Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes they come back
Review: A young man is jostled in the street. He steps aside to check on his package. Through a hole in the bag, something peers back at him...
Photography student Tsukiko suffers from amnesia and insomnia, but when she does sleep, she dreams of herself covered in blood...
A detective is investigating the murder of a high school girl named Tomie, and its connection with similar murders in other locations, dating back over 100 years - all of a girl with the exact same name...
TOMIE is an effective Japanese thriller based on the manga by Junji Ito. While there aren't really any big scares, it does build up some nice tension through skillful camerawork and deliberate pacing. I don't think it'll keep me up at night like other Asian horror films of the past few years did, but it's an intriguing story that leaves room for mystery and imagination.
The DVD is presented in Japanese with optional white English subtitles, anamorphic widescreen, and Dolby digital 5.1 stereo, though I didn't notice any sound separation as I was watching. The image quality is a bit washed-out looking, but it's good enough. There are trailers for the five TOMIE films as well as a making-of featurette.
The film is unrated. It is a bit bloody but not particularly graphic, and would be fine for teens and up.
Rating:
Summary: The best of Junji Ito's Manga based films.
Review: Despite most of the negative or mediocre reviews of this film I have come across, I must say I enjoyed this film. Based off of Junji Ito's long running Manga series of the same title, Tomie is my personal favorite out of his adapted to film catalogue (the other titles that I have seen consist of the Tomie sequels and the first theatrical Uzumaki film).
Tomie has a feel that is not reminiscant of other Japanese horror titles such as the Ring or Ju-on. Yes, on the surface similarities exist, but the over-all feel is more creative and artistic, thus seeming more like a quirky art film and less like a typical Japanese horror film. This comes through particularly well in the music, written perfectly by Hiroshi Futami, using guitar and vocoder tracks, the cast choices, including Mami Nakumara of Tokyo Trash Baby and Tomorowo Tamaguchi of Tetsuo:the Iron Man, and the choice of director/screenwriter Ataru Oikawa (who has worked with Kiyoshi Kurosawa on select screenplays and previously directed the Boy Made in Japan).
This film was shot on grainy digital video which creates a more realistic and off-beat feel, versus the over-stylized cinematography of the next two Tomie installments(It should be noted that Tomie-replay was released with Uzumaki on a double bill in Japan, and both are superior to Tomie in production values).
If you like the recent wave of Japanese horror films to be imported to the U.S., but want a film with less detective work and more visual substance I highly reccomend Tomie(I would like to note that Tomie-Replay and Uzumaki are both great films worth adding to any Japanese/Horror collection).
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but.........
Review: I found this film to leave a lot of things open. So, anyone who can break it down for me. Please do......
Rating: 
Summary: Uh what happened here?
Review: I have been a fan of Junji Ito's work since Uzumaki. Chances are if it has his name on it, I've read it,seen it, or both. The man and his work are inspiring for manga/horror. Tomie(the movie) is slow paced at best, the acting is sub-par, and just...what was going on here? So many plot holes you could drive a convoy of semi's through. Also if you got the ending of this film consider yourself lucky. By the end I thought it was a David Lynch film. On the upside the subtitles were excellent, but understanding what they said only confused me more. Good luck.
Rating: 
Summary: From the director of Ju-on - The Grudge!
