ofSwan Lakethe ballet, we wanted to dramatize the ballet, that’s why it’s kind of up here and down there, because ballet is big and small in lots of ways.”
While he’s not the only director to be influenced by the work of Kon (go watchPaprikaand you’ll never look atInceptionin the same light) Aronkofsky’s love forPerfect Bluehad a major impact on his career. Even if his filmography was small, Kon managed to have the kind of impact that few others in his field did — and when animation is often regarded as merely a vessel for children’s stories, that’s a major triumph.
