Black Swan Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1998) is a chilling psycho-thriller about Mima, a young (pop) star who embraces the darkness within her in order to achieve her dream (becoming an actress), willing to alienate everyone who cares about her to do so. Mima has an overbearing but loving maternal figure (her manager, Rumi) who doesn’t approve of her new shady career choices. She is emotionally tormented by an unknown outsider who begins to destroy Mima’s already tenuous grasp on reality, and Mima is soon haunted by a doppelganger who represents both her mental anguish and the duality of her soul.

Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) is a chilling psycho-thriller about Nina, a young (ballet) star who embraces the darkness within her in order to achieve her dream (becoming the lead player in Swan Lake). She alienates, she’s got an overbearing but loving mom who disapproves, emotional torment, tenuous grasp on reality, and a doppelganger who represents both her mental anguish and the duality of her soul.



Darren Aronofsky bought the rights to Perfect Blue for just $59,000 in order to replicate the gorgeous bathtub sequence for his 2000 film Requiem for a Dream. The staged rape scene in Perfect Blue also inspired a scene toward the end of Aronofsky's film in which a group of perverted men circle around and cheer on a vulgar sexual event.