Tomie: Replay

Rating:
Summary: "Replay"? Oh yes, definitely...
Review: Finally saw ADNESS's release of Tomie: Replay, and I'm happy to say that this is definitely the best Tomie movie I've seen so far. Having already seen three other [bad] Tomie movies before this ("Tomie"; "Forbidden Fruit"; "Another Face"), I went in with low expectations, and got out a very satisfied fan. The movie is very heavily influenced by Ringu, and the plot itself borrows some elements from the "Medical" chapters of the manga, although it should by no means be considered an adaptation of said chapters. Cast-wise, I was plesantly surprised to find Yousuke Kubozuka from the GTO drama as part of the main cast, and he plays his character with a calm, cool, collected approach. Sayaka Yamaguchi made for a cute lead, and I couldn't help but sympathize with her. The other supporting actors did their parts well, with Shun Sugata being the best of them. As for Tomie herself... well, unfortunately, every movie has problems and she's where this one lie. Mai Houshou, while a total babe, just isn't Tomie. Her acting was good and she's no doubt very attractive, but, in my opinion, she just didn't have the right type of beauty for the role. Her hair was all wrong and she lacked the trademark big, round, almond-shaped eyes. I suppose she's still miles above Ando Nozomi from "Forbidden Fruit", but I think the movie would've probably been even better than it is had the directors casted either Miho Kanno or Miki Sakai instead (both actresses, of course, appeared in the original "Tomie" and the sequel to this one, "Tomie: Rebirth" respectively).

I'm also not entirely sure what my stance is on Tomie actually transforming into a monster. In the past (both film-wise and manga-wise), Tomie's appearance has always been portrayed as a very human school girl with an enchanting beauty -- any deformity (post-mortem resurrections aside) that would occur were shown to be purely in the point of view of her victims; ie, Tsukiko's photos, Mr. Mori/Hideo's paintings, etc. The ugly monster marks that would occasionally pop up on her face in this movie were quite new and a somewhat different take to the character -- whether the addition is good or bad is fairly debatable.

Rating:
Summary: Hollyweird
Review: If you are enamored with the hack and slash, body parts askew and blood fountains flowing, intellectual twaddle that Hollywood dishes out, then don't watch this. Though there are elements of the common horror flick here, it is done intelligently, albeit strangely, and without the grotesque backwoods mentality of "Friday the 13th" or the blatant ridiculousness of "Scream."

The plot lines are drawn out in the synopsis provided by Amazon but the real story is in the cinematography and vision of the director. There are some very eerie camera angles and dialogue that are literally frightening because you become so engrossed in the startling images that you forget the movie and focus on the artistic endeavor instead. I guess this probably isn't making sense.

So who/what is Tomie? Tomie is a body-less head enveloped in revenge. Tomie is the things we do to each other. Tomie is the unsettled mind trying to control fate. Tomie is the dark spot in the white spances of truth.

Rating:
Summary: Second In The Series, and Miles Better Than The First
Review: Perhaps you've watched, "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," and remarked sadly to yourself, "How did it ever come to this?" If you've also watched the snooze-fest that was the first Tomie film, then you probably assumed that the entire Tomie francise fell down the crapper with its very first movie, while most horror films survive about 3 or 4 sequels before ending up there. Fortunately for the viewer, this is not the case.

The story begins with an interesting twist on the established idea of Tomie. A little girl is rushed to the hospital for excruciating pain in her abdomen. An emergency operation is performed, and the doctors remove a tumor that turns out to be a human head. Not just any head, but one that smiles and winks and answers to the name of Tomie. One of the doctors disappears, and his daughter finds his journal. She tries to piece together what exactly happened before his disappearance to produce the insane writings contained therein.

Unlike the first film, "Replay" begins to explore some of the unanswerable questions about Tomie. As I mentioned in my review of the first film, we know that men fall in love with Tomie, go insane and cut her into pieces. But what is interesting to ponder is why this happens. Does she need to be repeatedly murdered, and then come back to life in order to retain her youth? Or does the cutting off of her body parts allow her to replicate herself?

"Replay" explores this aspect of Tomie, and even gives us a bit of insight into her psyche. After her head has been cut off, she grows a new one. She then goes back to where her head was buried and laughs as she burns her own face in front of her. This sadistic act shows Tomie turning her cruel nature on herself, and seems to symbolize a young woman's self hate. In order to continue life in her current form, she wishes to kill off the parts of herself she does not like, that she sees as underdeveloped, or weak.

Of course, Tomie is a monster, and not a real woman, so this is not necessarily what the director intended, or what Junji Ito, writer of the original manga, had in mind. But with a character as bizarre as Tomie, the symbolism may be present or not, depending on your point of view, and it's up to you to decide what she represents.

