Tomie: anaza feisu

Runa Nagai plays Tomie, the girl who will not die, in this three story anthology that ramps up the creepy factor of the original but does not have significant horror film juice to it. In the first, Tomie is killed and comes back when her boyfriend, whom she wanted to break up with anyway, wants to move on. The second is about a photographer who comes back to a place ten years later to find the ideal girl to photograph like the one he took pictures of then (guess who?). The third has other men after her who will do anything she says. If you are a fan, you'll like it, as Tomie came from a manga. Otherwise, its only passable. Runa Nagai is fine, she is a combination of pretty and forbidding, but it could have been better.

TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE (1999) 7/10 72 minutes Director - Toshiro Inomata Cast – Runa Nagai, Akira Hirai

Tomie: Another Face is the V-cinema version of the long running Tomie series based on Junji Ito's magna. This would be the director Inomata's only work behind the camera. This low budget J-horror attempt beats the previous and later forays into the character. This is similar to the Ju-On series where the J-cinema adds to the overall creepiness. It is an anthology that has three stories linked together by a man who is hunting down Tomie after having a ghostly encounter in a morgue (the third story). J-horror was still in its infancy when this came out and they were still experimenting with the imagery. Nagai captures the Lolita aspect the character very well and the movie can be seen as a warning with getting involved with young girls. In the second segment where the photographer meets up with Tomie, kills her and then comes back to life, in the scene in the car where her hand reaches from the back seat is very effective. Takashi Shimizu would use this again in Ju-On the Grudge 2 (2003) and the concept of multiplying Tomies (substituting Kayakos) in Ju-On the Curse 2 (2000). Incidentally Shimizu would take over the reins in the next installment Tomie Rebirth (the best of the cinema versions).

Don"t get me wrong, Tomie: Another Face is a bad movie, but I expected so much worse.

To get things out of the way, yeah, this sure feels like a low-budget TV movie: the acting is wooden, the soundtrack sounds like it was taken from a children's educational video game, the special effects are bad, etc...

I like the anthology format. It's done clumsily here (due to being stitched-together TV episodes) but I still like it, it makes it feel somewhat closer to the original manga. The TV format also helps a lot with the pacing. The first Tomie was an extremely slow mess, so being limited to 25 minutes means each story at least gets to the point

Talking about the stories, they're... fine. They're all cliche retellings of concepts from the manga, said concepts doing all the heavy lifting. None are too memorable, but hey, they could be worse so I'm not complaining.

My mian gripe with the movie is the directing. It lacks any real direction (like any cheap TV movies) except for one part: Runa Nagai. I do think she isn't that bad of an actress, BUT for most of the movie she was directed to do a high-pitched "cutesy" voice which got annoying after 5 minutes

Overall, not a good film, but at least it's watchable and goes by quick, which is more than I can say for other Tomie movies.

This movie is more in sync with the Tomie horror vein. I especially liked the 2nd story (those prints are way cool!). How mysterious is the bartender? What's his deal since he doesn't say much and yet conveys a lot! The 3rd story closes the film nicely. I must admit that although this was shot on video, the cinematography is well done for the medium. The use of colors are vivid and shades of red and green at night are very effective. Runa Nagai does well as Tomie looking extremely photogenic one moment and then totally manic the next. Can you blame the poor sap in the last story?

Tomie: Another Face is not exactly scary, but worth a watch.

OK, the shot on video look actually works. Runa Nagai is perfectly cast as a 12 year old looking lolita demon The only other girl who could play this part would be Yuko Ogura. Tomei, the girl who just won't die, is an excellent X Files type story, even if it's not a particularly good horror story.

You know, there's something a little odd about certain Japanese stories. I'm not quite sure what it is. Perhaps something in their cultural past or the fact they recently came out of a feudal society. I seem to recall they have this thing where they tie up nude girls and the placement of the ropes and the knots used are precise to the point of being an art form. What's up with that? Go figure. I can only imagine how they view us westerners.

Anyway, if you're looking for something a little different, you don't mind the lolita aspect of the character, and you can get beyond the fact that apparently Japanese doesn't translate well into English so reading the sub-titles may actually be more entertaining than the movie, then Tomie might just be worth watching. Hey, I'll admit it. I enjoyed it.