Original subtitles

-You know what's really strange?

There has only been one Japanese movie

that ever won the Best Animation Oscar --

"Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki.

And it's a story about a 10-year-old girl

whose parents get turned into pigs,

and so she becomes an orphan and has to find a way

to go into the spirit world and get them changed back.

And I guess the Academy couldn't ignore that movie

'cause it grossed $400 million.

But really, shouldn't Japan own that category?

When you talk to filmmakers,

especially the big hitters like Martin Scorsese,

aren't they always going on and on

about some Japanese genius

who does weird-beard animation, creating stories never imagined,

much less photographed before now?

Anyway, I'm Joe Bob Briggs,

and I'm here with the second half of Animation Night

on "The Last Drive-In," along with Darcy the Mail Girl,

here to field all your missives and messages.

And you're animation crazed, right, Darcy?

-Well, there's a time when all I did was watch anime

hour after hour, day after day.

-Really? Yeah? -Mm-hmm.

The first conventions I ever went to were anime conventions.

At one time, I was even gonna get

the "Fullmetal Alchemist" logo tattooed on, like, my full back.

-Really? -Yeah.

-What is it? I don't know that one.

-"Fullmetal Alchemist."

-Who's the Fullmetal Alchemist? [Laughter]

-It's the name of the series. But...

-Is it a horror -- Is it a horror flick?

-It's kind of action... fantasy...mythology?

I don't know. It's -- It's fun. It's great.

[Laughter]

It's -- I don't know how to describe it.

-Okay, well, that's true of a lot of Japanese anime.

"I don't know how to describe it" should be the genre

for Japanese animation.

-It's about two brothers who are trying to

bring their mother back to life

through, like, science and magic and stuff.

-Okay, so, it has horror elements.

-I guess. It's just, like, the coolest thing ever made.

-So, that's your favorite anime?

-Yeah, and also "Inuyasha" and "Death Note."

-"Inuyasha" and "Death Note." -Yeah.

-Okay, I'm gonna get your list later.

-Okay. -But don't you think

it's strange that all this rich cinema

is pouring out of Japan every year, and we -- we --

Over here, we just have -- We have Disney, we have

Dreamworks, we have Pixar, a few smaller players, but...

But really, I mean, don't Disney and Dreamworks

and Pixar all work together?

Isn't their stuff interchangeable?

Isn't a revolving door for the animators?

They go from one to the other.

And isn't a large percentage of it for children?

I mean, you would think

the Oscar would not be exclusively for children.

-It's very true.

I think they kind of try to keep the Oscars in America, honestly.

-You mean it's rigged?

You think it's rigged to keep it in America?

-It's rigged because of prejudice.

-Okay. That's another debate. [Laughter]

We'll have that debate for another time.

But Satoshi Kon, the animator who wrote

and directed our next movie, never won an Oscar,

but he was famous for the number of American filmmakers

who stole from him.

Darren Aronofsky was such a fan of one Satoshi Kon film

that he bought the rights to the film,

worldwide rights to the film --

not so he could distribute the film,

but so he could copy scenes from it

in "Requiem for a Dream" and "Black Swan."

Christopher Nolan is also a guy

who says he's stolen shots from Satoshi Kon.

So, the movie we're gonna watch tonight -- "Perfect Blue."

Um, I would call it a psychological thriller,

but it's really from

the "I don't know what to call it, really" genre

that you just described. [Laughter]

It has a huge cult around this movie.

People literally analyze this flick frame by frame by frame.

And there are controversies raging all over the Internet

about what certain parts of it mean.

It's kind of like "Donnie Darko,"

if you're familiar with that movie,

in that on the surface, it's obvious what it means,

but then on a second viewing, you're not so sure.

And you love this movie, right?

-I lovethis movie. -Okay.

I should tell everybody in advance

that I will not be able to comment

on a lot of the movie until it's over,

because anything I say would be a spoiler.

This movie is like a Japanese giallo.

It's a giant puzzle.

So I will not be revealing how the pieces fit together

for those who haven't seen it before.

What I can say is that it's a sensitive story

of a pop idol girl

who decides to leave her three-girl singing group

in order to pursue an acting career.

Unfortunately, one of their --

one of her creepster stalker fans

doesn't think that's a good move,

and bloody hijinks ensue --

not to mention a spooky website that seems to be reporting

on her private life in terrifying detail.

Sure, we've seen it before,

but have we seen it with an extended nude photo shoot

and the best chase scene in the history of anime?

I think not.

So, let's look at those Drive-In Totals

and get started.

