Tomie

Junji Ito's female nightmare began life in his horror manga, becoming an early recurrent subject. His artwork portrays fright to the highest level of hysteria. Some pages of his stories Uzumaki and Gyo literally give me the chills, usually something only movies can manage. The difficulty lies in filming 'visual hysteria', as well as convincingly portraying distorted human forms. Uzumaki made a fantastic film, but falls very short of the epic scale of the manga. Gyo, a tale of sea creatures on the attack, has just been made into a (short) feature-length anime that I'm really excited about. But the premise of Tomie is potentially endless.

Tomie is a simple but unique monster - a supernatural, psychic sado-masochist. A personification of the problems of obsessional love. A likely predecessor could be Kumi Mizuno's character from Matango: Fungus of Terror (1963). A femme fatale with a monstrous secret.

First time around, I liked Tomie because of the queasy atmosphere and the obscure storyline - the idea of what was going on slowly dawned on me, and it was bizarre and horrible. The iconic cover art of the eye looking out of the carrier bag was a brilliant hook - a throwback to the premise of Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case movies - something small, horrible and portable. But Tomie isn’t just a living head, she’s growing…

Kept in a box in a dingy flat and fed by her demented boyfriend, Tomie slowly regains her full stature. Meanwhile upstairs, former classmate Tsukiko has no idea that the horror that blanked out her memory three years earlier, is actually her new neighbour.

Tomie is a new monster – one we haven’t met before. This film is a good introduction to her and her methods. Tomie manages to capture the demented and violent world of the Tomie manga – the squabbling teenagers and their violent, tangled love lives. Tomie is so beautiful that she entrances her boyfriends. But like an addiction, they come to hate their dependence on her and the murder she incites.

Actress Miho Kanno really looks like the manga Tomie, fleshing out the character with demented giggling, hairpin mood swings and an unearthly threatening stare.

The film may not be as grisly as the manga, but it succeeds at hinting at further horrors. It sometimes does this with subliminal 'shock cuts' of visceral make-up effects, rather than the less physical computer-aided FX which I’m sure would be used in any US remake. Unfortunately, the carefully built-up tension, dissipates towards the climax. Tsukiko doesn't react horrified, so much as inconvenienced. The film ends with a damp squib and introduces some unnecessary loose ends at the last minute. It's not a perfect film, but achieves an awful lot on a low budget. 

Tomie is an original horror concept, and not a wannabe Ring. They were released the same year and I'm sure if Tomie had come out any later it would have been tailored to look more like Ring. It's a film that I enjoy re-watching for the atmosphere of madness, and the scary soundtrack. Admittedly, I understand the plot better for having read the comics.

TOMIE - ANOTHER FACE Tomie's back - in three parts!

Tomie next appears in 3 short stories, made either for the direct-to-video market, or maybe TV. They're shot on video in fullscreen 4:3 and the compilation even appears to have ad breaks between the stories.

The first starts with a typical love triangle at school. But when Tomie is in the triangle and already dead – it’s not going to have a happy outcome. Actress Luna Nagai certainly looks the right age and is very good at simpering, but she has a tough time in conveying malevolence. Again, this story introduces Tomie's basic modus operandi and at the very least features a convincing and shocking death scene.

The second story is about a photographer who searches for his childhood sweetheart and finds that, even ten years on, she hasn’t aged. This has less surprises, and starts playing with Tomie's look. Once you start covering her in make-up and changing her hair, she doesn't look the part any more. I liked the wall-to-wall music here, but it's very derivative of Massive Attack and Twin Peaks.

Finally, the last story manages to keep you guessing. A lovestruck salaryman is warned of Tomie’s ex-boyfriends and her history of being murdered (!). How can she be stopped? There’s some new twists here for the character, and this segment is the bloodiest, with a rousing finale. 

This is all not as bad as other reviews had warned, but it’s very unambitious, only skimming the potential of the manga and hardly using any of the original visual ideas. Tomie: Another Face concentrates instead on her sexy schoolgirl allure and un-schoolgirl-like potty mouth. It reads more as a morality tale about older men dating young girls.