Near the end, we are treated to another rare glimpse into Tomie's mind. She speaks to the doctor's daughter in undeniable anger about who she is and what happens to her, over and over again. The other girl appears the same age as Tomie, except that one will grow older and find a life, while the other will be killed and come back the same as before. Tomie tells her that men always fall in love with her, and then they kill her, and cut her up into pieces. But she always comes back. Her anger in this scene seems to show how resentful she is of her situation. She is fated to be a victim forever. Although she has the ability to control men for a while, it is always her destiny to be killed by them. She will never be able to experience real love, because the sick, obsessive love is all she is capable of inspiring.

Most importantly, "Replay" contains some scary scenes. I knew "Tomie" was supposed to be a horror movie, but I couldn't figure out what, if anything, was supposed to be scary about the love triangle and the amnesia. We know Tomie comes back to life, but so what? I'm supposed to be afraid of a girl who might steal my boyfriend? In "Replay," the flashback scenes from the doctor's journal are genuinely creepy and haunting, and show us just how scary the hypnotic effect Tomie has on people can be.

Since the story of Tomie is an ongoing cycle, you can begin the story at any point. Unless you are a completist, I would recommend you skip the dull and lifeless "Tomie," and proceed directly to "Tomie: Replay."

Rating:
Summary: Wow....
Review: The first one sounded cool and I rented this one by mistake. Well it wasnt much of a story......and was kinda bland....so if you want an ok movie and you're bored out of your mind

Rating:
Summary: Average horror, spectacular subtitling
Review: Who is Tomie? What motivates her to come back from the dead time after time after time? I don't know, and neither will you after watching this film - but the one thing that remains certain is that you will learn just what director Tomijiro Mitsuishi has intended in this remarkable translation and educational aide.

When a strange medical abnormality occurs in a small Japanese hospital, the secret of Tomie's highly unusual birth becomes a deadly secret, and everyone connected begins to fall prey to the girl. Men are supernaturally attracted to her, jealously guard her, and turn deranged and homicidal. When Yumi Morita, daughter to medical supervisor of the surgery, becomes entwined in this nightmare she resolves to put an end to the killings and restore the lives of her remaining loved ones. Sadly, by the time viewers have pieced together this fragmentary story, the movie begins to fall apart. Tomie's history simply fails to be logically explained, and without direction this film is left to trail off into a not-so-surprising conclusion.

While the movie from here on in lacks power, English translation of Satoru Tamaki's dialogue is immaculately accurate and useful for English speakers. When Dr. Tachibana becomes possessed by Tomie's evil blood, his words ring out in thunderously clear subtitles: "Kill me; kill me; kill me..." When Fumihito Sato reads aloud from a medical journal, you don't have to be Japanese to discover, "I am not who I was."

In this sense, this film ranks mediocre as a horror film, but very high as an educational tool for those who wish to learn Japanese, whether child or adult. Words such as "uchitoru" and "bakemono" become second nature to anyone who both scans the subtitles and listens to the characters' tortured litanies, in which a single word is often repeated for memorable effect. In one case, the camera actually focuses on a man's mouth to describe the proper positioning of lips and tongue - this aide hidden behind movie magic bloody spittle. In another scene, a young girl counts slowly in Japanese from one to ten, again accompanied by the English written equivalent. I was absolutely floored by such displays of educational facilitation marvelously hidden in an entertaining style. Maybe this movie isn't much in the way of originality and climactic buildup, but as a learning tool it surpasses Mitsuishi's previous attempts with "Tomie" and "Tomie: Another Face." Another strike for bilinguism!

Rating:
Summary: Very tedious. Watch UZUMAKI instead.
Review: Why do people like this movie? The whole thing is silly. A six-year-old girl is admitted to the hospital with a gigantic swollen belly. The doctors start to cut her open when out pops a woman's full-grown head. And it's alive. Obviously this is not based on a true story.

They stick the head in a glass fish tank and within a few months it's grown a body. Around that time the doctors and the nurses that were in the delivery room start to disappear.

Some teenage geek who's at the hospital one night takes the girl home. He gets upset, crushes her head in with a telephone then dismembers her in the bathroom. But that's not enough to keep her down, so she reassembles herself and chases him around the apartment. Even crawling on the ceiling. Yikes! After that she chases around one of the doctor's daughter until I started to get real sleepy.

That might sound interesting , but its slow, slow, slow. The only good thing I can say about TOMIE: REPLAY is it's better than SHIKOKU. Now that was a stinker!