We have seven dead bodies, 19 breasts,

six dead fish, three icepick stabbings,

two knife attacks,

screwdriver through the eye,

screwdriver through the hand,

hammer to the cranium,

umbrella stabbing,

broken-glass-shard impalement,

one letter bomb, one concert brawl,

one downtown Tokyo apparition traffic-jam chase,

one stairway tumble, one bus crash,

one breather call, one terroristic fax,

one exotic dance sequence,

one faded, aging would-be pop idol,

one extended sexual assault for TV ratings,

three J-pop musical production numbers,

one creepy mullet man with a leer,

gratuitous superhero movie,

Kung Fu, Aquarium Fu,

Stagefright Fu,

Dissociative Identity Disorder Fu.

Drive-In Academy Award nomination for Satoshi Kon,

the writer-director, who teaches us

there's no way illusions can come to reality...

or is there?

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

♪♪

One thing you should remember as you watch this movie

is that it came out in 1997.

So, all the stuff about the World Wide Web,

that is brand-spanking-new stuff.

Many people don't have home computers at that time,

and those that did have home computers

were just finding out what a website is.

So, and everybody had dial-up modems.

But the main thing you should remember

is that everybody thought this new thing called

the Internet was going to make life

so much easier and so much happier.

And Satoshi Kon was kind of the kid

at the back of the room who raises his hand and says,

"But what if a crazy person is using this technology?"

And so, he was the first to realize that in some respects,

onlycrazy people are attracted to this technology.

'Cause the Internet is like...

It's like taking a brain scan

of the entire world once a day, you know?

And you're going, "Oh, wow, 3 million new tumors today.

That's -- that's too many to operate, I guess.

I guess I'll just turn the computer off."

You know, except for the people who go,

"Hm, 3 million tumors?

There were 4 million on Tuesday.

Let's see if I can inject some cancer

and get those numbers back up." Am I right, Darcy?

-You're so right. [Chuckles] -And what do you do with trolls?

-Block their ass. [Laughter]

-Have people impersonated you on the Internet?

-Yeah, like fake social, fake videos,

fake e-mails, everything, yeah.

-And have people stalked you electronically?

-Yeah, all the time.

-And yet you are a mail girl.

You hang in there. You stick with it.

-Yes, because I'm awesome.

-You know, I should make fun of you

for saying that you're awesome.

But this time, I am gonna agree with you on this one.

-Aww! Why, thank you.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whooshing]

[Speaking Japanese]

-[Groaning]

♪♪

-[Sobbing]

[Bell tolling]

[Cheers and applause]

[Cheers and applause continue]

[Energetic pop music plays]

♪♪

[Music fades]

[Train chugging]

[Upbeat music playing faintly over headphones]

[Music continues faintly]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Easy listening music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Energetic pop music plays]

♪♪

[Men chanting]

♪♪

-[Gasping]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Shouting]

♪♪

[Cheers and applause]

[Song ends]

[Audience groans]

[Laughter]

-[Man shouting] -[All gasp]

-[Grunting] -[Crowd murmuring]

[All shouting]

[Feedback whines] [Shouting stops]

[Shuddering breaths]

-[Sighs]

[Piano music plays]

[Camera shutters clicking]

♪♪

[Mima singing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Crowd shouting]

[Shouting fades]

[Train chugging]

-[Sighs]

[Upbeat music playing faintly]

♪♪

[Telephone rings]

[Heavy breathing]

[Groans]

[Telephone beeps]

[Alarm beeping]

[Telephone rings]

[Beep]

[Ominous music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Indistinct conversations]

-[Yawns]

-[Laughing]

[Gentle music plays]

♪♪

[All laughing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Indistinct conversations]

[Laughter]

[Voices fade]

[Loud bang] -[Gasps]

[All gasping]

[Ominous music plays]

-[Groaning]

[Voices clamoring]

♪♪

[Train chugging]

-Okay, you see what I mean about the Internet?

1997, and it's already this dark, ominous tool

of people with bad intentions.

The first question people have about this movie is always,

"What does the title mean?"

And if you asked Satoshi Kon what it means,

he would always say that it had no meaning.

Satoshi Kon was one of those directors

who would sometimes be a misleading teacher

about his own work. He liked to keep his movies open

to interpretations that even he had not thought of.

So, the mundane reason he gave for the title

was that it was the title of the novel the story was based on,

and so he kept the title without knowing what it referred to.

So, the novel came out in 1991.

It was written by a fairly obscure writer

named Yoshikatsu Takeuchi.

And what we know about him

is that he writes the equivalent of pulp fiction,

monster stories, superhero stories.

And "Perfect Blue" was a fairly straightforward slasher story.

Japan has virtually no protections for writers

when it comes to adaptations for the screen.

