Perfect Blue is a serial killer film, and the killer is patriarchal violence.

Many films mine the tension between one's idealized self and the self one lives in reality to create drama and art*, few so adeptly recognize that for women, both of these sides are controlled by men. Perfect Blue is the story of pop icon Mima who decides to move from singing to acting and takes a minor role in a disgusting procedural show about grisly murders. But…