Review: I have read Junji Ito's macabre Tomie manga series, and found the majority of them to be a creepy fun read. When I came across the first Tomie film, I was very excited to see Ito's twisted tales translated to the screen. While keeping with some of the manga's storyline, the movie seemed to be more immersed in a sombre mood and had some great Argento-esque lighting which added to it's spooky ambience. The problem was that many rushed into this film expecting it to be along the lines of Ringu and felt the pacing of this film was to slow. Tomie: Replay came next, and with it a suprising change of pace. It adheres more to the manga storylines and has a much faster pace as well as being more gruesome while maintaining its scares and chills. A much more enjoyable film than it's predecessor. And now for Tomie: Rebirth...Although I have yet to see this one, I am extremely excited for this to be released. This is largely due to it being directed by Takashi Shimizu, best known for directing the Ju-on series ( 2 Japanese TV movies, 2 Japanese theatrical movies and an American remake which he is also directing ). Ju-on , like Ringu / The Ring, deals with a curse and how it affects everyone who comes into contact with it. To say anymore would be giving to much away of what I feel is one of the scariest movies to come along in a LONG time. The first of the two TV movies is what got me hooked. Although sharing many similarities to Ringu / The Ring, it's scares ( which are many ) are more malevolent and stuck with me long after watching these movies ( there are some sounds that I will never hear the same way again ). Tomie: Rebirth was made during the time between the Ju-on TV movies and the theatrical releases, and if they are anything like what Shimizu directed before and after, then Rebirth should be a thrilling and scary ride not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: An utter disappointment
Review: I tried, I really, really tried to watch this one. I can get along with the choppy pacing that I often find plaguing Japanese films (I still managed to love the Katakuris), but this one just didn't work for me. I know I was helped by a drink beforehand, but this movie and it's glacial pace just put me to sleep.
Here's what I don't get. While the original manga doesn't start with a movie-length story, it does begin with quite a punch -- and yet the movie starts up with some silly segment where the big shock at the end looks like something that would have been silly ten years ago. The potential was there, Junji Ito's initial first story could have been nicely expanded to include those human, emotional moment that make the horrific much more so.
Instead we get lots of people talking about Tomie as she spends too long regenerating a body from her severed head and then... oh, I have no idea what happened in the end, I was asleep and haven't been able to motivate myself to put the disc back in the DVD player. Instead of seeing this movie, try to find yourself a copy of the original manga instead.
Rating:
Summary: Great Tomie; Bad Movie
Review: The fourth film attempt in the "Tomie saga" borrows a bit from the "Painter" and slightly from the "Hair" chapters. While the direction was good, the cinematography above average, and the chills effective, the film ultimate suffers from a cast of really.. well.. BLAND characters. Don't get me wrong, the movie had arguably THE BEST Tomie out of them all in Miki Sakai, and the supporting actors did the best they could with the limited material available, but a lack of captivating characters and working plot pulls the movie away from its full potential. Hideo was probably the second most intriguing person after Tomie, and he was gone within the first 10 minutes. I think everything would've been much more better had the script decided to follow more into Hideo and Tomie's "relationship" and not his dull friends (basically, a straight adaptation of the manga chapter).
And then there's the "trademark" slowness that seems to be in every single Tomie film. I don't know about you, but I really dislike how the characters seem to slow down to an almost zombie-like state once they become involved in the main plot -- it happened to Tsukiko in the original, it happened to Yumi and Fumihito in "Replay", and now it's happened to Hitomi and Takumi in "Rebirth". And with the lack of an actual plot, this trait becomes much more irritating. Only Tomie herself should be allowed to move in zombie-like fashion since she's essentially just that, but for everyone else -- it's a drag.
Still, I digress; the movie has plenty of good to it, mainly the casting of Miki Sakai as the beautiful bakemono we've all come to love. Right away, she had the traditional look that had been missing since the original film (it seriously sucks that they didn't get Miki back for "Forbidden Fruit", by the way), and her portrayal of the character was much more lively and spunky than seen before. My only gripe is that Miki's Tomie is slightly older than the ones from the previous movies and source manga (where she was 16-17 year old there?), but it's a non-issue when you consider the rest of the characters seem to be in their 20's as well. Had to bump Tomie up a few years, I suppose. The gore and psychological scares have also been amped slightly, although I also find "Replay" to be the scarier film. All in all, "Rebirth" is certainly worth a couple of viewing if only for Miki's performance, but not much more other than that.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not really sure what this is???
Review: This looks like the comic "Tomie" (pronounced "TOE-May") by the horror manga master Junji Ito but I'm not sure!!!
Rating:
Summary: Why not remake THIS? It can only be an improvement.
Review: This movie must be great, since they made so many sequels, right? All, I can make of that is that they saw it, and just had to save the bizarre and fascinating manga from the fate it suffers here, so they had to do it again.