So Satoshi Kon says he was asked to turn "Perfect Blue"

into a live-action film.

But he hated Takeuchi's screenplay so much

that he drastically changed it.

And he started working with his screenwriting partner,

Sadayuki Murai.

And so, the narrative of the film

ended up having nothing to do with the title of the novel.

Now, I don't really buy this,

and the reason I don't really buy it

is Satoshi Kon was meticulous about every single detail

of every single frame of his movies.

And in fact, the people who worked with him said

he was very difficult to work with.

He could be super critical of all his assistants.

He did not allow anybody to take anything lightly.

So, is a guy like that gonna ignore the title

and just say, "Oh, who cares?

It was good enough for the novel, we'll use it again"?

No, he is not.

So, actually, the full title of the novel

was "Perfect Blue: Kanzen Hentai,"

which translates as

"Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis,"

but it can also translate into

"Perfect Blue: Total Pervert." [Laughter]

So, as you'll see,

both subtitles would be appropriate for this story.

But even more important, I think,

is the color blue.

In Japanese culture,

the color blue is used to represent purity,

clean, cleanliness, stability, calm.

It's often worn by young women to show their modesty.

So this is the journey of Mima to find her perfect blue,

which is going to require a total metamorphosis.

It's also a journey of perversion.

But I want to -- I'm not gonna go into that till the end.

I also want to mention the opening scene.

This shows how wonderfully strange Satoshi Kon is.

That little short superhero movie,

that -- it stars what he calls the Powertrons.

He's sort of making fun of superhero movies,

but the story he chose for his little satire

is that these green and blue Power Rangers in masks

are all fighting against a creature called King Bug.

And that's because the story he's about to tell is about

Mima, the pop idol girl being beset by a kind of bug.

A virus, you know,

that causes her to develop bugs of her own

in her personality and in her identity.

Now, there is no way that any of us would understand that

from watching it as the very first scene of the movie.

But Satoshi Kon says that doesn't matter to him

because he put it in the movie for his own amusement

and his inspiration.

He wanted to state the theme and purpose of his movie

in a little allegory.

And then he implies that the guys on the street

had been watching that movie in the theater.

The Powertrons and King Bug never come back.

They have served their purpose.

So, Satoshi Kon is not a reliable narrator.

The plan was to make "Perfect Blue"

into a live-action movie,

but after the rewrite, it was cut down to an anime

because Satoshi Kon

wanted to study dissociative identity disorder.

And I will get into that later.

We associate that mental illness with stalkers.

But as this movie points out,

the stalker can pass that along to the person being stalked

and they can both become delusional.

And that's truly frightening.

So, back to the movie.

I know you have a -- you have a reverse stalker situation,

or you did in the past.

-What do you mean?

-You had a very famous guy

stalking you when you were not famous,

or at least you were not as famous as you are today,

ever since you became the queen of horror.

-Oh, my God. Shut up. Do not say that.

-All right. Well, anyway, normally the conventional wisdom

is that the stalker is trying to leech off the celebrity

and become the celebrity or live off their fame or whatever.

In your case, the celebrity was the needy one,

and which probably happens more than we know, right?

So, and goes right to the heart of what this movie is about.

You know, it's in this movie. -Okay.

-So, how'd you get rid of him?

-Mm, some friends had to "talk" to him.

-Wow, Darcy. [Laughter]

That sounds sort of mafioso.

-I mean, you do what you got to do, man.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Upbeat music plays]

♪♪

[Woman screams]

-[Groans]

[Horns honking, train chugging]

[Indistinct conversations]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

[Gasping]

♪♪

[Elevator dings]

[Ominous music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Laughter]

[Upbeat music playing over speakers]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Laughs]

-[Laughs]

[Loud whoosh]

♪♪

♪♪

[Loud music playing] [Audience whooping]

♪♪

♪♪

[Sobbing]

[Shouting]

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Loud music playing] [Crowd shouting]

[Sobbing]

[Screaming]

-[All laughing, hollering]

-[Screaming]

-[All laughing, hollering]

-[Screaming]

♪♪

♪♪

[Screaming]

[Screaming, hollering continue]

♪♪

♪♪

[Voices fading]

♪♪

♪♪

[Audience cheering]

[Cheers and applause]

♪♪

[Music, sounds fade]

-[Sighs]

[Engine starts]

Mm?

[Door opens, closes]

[Gasps]

[Crying]

[Objects clattering]

[Breathing heavily]

[Sobbing]

[Laughing]

[Breathing heavily]

-Wow.

All those levels of reality and illusion overlapping.

But we've seen this story before, haven't we?