This is really only for Tomie completists and certainly not a good way to enter the series. It's soapy, rather than creepy, focussing on crimes of passion, rather than extremes of madness.

TOMIE: REPLAY The curse of the cornershop carrier bag continues

Presumably not wanting to be saddled with the title Tomie 2, the strangely named Tomie: Replay injects a needed round of solid shocks in this, the second cinema outing of the series.

Centred around a seriously underlit hospital, it begins with a ghastly operation, where Tomie's head is cut out of a little girl's stomach! Afterwards, almost everyone who took part in the operation disappears, including the surgeon. His daughter sets out to find him, trying to make sense of his blood-soaked diary. Meanwhile a young patient discovers Tomie walking the corridors at night and agrees to take her home with him, poor fool. Murder, mayhem and mutation soon follow.

This film gets a bigger budget than the first, enabling a more expansive story with several stories revolving around a hospital that’s going out of control. The likeable and experienced cast are convincing, and there's enough money for some haunting FX.

Yet another actress plays Tomie here, Mai Hosho (later to appear in Suicide Circle - they needed a lot of schoolgirls for that one), and there's a new director to the series, Tomijiro Mitsuishi, who succeeds in bringing in some powerful heart-stopping moments and creep-outs. Finally we have a bona fide Tomie horror film to recommend. 

We get to see how men usually treat her - maybe a meal, then murder, then dismemberment. There's not much graphic gore, but some grisly sound FX make the scenes more than effective. Using Junji Ito's manga as inspiration, there's also a marvellous mutated corpse, and a madman's face that both stick closely to the dark visions of the original drawings.  

The film occasionally goes off the rails, with a couple of over-the-top moments that don't work and even some unintentional laughs. The main complaint I have is that there’s not enough of Tomie herself - we spend more time with the other characters tracking her down and mopping up after her.


These are quibbles though - this is a well-structured horror film, enhanced greatly by an atmospheric and effective soundtrack. But as we shall see, it won’t be the last time they’ll be burying Tomie's head in the forest…

TOMIE: REBIRTH The 3rd movie in the series is directed by Takashi Shimizu, who brought us all of the Ju-on movies (5 and counting). The film starts with a young painter completing a portrait of Tomie, before murdering her. His two closest friends help bury her in the woods. Later at a birthday party, the three of them are bewildered to see that she's returned. Their lives are soon turned upside-down - one needs his girlfriend, Hitomi, another turns to his mother to help keep Tomie away.  Strangely, in the promotional documentary in the DVD extras, director Shimizu says that he thinks humour is needed in horror films. Zoiks, I always thought that part of the strength of the Ju-on films is the unrelenting, scary mood – the story careering from one scare to the next.

Also, if I hadn’t watched the documentary, I wouldn’t have known there was humour in the film! There’s maybe some dark irony as two of Tomie’s murderers talk about mundane matters while they dispose of her body – so, thankfully, he didn’t resort to blatant comedy relief. He seems intent on making his own distinctive entry to the series – while re-cycling ideas that have been used in the previous films (there's even a scene copied from the climax of Another Face).  Strangely, the film doesn’t get much beyond creepy, it’s not nearly as frightening as Tomie: Replay. It get’s very grisly, more bloody – Tomie dies a lot in this one. But whereas the previous films had a constantly odd atmosphere throughout, Tomie: Rebirth allows us to stay more grounded in normality – the mundanity of normal surroundings, streets, shops and houses.

My favourite scene involves a street corner at night and a carrier bag – easily as scary as Ju-on. Unfortunately there’s not many moments like that here. Trying to make Tomie perform new tricks means that there’s also computer effects used instead of the convincingly physical prosthetic effects of the previous films. This severely compromises the climax for me. 