There was so much potential here. A story of a beautiful and terrifying girl who is repeatedly murdered by men who "love" her, and she always comes back. A detective in the movie has been investigating her murder when he realizes that for many years, there have been murders reported with a victim named Tomie Kawakami, but none of the bodies have ever been found. (It says on the back of the DVD that the murders date back to when Japan first became industrialized, and while I'm sure that's probably a pretty significant plot point, I don't remember them mentioning it anywhere in the actual movie.) When the detective realizes what is happening, instead of finding the murderer, he instead becomes obsessed with finding Tomie Kawakami. He knows she must really be a smokin' hot babe to drive all those men insane with passion to the point of killing her so many times. This subplot is centered around the main character, who's boyfriend ditched her in high school for, you guessed it, a recent incarnation of Tomie. Then he cut her head off. Of course, she has this memory blacked out, like it's supposed to be some sort of a mystery we're trying to solve, but come on! We already know that Tomie has been murdered a bunch of times. So what else could it be?
I find the character of Tomie interesting, because she is like the hot babe in the slasher flick who gets iced in a way that many feminist theorists have interpreted as misogynist. The girl serves a purpose of looking good (sometimes getting naked) and then dying a violent death for our entertainment. We don't know anything more about her beyond our voyueristic viewing pleasure. But Tomie is the beautiful slasher victim come back to life to terrorize her killer, not by actually DOING anything, but merely by living, and unnerving him with her unshakeable presence.
There is a lot here to explore. There are so many unanswered questions about Tomie for us to ponder. For example, we know that Tomie is immortal, but why does she end up killed so many times? She seems to have an energy that causes men to fall in love with her, and go mad. But why does she use it? Does it amuse her to go back and stand in front of the person who saw her die by his hand? What is also interesting is the brutal way in which she is killed. You usually don't see her shot, poisoned, or hit on the head. The one who decides to kill her usually chops her up into pieces. So why do ordinary men all decide to do this? Does she want them to? We see her regenerate from a single chopped up body part. Does she want to be dismembered so that she can replicate herself? Or does she love to freak people out by appearing as a talking severed head? Tomie stays young forever, but does she need to be killed in order to keep from aging?
The manga explored many of these themes, but in a way vague enough to not give us any true answers. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't explore any of them, and plods along with some dull character development and minimal gore. Now, if you're reading this, and saying to yourself, "This chick doesn't understand Japanese horror subtlety, and just wants to see a bloody slasher flick," you're wrong. I love the subtlety of Japanese horror, and between gore and plot, I will always opt for the latter. But this doesn't have either one.
There is one interesting thing it does have, however. The main character is very beautiful, and I don't mean that in a geeky, "watch this cuz it's got hot chicks!" kinda way. But it gives more insight into what Tomie actually does. The main character had a boyfriend in high school who fell in love with Tomie, and I found it quite interesting how much more striking she looked in contrast to Tomie. In the behind the scenes footage, the actress playing Tomie was much prettier than she was in the film, which made it seem that making Tomie less attractive than her romantic rival was a conscious choice. It seems that Tomie has the power to manipulate people, specifically males, into falling in love with her, and believing her to be the most beautiful woman in the world, when in fact, she's not.
Of all the Japanese horror out there, why did this one come out in the US before Uzumaki? This is one film you'll never hear anyone begging Hollywood not to remake.
Rating:
Summary: Tomie won't die. She goes on and on, just like her movie.
Review: Tomie one super hot love-love cutie. Tomie steal boyfriends from other girls. Other girls not like this. They write "Demon Girl" on Tomie's pictures. Boys see pictures, they go crazy and chop Tomie's head off. Bye bye, Tomie.But Tomie CANNOT DIE. Tomie come back, kill everyone you know, and make you eat a bug. So THERE, girls who write nasty things on Tomie's pictures! And there is a twist ending! Very surprising! Also completely impossible to understand! Ah, so frightening! More to the point, this odd, sadistic film drags on endlessly before finally reaching an inane and bloody conclusion that makes no sense whatsoever. I only recommend it to rabid fans of gore movies that make you feel icky and sleepy at the same time.
|