I always think of Mark David Chapman.

We also saw it with Robert Bardo.

We saw it with John Hinckley.

But Satoshi Kon says

that the single most important shot in the whole movie

is the one we just saw -- the two fish in the aquarium.

Again, we can't always trust him

when he makes pronouncements about his own movies.

But the rape scene is the turning point in the movie,

but probably not for the reasons you think it is.

Satoshi Kon even said later

that he thinks the rape scene probably went too far.

The reason I think of David Chapman,

the guy who gunned down John Lennon,

is that when they finally got down to his reasons

for doing it, he'd been reading

J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye,"

which I guess everybody, when they're young, they read

and they identify with the youth--

youthful rebellion in that book.

And he did identify with Holden Caulfield's idea

that adults are all hypocrites.

And so he got agitated when he discovered

there was a difference between the public John Lennon

and the private John Lennon.

He couldn't stand that the guy who wrote "Imagine"

and talked about love and idealism

all the time turned out to be a guy

who had abandoned his family to be with Yoko Ono,

and he lived in luxury

and he had a history of beating women.

And I'm not saying any of that was accurate.

I'm just saying David Chapman thought that was the reality.

And so he couldn't reconcile a flawed human

and the persona of a saint.

And super celebrities all understand this syndrome

because they have been warned about it

by their agents and managers.

And that's why anyone exhibiting excessive fanboy love

or fangirl love is normally held at arm's length.

Now, of course, John Lennon was --

he was walking across the street

to Strawberry Fields every day.

So, and he was one of

the most identifiable people on the planet.

So it's not like it was hard to get close to him,

even if he was aware of David Chapman's existence.

Anyway, Mima seems oblivious to the stalker phenomenon,

though, partly because she doesn't

really believe she's famous enough.

And you have to understand, in Japan,

there are 10,000 active "idols" at any given time

because it's a factory, it's a business.

In America, how often do we manufacture a boy band?

What, you know, once every couple of years? I mean...

[Laughter] But the scouts and the agents

and the managers who run the big talent agencies in Japan,

they pick out girls who are 12, 13, 14.

Mainly they're picking them out on the basis of their looks

and their personalities -- has nothing to do

with any particular talent.

And then they put them in groups, they train them,

and most of them end up having a three- or four-year career.

And at the end of that time, they go back to school

or into the regular workforce.

You probably noticed that the two remaining girls in CHAM

are deliriously happy because they made

number 83 on the charts. [Laughter]

So, Satoshi Kon made this movie when he was just 34 years old.

It was his first full feature, after a career

illustrating in manga and assisting in anime.

And the movie was actually shocking in the anime world

because anime at the time was all about giant robots

and fantastical landscapes and ancient history.

And this one was a violent thriller

full of very complicated psychology,

and it was set in contemporary times.

Okay. -[Laughs]

-Let's get back to the flick.

You know, roll it.

One thing -- Now, one thing.

-Hee! Hmm.

-One hint I can give you about

how to follow the alternating reality/fantasy images here.

Watch for the flashes of white light.

And actually, watch for white light in general.

-You know what, I think we should ask Yuki

if anything you're saying about Japan is actually true.

-Okay. Yuki.

-Yes? -Can you come over?

Yuki, come over.

Um, Yuki Nakamura, ladies and gentlemen.

[Cheers and applause] -Yuki! Yuki!

-"Last Drive-In" art director,

better known as the Tokyo Cowboy.

So, Yuki, are you a fan of J-pop idol groups?

-Uh, that a new thing.

So, they didn't exist when I was in Japan.

-Oh, you had left Japan by the time

the idol thing became a big thing.

Well, so what kind of music did you listen to in Japan?

-I grew up with Donna Summer.

-Donna Summer?

Oh, the esteemed Japanese singer Donna Summer.

Okay. [Laughter]

So... Well, anyway,

so I'll just ask you in general about the Japanese people.

Do the Japanese people, would you say most of them love

these teen girls singing these simple songs

about love and dancing in pink skirts?

-Yes.

-And are there too many of them?

-No. [Laughter]

-And do they make a lot of money?

-Some of them, yes. -Ah.

All right. What do you want to ask, Darcy?

-Is Joe Bob saying any of these Japanese names correctly?

-No. [Laughter]

-That's what you want to ask?!

-Yep. I'm done. Thank you, Yuki.