I guess that because of Tomie’s powers, it doesn’t matter that different actresses play her. As a purist, I think Tomie should always ‘come back’ looking the same. I think the series could be more of a phenomenon if one actress had become associated with the role. Having said that, so far everyone who plays the role has brought something new to it. This time around, Miki Sakai proves to be the most beautiful and alluring Tomie so far. She looks more mature and powerfully creepy, but perhaps isn't as threatening as the others. She certainly seems to be regenerating faster than usual. Overall the acting isn’t very even, but the stressed-out mother is excellent, as are Hitomi and Tomie who have the hardest roles. I enjoyed this the first time I saw it, but now watching it alongside the other Tomie films, it feels less strange than it should. It’s good, but with a heavyweight horror director, it should have been great.

Tomie: The Final Chapter - Forbidden Fruit How you can you ever safely say that you're making a final Tomie film.  Tomie befriends a schoolgirl who's getting bullied. I mean seriously bullied. The bullies are using a crossbow. Tomie visits her new friend, who's coincidentally called Tomie, and lives alone with her father. For a little while, we think that evil Tomie has lost her charm and no longer drives men wild. Then we learn that she's already had an affair with him 25 years earlier. Of course while he's aged, she hasn't changed a bit. She's also rather cross that he's named his daughter after her. As Tomie cosies up to both dad and daughter, we wonder where it's all going to lead. What is Tomie up to?

This film starts deceptively slowly, with Tomie behaving herself - I was concerned that they'd even changed her character. Her friendship with the other Tomie is given time to develop, and we learn more of the father's back-story in flashbacks. This all sets up the second half of the film, where things get a little, well, crunchier. All I'll say is baseball bat and buzzsaw.

To ensure a better response to this film, the producers used a new strategy - no new young directors or bad acting, instead there's a veteran director and a small but heavyweight cast.  Bad Tomie is played by Nozomi Ando, who'd just starred in the excellent Sakuya, Slayer of Demons - she went on to star in cult hits Kibakichi and Suicide Manual. She's an excellent Tomie, but more malicious than evil. Innocent Tomie is played by Aoi Miyazaki, who is currently riding on the success of the buddy-movie smash hit chick-flick Nana, where she stars as one of the two Nanas.  Her father, Kazuhiko is played by esteemed actor Jun Kunimura who was in Audition (not the unfortutate lead) and Kill Bill Vol.1 as Tanaka, and many other major Japanese films, usually as senior military officers or bosses. His role is the hardest and it's wonderful to see him underplay his role in a genre that usually gives way to overacting. 

The title of the film is also 'hard sell' - a double come-on: admittedly it's the 'final chapter' in the initial once-a-year cycle of Tomie films, but we're also promised 'forbidden fruit' - publicity photographs angling towards the schoolgirl relationship as lesbian, and teasing us with a rekindled love affair with a 25 year age gap.

Much is made of Tomie's kissing scenes, but these also make the central story between the three characters very dramatic and very realistic. But as director Shun Nakahara steps up the horror, he seems less and less able to take it seriously. There's some real Junji Ito horror stuff later on, but it's constantly leavened with humour. At least this time it's actually funny, but it's a shame that the horror isn't as intense as the drama.

For once the digital effects are convincing, relying on seamless compositing rather than computer-generated imagery. There's less blood than usual, some surreal body horror and the clever use of the refrigeration plant that the dad works in...

The soundtrack is suitably weird and discomforting, but this time a little too eccentric, the music occasionally distracting you from the action. The constant chorus of the omnipresent crows adds to the atmosphere of forboding

Once again, this Tomie story doesn’t follow on from any other. They are all stand alone stories, like the manga. This film seems to be a little out of step with the mood of the series, but after a slow start, it has quite a grip! Of the first five Tomie entries (four films, one made-for-TV) all are entirely watchable. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, and each their own special character. If you don't like one, you may like another. It's a lot like a box of chocolates (sorry)...

Tomie: Beginning From Ataru Oikawa, the same writer/director as Tomie: Revenge comes a slightly better, but equally clumsy tale. At least I could tell that it was based on an early story by Junji Ito about Tomie's schooldays. 

