Yume nara samete...

Japanese supernatural 'chiller' is completely pointless.

I didn't realise on watching this that it's based on a Manga anime movie of the same name. Some of the shots are incredibly manga-esquire though, and the quite ethereal quirky nature of it should have been a giveaway.

Horibe is a reasonably young man who lives alone in an apartment, and has a fairly mediocre job part time in a convenience store. He's got a private obsession though, with a model who's barely done much work besides a single poster which is lovingly placed on the wall of the store.

The model, Asaka, moves into the neighbourhood (Obviously) and goes to the store to dispatch a parcel. There she meets Horibe who can't quite believe his luck that his idol is standing in front of the checkout (Yup, this really doesn't stretch credibility does it).

Asaka is also endeavouring to become a star and her manager is obsessively working away to achieve that dream, and decides she should be a singer, with a song she happens to have.

All the while Horibe's obsession is growing deeper and is affecting more than just his mind.

This movie is beyond strange. It reminds me of Uzumaki, which was genuinely weird but never pretended otherwise. The difference here is Perfect Blue (What the *hell* does that title mean) seems to try to be mundane, yet resides in a surreal fantasy world where nothing much seems to make much sense.

There are so many little nuances here which make the story just more and more obscure, and by the end of it you're wondering what on earth the point was.

This most likely worked tremendously in anime, but it should never have been remade into a live action picture.

A complete waste of time.