-Oh, my God. [Laughter]

♪♪

[Energetic pop music plays]

[Keyboard clacking]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasps]

-[Laughs]

♪♪

[Laughing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Siren wailing in distance]

[Car door opens, closes]

[Footsteps echoing]

[Pop music playing faintly in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Silence]

[Music resumes faintly]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

[Loud staticky music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Music continues faintly]

[Elevator dings]

♪♪

[Music fades]

[Sirens wailing in distance]

[Energetic pop music playing over speakers]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Laughs]

-[Gasps]

[Gasps]

♪♪

[Horns honking]

[Camera shutter clicking]

[Energetic pop music plays]

[Camera shutter clicking]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Music fades]

[Knock on door]

[Gasps]

-[Laughs]

♪♪

[Audience cheering]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Cheers and applause]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Keyboard clacking]

♪♪

♪♪

-Well, if you're paying attention,

at this point in the movie,

you're probably just as confused and paranoid as Mima is.

And you're going through this with her because Satoshi Kon

is a master of technique -- techniques like match cutting.

That's where you use an image in one scene

in the transition to the next scene.

It becomes the first image of the next scene.

And sometimes you change the meaning of that image

in the process, in the transition process.

He also uses a lot of intercutting,

which is, you know,

but -- but is he intercutting reality with fantasy

or is he intercutting real time with flashback time

or is he intercutting real time with inner projections?

So, the reason you're getting confused

is that he keeps showing us things

and then referring back to those things later in the film

in a way that makes us doubt what we already saw

or what we didn't see.

And he's constantly scrambling objective images --

you know, what's happening today, right now

in contemporary Tokyo -- with subjective images,

meaning what might be wishful thinking or regret or nostalgia.

Or he might just be intercutting to show two events

going on at the same time.

It's different in every case.

And when he uses a dream image or a fantasy image,

might be an image that's shared by more than one character.

So, look out for that.

Are you fed up yet? [Laughter]

You know, it's like a perfect Italian giallo film.

He's about to reveal the killer right now,

but you probably won't notice the reveal.

So, what a manipulative,

conniving bastard this Satoshi Kon is.

But we're still gonna let him beat us up, aren't we?

So, go ahead. Torture us some more.

Roll the film.

♪♪

Darcy, what do you do at an anime convention?

-It's the same as any fan convention.

-But you have no actors there to get autographs from.

-All the voice actors are there.

-Okay, the voice actors are there.

But the voice actors -- I'm just guessing here.

I'm guessing that the voice actors don't look anything

like the animated characters.

-We don't care. We love them anyway.

-So, if you have a 60-year-old woman

doing the voice of a 12-year-old girl, you...

-Yeah, that's still totally cool.

We still want to talk to her, tell her she's amazing,

get her autograph. -And you get her picture?

-Yeah, like, they have, like, pictures of their characters

or their headshots that you can get signed.

-And which one do you choose?

-I mean, it depends on the person, really.

-That's got to be a reality displacement

for the voice actor, you know?

-Once in a while, the actor

does actually look kind of like the anime character,

and that's when you get a real crush.

-Wait a minute. So you have a crush

on an animated character? -Yes.

-And that crush carries over to the voice of the human

that's inhabiting that character?

-Yes, I had a big crush on the voice actor who did Miroku.

-Okay, who's Miroku? -[Laughs]

He's a monk who's, like, really horny.

He's always, like, sexually harassing people

and going around grabbing women's asses.

-He's a monk who sexually harasses people?

-Yes.

-Was he doing this at the convention?

He was grabbing people's asses? -[Gasps] Oh, my God. No.

I'm sorry.

The character in the anime does that, not the actor.

-Oh, and you have a crush on that character?

-Yes.

-And then you go to the anime convention

and you seek out the guy who does Miroku's voice.

-Yes.

-And now you have a double crush.

He's also hot.

-Correct. [Laughter]

-So, did you want him to grab your ass

and sexually harass you?

-You know I did. [Laughter]

-Who knew anime could get so kinky?

-Have you ever watched it? Yeah.

[Laughter]

♪♪

-[Gasps]

[Rain pattering]

[Gasps]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

-[Giggling]

♪♪

-[Screams]

-[Giggles]

-[Grunts]

-[Laughing]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Screams]

[Sobbing]

♪♪

-[Laughing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Gasps]

[Screams]

[Gasping]

[Doorbell rings]

[Laughter]

[Low rumbling]

[Engine revving]

[Gasps]

[Gasps]

[Doorbell rings]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Doorbell rings]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Screaming]

♪♪

♪♪

[Sobbing]

[Glass shatters] [Screams]

[Sobbing continues]

♪♪

[Groaning]

-[Grunting]

♪♪

[Camera shutter clicking]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasps]

[Whimpering]

[Telephone rings]

[Gasping]

♪♪

♪♪

[Doorbell ringing]

♪♪

[Door bangs]

[Indistinct conversations]

[Breathing heavily]

[Ominous music plays]

[Gasps]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[All cheering]

[Cheers and applause]

-You know, if you ever want to go down the rabbit hole

of "Perfect Blue" criticism, you have to answer the question,

who was that singing with CHAM at that concert?