The story starts present day at a rather poor turnout at a class reunion. Only two former pupils are left to reminisce about Tomie joining their school. The rest of the class are either dead, missing or institutionalised. Mostly told in flashbacks, we see how schoolgirl Tomie divides and conquers. (I don't think that this tale, set 20 years earlier, constitutes Tomie's true 'beginning' - I suspect that she's a lot older than she looks...)

Again shot on video, again with annoyingly loose camerawork (there's a spectacular shot of Mount Fuji at the start of the film that's almost thrown away!). At least the performances are more even than in Tomie: Revenge. 

Rio Matsumoto plays Tomie here - she's OK but she hasn't got the nasty giggling quite right. Her first evil acts are little more than grade school bullying, so the film flounders for a while. Later, contrary to her usual M.O. of tormenting her boyfriends and forcing them to kill her, she compels boys to work for her (like she did in Revenge) - this merely keeps her out of the action.

There's more of Tomie's powers of regeneration here than in Revenge, which leads to some confusion for the viewer and some half-hearted special effects - a 'crawling' ear being dragged along the ground belongs in a fifties 'B' movie. There's a better scene where a bandage soaked in Tomie's blood starts regenerating, but logically this means there should be three of her running around (original Tomie, ear Tomie, and bandage Tomie) - more loose ends left dangling from this straggly tale.

One big death scene is off camera (I'm not even sure how she was supposed to have died unless I read the manga again) and the film's big gross-out scene is played for laughs. Her victims' 'mad' scenes are unconvincing and OTT. With no atmosphere and no creepy thrills, all that the film offers is a short story and a little spurting blood - very similar ingredients to the average Thai horror, which isn't saying much.

To be fair, one mad little scene theorises that Tomie is related to a flatworm (!) and the stock footage of the little critter is very interesting, though of no use to the plot. The other highpoint is the ending, firstly because it's a relief that it's finally over and secondly, that it leads neatly back to the first film...

TOMIE: REVENGE What have they done to Tomie?

So, 2 years after the last film, Tomie: The Final Chapter, we get not one, but two new Tomie titles. I was very excited about these, until I saw them...

Dr Suma knocks over a young woman while driving in the woods at night. She seems unharmed and quickly disappears. The Dr looks for the woman in an isolated mansion, where she finds 2 madmen raving "Tomie" and a woman unconscious in a sleeping bag. What on earth is going on? We learn more at the nearby hospital where Dr Suma works. She gets questioned by two 'National Security men' looking for Tomie, who think that she has the power to physically invade other women's bodies. They think she is living nearby in the woods... Well, the first place I'd have looked would be the mansion! But here it takes a whole hour of  screen time for anyone to figure that out!

The possession theme means that Tomie barely makes an appearance in person, her female victims get all the action. I also think possession is also Tomie's least interesting power - here it seems to be her only skill.

I was disappointed to find that this had been shot on video, the opening night scenes looked especially murky and smeary. This low-budget production is an example of the perils of v-cinema titles, they rarely deliver (The first two Ju-on v-films are a notable exception). I was confused by the narrative and the shaky handheld camerawork. In was disappointed at how poor some of the acting was. The messy and very short story ends with a surprise that cheats rather than satisfies. The whole thing is missing the atmosphere of Tomie's creepiness. The writer/director is Ataru Oikawa. His previous work includes Tokyo Psycho, which I will be avoiding. In its favour there's some convincing drama from the two leads, Dr Suma (Hisako Shirata) and her boss (Kyusaku Shimada, the lead heavy in Princess Blade). There's also and a couple of gory scenes we haven't seen in the series before, but they're misjudged, overplayed and don't resemble anything in Junji Ito's drawings. The sound mix is uninvolving and lazily pumps up the volume to prop up some rather obvious leaping-out-at-the-camera scares. I can't say anything nice about Tomie: Revenge. 

TOMIE vs TOMIE  I thought we'd seen the last of the movies about Junji Ito's creepy creation. With Tomie's unnatural ability to completely regenerate from dismembered body parts, it's surprising she hasn't had to face herself before...

