Asaka Ai (Maeda Ayaka) is a budding starlette waiting for her big break to make it into the limelight. Under the dedicated tutelage of her manager Bando (Toda Masahiro) she shuffles from one photo shoot to the next, most often resulting in her image being used on various advertising posters. With the help of a catchy tune, Ai and Bando anticipate she will finally break out of merely poster appearances and into television commercials and from there, real stardom. The song is entitled If this is a dream wake me (Yume Nara Samete) and was written by Ai’s friend Hiromi just prior to Hiromi jumping headlong off a tall building.
NOTE: You will become intimately familiar with this song as it is sung by Ai a mere EIGHT complete times. This, of course, also had me looking for a tall building to jump off of. (This overly indulgent cinematic homage to a song which barely deserves a single listening — let alone EIGHT — rivals even the tune lust of Tokyo Drifter!)
Just when everything seems to be going her way, Ai encounters Horibe (Omori Nao – Ichi!!), a convenience store clerk who seems to know everything about her. And I do mean everything. As his complete knowledge of even the most mundane aspects of her life comes spilling out, she becomes seriously freaked out and wonders aloud if he is a stalker. This he immediately denies and informs her that he is simply living her. He confesses that after seeing Ai as a pitifully abandoned child many years ago (long story), he had decided he would live just like her in every respect. He would in a sense become her and thereby “care” for her.
Not only does this confession cause him to lose his friendship with Ai, it also causes him to lose other things as well… important things. VERY important things. Things that should never be lost under any circumstance. Nope. Never. Ever.
Things get increasingly stranger and soon it becomes apparent that this world is simply not big enough for both Ai and Horibe… one of them will have to exit stage left.
- Will Horibe’s diabolical intentions come to fruition?
- Will Ai get to wow us with yet another demonstration of her squeaky voice?
- And who is that strange woman lurking in the bushes?
What follows is a truly bizarre storyline which defies both logic and expectation. In other words you’ll likely be scratching your head saying “what the??” and wishing you had watched the anime version instead.