'Cause it looks like Mima.

But it's one of those Mima images that are surrounded

by a strange light, so it can't be her,

and the other two singers look very confused

to be sharing the stage with whoever that is.

Anyway, Satoshi Kon was a prolific writer of manga,

but he only left us four films.

This was the first film, in 1997,

a study of people trapped by the horror of caring

about how other people perceive them.

"Millennium Actress" was his 2001 film.

Two filmmakers sit down with an elderly actress

who's telling the story of her life.

But the way she tells the story, the plots of her films

get mixed up with real events in her life,

and the two filmmakers start appearing in her reminiscences.

So it becomes a study of what's real

and what's unreal and our memories.

And then in 2003, he made "Tokyo Godfathers,"

which is a sentimental Christmas movie

based on the biblical Three Wise Men story.

Three people find an abandoned baby in a dumpster,

but the three are a middle-aged alcoholic,

a transgender woman, and a teenage runaway.

And together, they set out to return the child to her parents.

And it's a study of what one critic called, quote,

"The thin gap between disaster and miracle."

And then in 2004, he made a much-admired TV series

called "Paranoia Agent."

And then his final film, "Paprika,"

is about a psychologist who invents a device

that allows people to experience other people's dreams.

And the doctor sometimes uses it

to enter the dreams of her patients.

And she takes on this persona called Paprika.

And then the device gets stolen by somebody with evil intentions

and they have to be hunted down.

Unfortunately, we don't have any more Satoshi Kon films

because in May of 2010,

he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,

and three months later, he was gone.

He was just 46 years old.

And on the day the doctors told him he was terminal,

he wrote a long statement about his love for his family

and his friends and his co-workers.

And at the end of the statement,

he spoke directly to two of his friends

and he wrote this --

"Could you help my wife send me over to the other side

after my death?

I'd be able to get on that flight with my mind at rest.

Now, excuse me, I have to go."

And so he was done.

Back to the conclusion of "Perfect Blue."

-That's so sad. -It's very sad.

You know, they face death head-on in Japan.

-I'm glad we could do this. -Me too.

I think it -- I think that letter gets to me

because that's how much time my dad had.

Three months from diagnosis to death.

And that's kind of --

that's kind of not enough time, you know?

-I get that.

-So, sorry to bring everybody down with that.

-Yeah.

I mean, cancer is the enemy of life.

Let's fricking defeat it already.

-Yeah, Let's make it one of our Christmas charities

this year. We haven't -- -Done. Let's do it.

-In honor of Satoshi Kon. -Agreed.

♪♪

[Cheers and applause fading]

[Footsteps echoing]

-[Gasps]

[Footsteps squeaking]

[Engine starts]

[Sobs]

[Screaming]

[Breathing heavily]

[Grunting]

[Sobbing]

[Banging, screaming]

[Screaming]

[Screaming]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Grunting]

-[Screams]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Laughing maniacally]

♪♪

-[Whimpering]

-[Gasping]

[Lights clank]

[Cheers and applause]

[Gasps]

[Telephone ringing]

[Ringing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-[Screams]

♪♪

[Screams]

[Grunting]

♪♪

-[Choking]

♪♪

-[Sobbing]

[Screams]

♪♪

[Screams]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Screaming]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Screaming]

♪♪

[Screams]

♪♪

♪♪

[Horns blaring]

[Screaming]

♪♪

[Sobbing]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Laughs]

[Glass shatters] -[Screaming]

-[Laughs]

-[Grunting]

[Panting]

-[Screams]

[Sobbing]

[Glass slices]

[Screaming]

[Sobbing]

[Vehicle approaching]

[Horn honking]

-[Screams]

♪♪

[Audience cheering]

[Tires screeching]

[Men gasping]

[Sirens wailing in distance]

[Engine starts]

♪♪

♪♪

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-You know, as I said before, that chase sequence

is considered one of the greatest in animation history.

And the big reveal is that the killer

is not Mark David Chapman after all.

It's Yolanda Saldivar, the woman who killed Selena.

That idea is discussed several times in the story,

but most directly discussed

when somebody says illusions don't kill.

And but the answer is,

"But what if that illusion found someone to possess?"

So, Rumi gets possessed by the illusion of the only Mima,

the perfect pop idol girl,

and she has a Noh mask of Mima so she can become her.

And she has a website where she can become her online.

