Tomie: Anrimiteddo

The "Tomie" franchise is probably the most disappointing series of horror films I've ever seen. Despite an interesting premise (involving a demon girl who cannot die and causes violent obsessions from her acquaintances), every single installment (up to this point) has been painfully boring and sleep-inducing. When I heard that they were making a new one, I had zero interest. Then I heard that Noboru Iguchi ("The Machine Girl') was directing it, so I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did.

Here's a plot summary from Asianmediawiki: "Tsukiko (Moe Arai) is a member of the photography club in high school. On her way home with friend Kae (Aika Ota), Tsukiko runs into older sister Tomie (Miu Nakamura) who goes to the same high school. Tomie is also with Toshio (Kensuke Owada) - a guy Tsukiko has a secret crush on. Tsukiko is consumed with fierce jealousy over her sister, but at the same time is intoxicated with Tomie's beauty. Tsukiko keeps pressing the trigger on her camera. At that time Tomie tells her sister that she knows what she is feeling. When Tsukiko stops taking pictures, Tomie is crushed by a steel frame that falls from a building under construction. One year later, Tsukiko still suffers nightmares over her sister's death. Slowly, her daily life returns to some sense of normalcy. On Tomie's 18th birthday, her parents and Tsukiko stand around a birthday cake in her honor. At that time someone knocks on their door. Tomie stands in the doorway with rich black hair and her beauty shining even more brightly. Her parents are delighted to see Tomie and welcomes her back with tears pouring out. Meanwhile, Tsukiko stands there unable to believe what is transpiring. Tsukiko's nightmare now turns into reality and her terror is only set to begin."

There is no question that Iguchi infused more entertainment value in this one film than all of its predecessors combined. It starts off with a bloody death scene and becomes more outrageous and blackly comical with each passing minute. There's more creativity than one might expect in terms of the horror elements, and the actresses are good. It fails to rise above simple popcorn horror, but it is fun to watch for its WTF moments.

I hope Iguchi directs another "Tomie" film, because he's the only director who has displayed enough energy to make it entertaining.

1. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

2. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

3. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

It's 9 films from this franchise, I am watching them all, so far I've watched 4, this is by far the best Tomie adaptation, besides from "Tomie the beginning", this one shows us the latest Tomie, she's selfish, manipulative, demanding, materialistic, arrogant, prideful. Hysterical to watch, there's some very interesting FX moments, if you have read the manga you won't find it silly or over the top, it is like that in the drawing, so , this is the best that one can do to try and show that.

The director did a great job and I can't praise the actress Miu Nakamura, if you are used to watch live action movies from manga or anime, you know she did a very good job being Tomie.

Easily one of the best Tomie films. Not high praise because so many of those films are quite terrible. This one rises above the rest with better acting and better pacing than the rest!

But the special effects are god awful.

Don't expect too much. Just have fun with it!

Rarely do I take the time and effort to write something about a movie I've watched, but after suffering through this entire movie I felt compelled to warn anyone who might consider watching it. If I can prevent one person from wasting their time on this wretched movie, this review was worth my time.

We'll start with the acting. It was awful. Only the "heroine" of the movie, Tsukiko (Moe Arai), looked as if she might belong in a professionally made movie. Her performance wasn't good by any stretch, but it wasn't laughably bad like EVERY SINGLE other main actor. The villain, Tomie (Miu Nakamura), was annoying from the very beginning of the movie. And she only got worse as the movie crept along. The parents' performances were ridiculous, but not overly annoying like Tomie.

The story made no sense. Every time I thought I might be starting to understand where the movie was trying to go, it abruptly changed scenes and completely ruined any progress it may have been making.

The special effects were TERRIBLE. I've seen better special effects in '80s B-movies. Not much to say here other than the movie looked cheaply made.

I'm no expert on Japanese horror movies, but I've seen a fair share and I've liked a lot of them too, but this one had absolutely no redeeming qualities to speak of. It wasn't even "so bad it was humorous." At no point in the movie did I crack a smile or think "you know, maybe this ISN'T the biggest waste of my time I could have possibly spent." Maybe there's just some cultural thing I'm not getting. It's possible there's an audience for a movie like this, but you'd REALLY have to be into bad horror movies with bad plots that make no sense, bad acting, and bad special effects to appreciate this movie.

In summary, I can't remember a movie I've ever enjoyed less.