Tomie: Another Face

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.

Originally conceived of as a trio of short films for television before being compiled together for its eventual DVD release, "Tomie: Another Face" is an odd chapter in the saga of that lovable and seemingly unkillable demon girl. Released in between the first two installments of the cinematic franchise, it's debatable whether or not "Another Face" even exists within the same continuity and canon as its bigger- budget brethren. With a distinct lack of funding, cheap video cinematography and some truly baffling moments peppered in... it's sort-of the black sheep of creator Junji Ito's "Tomie" media franchise. An awkward foot-note that might be worth checking out for the biggest of fans of the series, but ultimately will be far too odd and unappealing for pretty much anyone else.

"Another Face" is comprised of three short stories, dealing with the vile Tomie as she destroys the lives of the men around her in different times and settings. The first story involves a high school romance gone drastically sour, the second revolves around a photographer who finds new passion with Tomie as his muse and the third tale regards Tomie sending her boyfriend to kill a mysterious man who is seemingly stalking her. This very same man acts as the bridge between the three stories with brief appearances in all three, and he holds the key to the backstory of the nefarious and devilish force that goes by the name "Tomie Kawakami."

I suppose I should make it clear that while not really a fan of the series, I do have a certain begrudging respect for it. It's a franchise with a fiercely loyal and sizable fan-base the world over. And as a fan of horror, it's one series I've made an attempt to track down and view with an open mind, having thus far sat through most of the entries save for the final few. After all... there's gotta be something to it with nine films released so far over the past twenty years. And yet, even after seeing most of them, I don't quite get the appeal. Sure, some entries are better than others... I actually quite liked "Tomie: Replay", after all. But I just don't think the series has objectively risen above the level of mediocrity. And "Another Face" is definitely one of the weakest installments yet.

To be fair, there is a certain kitschy appeal to the structure of the final release. By giving the viewer three stories that are connected by a few recurring characters, it breaks up the monotony that plagued some of the lesser films of the series, and it keeps the pacing brisk and flowing. The performances are nothing special, but the actors typically get the job done, and there's a few cool moments here and there that will put a big-ole smile on the face of series fans.

But it's to the service of such cheap filmmaking and lazy storytelling, I just couldn't get into this one at all. Maybe it's unfair, but "Another Face" really suffers for its low budget and it creates a certain aesthetic distance between the story and the viewer. And that's coming from someone who has seen and indeed enjoyed his fair share of cheap "shot on video" releases. Heck, I adored "1-Ichi" and that looked like it was filmed on a $200 handy-cam! Here, it feels like director Toshirō Inomata just threw up his hands and opted not to even try to make the most of his limited resources. The cinematography and editing is incredibly amateurish, looking more akin to a first-year film student's work than an adaptation of a major property. And the overall structure and pacing is messy and lacks coherent flow.

To top it off, the film also makes some baffling and frankly unintentionally amusing choices in how it presents key scenes, completely betraying any potential impact they might have had. It has all the subtlety of a brick to the face and trades in quiet moments for loud jumps and poorly-framed beats of action too often. I'm not ashamed to admit I had at least two laugh-out-loud moments in each of the three stories. And none of those times were the laughs intentional. There's no way you can see a man in a comical film-noir trench-coat with an eyepatch and a ridiculously giant knife standing all of three feet away from someone he's "spying" on and not break out laughing. It's like they somehow created a self-parody by accident.

"Tomie: Another Face" is most certainly the weakest of the early entries in the series. A mish-mash of three half-baked short stories that lack any bite and cause more unintentional giggles than intentional gasps... all while being assembled half-heartedly in a dirt-cheap production to boot! It barely musters up a dreadful 3 out of 10 for me. It's one that even fans of the series could probably skip...

1. Originally conceived as a TV series consisting of three V-cinema episodes, later spliced into a feature film. So technically the second installment of the Tomie film series.

Three stories with interesting yet flawed direction and writing. I enjoyed the general vibe, kawaii girls and nostalgic music.

2. Originally conceived as a TV series consisting of three V-cinema episodes, later spliced into a feature film. So technically the second installment of the Tomie film series.

Three stories with interesting yet flawed direction and writing. I enjoyed the general vibe, kawaii girls and nostalgic music.

3. Originally conceived as a TV series consisting of three V-cinema episodes, later spliced into a feature film. So technically the second installment of the Tomie film series.

Three stories with interesting yet flawed direction and writing. I enjoyed the general vibe, kawaii girls and nostalgic music.

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.

A shot-on-video anthology released just months after the original film, TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE screams cash-in. It turns out to be an absolutely pitiful film that never overcomes the constraints of a non-existent budget, offering poor writing, direction and acting that neither grabs nor interests.

Of the three stories collected here, the first seems to pass by quickly without beginning or end; the second has a little more style but is mostly without merit; the last is the most explicit in terms of (poor) special effects but never feels like more than Z-grade nonsense. It's difficult to fault Runa Nagai as Tomie and it's better than REIGN IN DARKNESS, but those are the only "good" things I have to say about it.