CULTJAPAN!

Perfect Blue is a 1997 anime psychological thriller directed by Satoshi Kon. The film is  about Mima Kirigoe, a member of a Japanese pop-idol group called “CHAM!”, who decides to pursue her career as an actress. Some of her fans are displeased with her sudden career change, particularly the stalker named Me-Mania. As her new career proceeds, Mima’s world becomes increasingly reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch and Philip K. Dick: reality and fantasy spiral out of control, and Mima discovers that Me-Mania is the least of her troubles. Read more…

Cure is a 1997 psychological thriller/horror directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and starring Koji Yakusho and Masato Hagiwara. Police detective Kenichi Takabe is investigating a series of bizarre murders. Though each victim is killed the same way, with an X mark carved into their chests, the perpetrator seems to be different every time. In every case the murderer is caught close to the scene of the crime, and though they readily confess to committing the murder, they often have no motive and cannot adequately explain what drove them to kill. Read more…