And she has a minion, the creepster with the mullet

that she can manipulate with her version of Mima.

But the idol Mima who floats through the whole movie,

the ideal Mima with the white light around her,

that Mima is triggered by the rape scene.

At that point, Mima has gone too far,

and Rumi is in danger of losing her fantasy.

Rumi is about to fail for the second time,

'cause she failed as a pop idol herself.

And then she spent years grooming Mima,

only to lose her to an acting career.

But the ghost of Mima as a pop idol star haunts both of them.

Mima is always thinking,

"Did I do the right thing to leave that behind?"

And Rumi is always thinking, "How can I reverse the past?"

And so they are affected by the same ghost.

The movie is about the difference

between the life you imagined for yourself

and then the life you actually end up with.

Can you deal with that? We all have to deal with that.

But celebrities have to deal with it

in a direct day-to-day way.

So, "Perfect Blue" is the story of the real-life singer Selena.

And I'm not sure which "Perfect Blue" fanatic

first pointed this out, but it's an amazing parallel

'cause Selena was groomed from childhood to be a singer

'cause her father was a musician and he mentored her.

She hit the big time in 1987

when she won Female Vocalist of the Year,

and she seemed to grow in popularity

every year after that.

So, a woman named Yolanda Saldivar

started a fan club for her in San Antonio,

and she bombarded Selena's father with letters,

e-mails offering to help with promotion.

She eventually befriended Selena's family,

ultimately became very close to Selena herself.

The family trusted her so much that they put her in charge

of managing Selena's chain of boutiques.

But Yolanda,

she had pictures of Selena all over her house,

along with posters, libraries of every Selena video ever made.

She became increasingly protective of her turf

and increasingly jealous of anybody

who came into Selena's life for any reason.

So, finally, Selena confronted her

about her increasingly erratic and obsessive behavior,

and Yolanda shot her dead

because Yolanda realized she was losing touch with her idol.

She was not gonna have the same life as Selena.

Dissociative identity disorder is the name for that.

The other thing I'd like to add about this movie

is that Satoshi Kon was the first

to put on film the dangers of the Internet,

everything from identity theft

to cyber stalking to porn to voyeurism,

to the ways it could be used to intimidate people

or even murder people.

There's a brilliant horror critic named Meg Sipos,

who put it best --

"We're fragile creatures, and kind of stupid."

And that's all shown in this story,

where reality and fantasy get mixed together

and everything becomes surreal.

Okay, Darcy, you could sing in CHAM.

-Oh, you. -I am impressed.

Stand up. I want to see.

-Oh, my God. -I want to see the full --

the full, uh...

-The full Mima? -The full CHAM, the full Mima.

You are the i--

You're the -- You're the idol Mima.

The ideal idol Mima.

-I had to rep her. -Okay.

You want to say anything about "Perfect Blue"?

-No. You summed it up really well.

I just add maybe that it's as close

as you're ever going to get to a Disney giallo flick.

-A Disney giallo. That's a great description.

-Thank you. -So, what you got mailbag wise?

-Ooh. Hahaha!

I have a letter from Tim Martin of Los Angeles.

And he included a sculpture,

but I'm not gonna let you see it until you read the letter.

-A sculpture? -Correct.

-Okay. Intriguing. [Laughter]

All right. "Dear Joe Bob, Darcy,

and --and the entire"... Oh, I see.

"Dear Joe Bob, Darcy, and the entire crew,

The best thing I've seen since Freddie first sliced up

Tina floating half naked in her bedroom almost 40 years ago.

My name is Tim Martin, and for nearly 24 years,

I have been working as a professional

special makeup effects artist in Los Angeles.

I proudly grew up in the best sci-fi, fantasy, horror,

and monster movie decade ever -- Yes, the '80s.

There. I said it.

And yes, Joe, Tom Atkins fucking rules."

-Yeah!

-"But I digress." You know how many letters I get

that have a part in the middle where the person says,

"But I digress"?

-You started it, man. -All right, whatever.

-"I must shamefully admit that despite my lifelong obsession

with horror and all things alike,

I missed the bus back in the days of Monstervision,

to my great regret. I discovered 'The Last Drive-In'

by accident on Shudder during your triumphant return,

and I have been hooked ever since.

I ravenously look forward to every new season.

But here's the thing -- Watching 'The Last Drive-In'

isn't just about the movie featured itself,

the witty banter between you and Darcy"...

We are witty, Darcy. -And we have banter.

-Banter is important. -Banter.

-"...or the special guests.

Nor is it only about the abundance

of amazing movie facts and insights

that you so eloquently share, though I love it so.

