Tomie

In my neverending quest to find new horror, Asia is where the current wealth seems to lie. But Tomie is one of the few I've seen that is rather worthless. It was boring and it had no payoff whatsoever. I hate it when I've been watching a film for an hour and 20 minutes and then nothing comes together in that last 10 or 15 minutes. It just didn't make any attempt to make sense in the very end. That's what kills me. The idea itself and the beginning of the film were very intriguing. It just completely falls apart in that final reel and I can't forgive it for that. The main thing I will remember about this flick is the incredibly eerie score. I really can't believe there are five of these films already. I guess Tomie really will not die.

A slow-burning supernatural drama that's nothing like RING or THE GRUDGE for once. Instead, TOMIE is a comic-book adaptation about an otherwise ordinary schoolgirl who has one special talent: she always, without fail, comes back from the dead.

TOMIE is a weird movie. It's slow-moving and subtle for the most part, and the sometimes disjointed storyline never really visits many places. Horrifying it isn't. On the other hand, it's undoubtedly an atmospheric film full of off-kilter scenes and eerie moments (most of these involving a guy who finds himself 'growing' a new friend).

It's difficult to fault the efforts of cast and crew, and the highlight is the wonderfully weird piece of music that accompanies the titles in which a distorted, computerised voice proclaims an obsessive friendship. Many sequels, of varying quality, followed.

Hmm. I mean, aesthetically, it's pretty great. It looks good for something that's going for a grounded and low-key sort of visual thing. It's not quite digital horror, but it scratches the same sort of itch that other Japanese horror films from around this time definable as such do.

I also watched it right after a movie where the music was the worst part (The Place Promised in Our Early Days), so it's nice that the best part of Tomie was the music. I'd almost be surprised if the main theme didn't inspire the title track from Radiohead's Kid A; that song sounds so similar, and came out after this movie.

Unfortunately, it's also a mess narratively. I wasn't a huge fan of Junji Ito's Spiral when I read it last year, and Tomie gives me the impression his stuff is inferior still in the format of a film.

I really enjoy this film. I've watched it twice - trying desperately to figure out what the hell happened at the end, but to no avail. Strangely though, I still find myself in love with it. I think it had has a great deal to do with Miho Kanno's performance. And also the mood. And that's what it is: a mood movie. I can excuse the plot. I think I'd rather be confused by a plot than have a badly filmed, acted and directed movie. It's kind of artsy to me. If you're looking for a horror movie that makes perfect sense, and will make you say, 'wow, that's clever!' go home. But if you're in a strange mood, and it needs feedin', go for it!

I wonder about the Japanese sometimes. What motivates them to make a movie? In the case of this one, it appears they just wanted to have Tomie look like Sadako, the nice ghost from Ring. I really can't see any other reason for this movie to exist. It's just that good.

It starts with Tsukiko undergoing hypnotherapy to help recover her memories prior to a traumatic accident. What she has conveniently forgotten is that this accident was actually her witnessing the murder of a classmate named Tomie at the hands of her then-boyfriend. Turns out this isn't the first time this has happened to Tomie. In fact, she (or parts of her) has just moved in to the apartment below Tsukiko, gearing up for a little bit of payback.

Sound interesting? It isn't. It's a good idea: a perpetual murder victim who always comes back to settle the score. But this movie is so poorly directed and written that the story gets overcome by boredom. The filmmakers have even gone so far as to almost make the movie confusing beyond comprehension by inserting an ending that raises more questions than it answers (that and poor subtitling confused the hell out of me). Really not worth the time to watch, plus however long it takes you to figure out what's going on. Avoidable.