Tomie: Re-birth

This is a very creepy horror film/psychological drama starring Miki Sakai as Tomie. In this one Hideo, an aspiring artist, kills his girlfriend/model for the painting girlfriend Tomie. With his friend's help, they bury her in the woods. However, Tomie shows up at a party. Her aim is not only revenge but to haunt the lives of the guys who did this to her. This film is okay, on a par with "Another Face". Not having read the source material of these films, as film value alone it is passable. While the revenge aspect is not only deserved to these guys but necessary to the continuity of the film, the part of her coming back more than once after she has been "re-killed" gets a little tired. So, not bad but not near the best of the series.

The above reviewer obviously doesn't know the history of Tomie, and why any man who loves her winds up killing her. As in the other Tomie installments, Tomie is forever doomed to being murdered, only to return from the grave. This time, she's done in four times. This is the best of the Tomies by far, and the only one that the girl who plays Tomie is more beautiful than the heroine. Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on) did a fantastic job directing this movie, and blending a unique balance of comedy, horror and surrealism into this chapter. Tomie's character is the most 'human' in this one, as opposed to the other movies that attempt to make her out to be more of the true monster she is. As for gore, this one most definitely has more gore than the other Tomie's, but by comparison isn't a lot since the story of Tomie really doesn't rely much on gore to begin with. 7/10

This is the story of Tomie, a young japanese woman, who gets stabbed to death by her boy-friend in the beginning of the film. Don't ask why, because the two really seem to be in love. While he's painting a picture of her, she slightly whispers that she loves him. And suddenly he seems to lose control. When two of his friends appear, they find him holding her dead body in his arms. The three decide to keep this homicide as a secret and bury her somewhere in the woods. But a few days later she's back and looking for revenge. Strange things begin to happen.

Not the right choice if you're looking for a gory splatterflick. Almost no blood at all. But if you're a friend of films like "The Ring", "Uzumaki" or "Parasite Eve" this one could be the right choice. Can be compared with the first two but is not as brilliant as "Parasite Eve", although the end looked pretty similar.

So while the gorehounds among you might call this boring, i would say it was slow but entertaining and rate it 6/10.

Having watched the first three films (Tomie, Tomie: Replay, and this, Tomie: Re-birth), I can say this is far and away the most accessible and interesting of the group.

For sure, this movie is, like the others, almost glacially paced, but those with the attention spans for it will be rewarded.

It's hard to describe the plot, but it essentially revolves around the effect that the title character - Tomie, the girl who can't die - has on the people around her. Tomie "enchants" men in so much as they become powerless, madly in love with her, to the point where they kill her, and she is reborn.

But the character is so much more complex than that, and this iteration of the series makes her the most accessible and expands her well beyond what the previous films had.

For sure, this is horror, but it's more psychological than anything. There are gruesome scenes, but the whole film is effective because the characters are rich and deep and interesting. While the first two films focused almost entirely on the effects Tomie had on the men she encountered, this one expands beyond that, touching on family and friends, and even deigns to show us what happens when a man resists her charms.

It isn't enough that it's a solid horror film, but the quality of writing on display is outstanding and puts it on par with other classics like Ring and Kairo. This is a matured Tomie film - not dull like the first or overtly Americanized like the second - but raw and intelligent.

Absolute must see.

This installment of the "Tomie" series is, well in lack of better words, unnecessary. Why? Well, the story offered nothing new to the series that hadn't already been seen in "Tomie" or "Tomie: Replay". In fact, if you have seen the first "Tomie" movie, you can just as well skip this installment, as it is basically the exact same story, just with different characters and set in a different place.

The "Tomie" series was starting to rise up with "Tomie: Replay", and then this one, "Tomie: Re-Birth", comes along and pushes it right back down the ladder.

There was nothing scary about this movie, just like the previous ones. And the storyline, well basically it is about the undying Tomie girl who comes to torment those who love and kill her. Same old, same old.

The people in the movie did good enough jobs with their given roles, though there was nothing outstanding here.

The only outstanding part of the entire movie, was the crawling head with the weird arm-like appendages. And that was hardly enough to make up for the rest of the movie.

"Tomie: Re-Birth" was plain and rather uneventful at best, and it wasn't really a movie that was necessary in any way to the "Tomie" storyline. After having seen this installment to the series, I am starting to dread how the last ones in the series will turn out to be...