Two factory workers are tangling with Tomie, well, two different Tomies. One guy is recovering from the death of his girlfriend, but is being pursued by a Tomie, who has a gaggle of his colleagues at her bidding. Unknown to him, a close friend is helping another Tomie through a difficult regeneration...

In this 'episode' in the saga, Tomie is more in control than usual, manipulating many men around her in a small factory. But both the Tomies have a serious problem, decay... The traditional mayhem, obsession and violence ensues. But the promised confrontation of the two Tomies is far too brief and falls short of the bizarre heights of the series. But this is still a creepy, coherent and occasionally bloody tale. It's an above-average but small-scale Tomie film, far better than the last two entries (Revenge and Beginning), and achieves the paranoid atmosphere of the best Tomies, of being in a bad dream. Framed 16:9, it appears to have been shot on HD video, but is far better photographed than the previous two, with careful lighting and composition. It's well directed by Tomohiro Kubo, an assistant director on Tomie: Forbidden Fruit and Hideo Nakata's Sleeping Bride, adding visual layers to the many mysteries. With consistently creepy music and creative shock moments, this is a Tomie overdue in the west. Though Japan Flix aren't yet releasing any DVDs, this is only available to rent online or purchase in HD on iTunes.

Tomie: Unlimited No matter how awful her predecessors have been, I can't resist seeing her again. I must see her again. It's obsession. No matter how hard I try to erase Tomie from my memory, new versions keep springing up. Just when I thought I'd never see her again... You'll be relieved to hear you don't have to watch any of the previous eight Tomie 'episodes' to understand Tomie: Unlimited, the story isn't a saga. More like a string of serial killings. Her methods and motives are consistent, she just keeps finding new victims...

The story starts with a bang (the scriptwriter must have been really impressed by the original version of The Omen) and Tomie is soon up to her old tricks. This time, the focus of her attention is a small Japanese family, in particular a teenage schoolgirl. Tomie usually picks men as her prey, and her victimisation of her younger sister also involves her father and the boy she fancies. Tomie is also a glutton for punishment and keeps coming back for more, no matter what her loved ones do to her. Her method, divide and conquer. 

All I'll say is that this film delivers plenty of body horror, but more in the style of Frank Henenlotter than David Cronenberg. I was initially alarmed that the director of RoboGeisha and Machine Girl was tackling this, because I hadn't enjoyed either of those. They were visually inventive but were overplotted, had too much cheap CGI and not enough laughs. But here he's consciously aiming for a horror film, with fairly restrained CGI in favour of practical prosthetic effects, though they're low-budget enough to look retro. It begins as dark as any Tomie, creepy and psychotic, but then tips over-the-top to a frenzy, almost resembling a Re-Animator comedy for a few scenes. This is a shame, because it then regains its creepy balance for a very dark climax. Overall, this is the best Tomie for years, and certainly a good start for those who dislike their horror slowly-paced. One of director, Noboru Iguchi's, aims with the film was to visualise ideas from the manga which had previously been too difficult to film. He's succeeded in bringing many more of Tomie's wildest talents to the screen, while other scenes are simple and effective evocations of Ito's 'hysterical horror'. One involves Tomie's hair...

Tomie: the final word

I was very disappointed that these two recent additions didn't exceed the accomplishments of any of the first five Tomie films. I doubt if anyone will be encouraged to make any new tales for several years - the unfilmed manga would require considerable skill and formidable special effects! Similarly Ito's epic Gyo, about a land invasion of monstrous fish is also unfilmable. Why doesn't someone make some Uzumaki sequels instead?

Tomie is a unique horror character, though typical of Japanese horror - where powerful women are evil and must be dealt with severely. Where female biology is a bizarre mystery, bordering on the supernatural. Where any woman who looks overtly sexy should be avoided, because once you get involved, she'll ruin your life. Just stick to non-assertive women who don't wear make-up, you'll be fine!

All in all I'd only recommend the Tomie stories made on film, because they are uniquely creepy horror films, and are faithful to Junji Ito's marvelous and mysterious Tomie 'mythos':  (Black Hole Reviews)