For me, it truly feels like I'm watching these movies

with someone there in the room next to me,

virtually hanging out together on the front porch

or in your living room,

welcomed and invited, a like-minded gang

watching the same good and bad movies,

laughing at all the terrible effects or goofy plot points,

reminiscing the days when drive-ins were a real thing."

-Uh-oh. -Hey!

[Laughter]

Be careful, Tim.

You know, I'll have you know that Darcy and I

are the official spokespeople

for the Drive-In Owners Association of America,

who are celebrating the 90th anniversary

of the drive-in this year.

-Hell yeah, we are. Whoo! -Yeah.

-You know, "when drive-ins were a real thing."

You should come to our jamboree in Las Vegas

this October -- we will show you a real thing.

Three days of drive-in madness.

-He means well. Please don't be so picky.

It's a nice letter. -Okay.

"I gleefully absorb all the knowledge you spit out

and I laugh out loud often at the way

you so lovingly drop the f-bomb."

I do that too much. -Nah.

-"The only thing it truly lacks is the ability to chime in

and just say, 'Right!'

I find myself talking to the TV,

wanting you all to hear my thoughts.

So"... [Laughter]

I think "so" means

Tim is finally getting to the point here.

-You -- You cannot say anything. -All right. [Chuckles]

So, for all the love you guys share with me,

allow me to thank you.

I made this one-of-a-kind creature maquette

of one of your show's titular beasties."

What is a maquette?

-It's like a model for a sculpture.

-Okay. "A maquette of one of your show's titular beasties.

This is my homage to the film

that I feel you get so much undeserved grief for, Joe --

'Hogzilla.'"

-Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

-Whoo! -Hogzilla!

-Hogzilla!

-Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

"Why this, you ask?

'Cause there's no fucking hogzilla in 'Hogzilla.'"

-[Laughs] -Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

-All right, I was not telling you to do that.

That's the next line of the letter.

All right. "Where the hell is the monster?

This is what we were expecting to see,

but we get only quick flashes of nothing in the dark.

Some P.A. shaking bushes in the middle of the swamp."

-Oh, God, it's true.

-"Oh, well, no movie is perfect, except 'Aliens.'

But at least we all have each other to suffer together,

our crazy tribe enjoying what we love most,

sitting on the couch or imagining

we can be back at the drive-in. With animation and love,

Tim Martin, Los Angeles, California."

And there he is, the fierce... [Laughter]

...the fierce incarnation of the wildest pig in South Florida.

But he said it was a maquette.

So, you know,

I presume this is just the model for the full-size hogzilla.

-Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

-The full-size one that will be dedicated

when they unveil it in front of the West Palm Beach City Hall.

Right? -I think it's beautiful.

-All right. And on that note,

I'm Joe Bob Briggs, speaking for Darcy the Mail Girl,

John Brennan, the "Last Drive-In" crew and...

Hogzilla?

-Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

-When I say that... [Laughter]

-Hogzilla. -When everything...

Whenever everything's coming your way,

you're in the wrong lane, headed in the wrong direction.

And the drive-in will never die.

Oh, man.

Two blondes are walking down a hiking trail together.

-Oh, my God. Not again. -You went blonde.

You have to live with the consequences of going blonde.

Two blondes are walking down a hiking trail together.

They round a corner, and the first blonde points down

and says, "Oh, my God, bear tracks."

And the second blonde looks closely at the tracks and says,

"Those aren't bear tracks. Those are deer tracks."

And the first blonde says, "You clueless blonde.

Those are obviously bear tracks."

And the second blonde says,

"It's you that's a clueless blonde,

if you can't tell the difference between a bear track

and a deer track."

And the first blonde says bear tracks,

second one says deer tracks.

First one, bear tracks.

Second one, deer tracks.

And then the train hit 'em.

[Laughter]

-Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

-[Laughs]

-♪ We are drive-in mutants ♪

-♪ Drive-in mutants ♪

-♪ We are not like other people ♪

♪ We are sick ♪ -♪ Sick ♪

-♪ We are disgusting ♪ -♪ Disgusting ♪

-♪ We believe in, we believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ Yeah, we believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ If life had a vomit meter ♪

♪ We'd be off the scale ♪ -♪ Off the scale ♪

-♪ As long as one drive-in remains on the planet Earth ♪

♪ We will party like jungle animals ♪

♪ We will boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ Boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ The drive-in will never die ♪

♪ We will boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ Boogie till we puke ♪

-♪ The drive-in will never die ♪

-♪ We believe in ♪

♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ We believe in ♪

-♪ Blood ♪

♪ And breasts ♪

♪ And beasts ♪

-♪ Yeah, we believe in ♪