Tomie

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with the police investigating the murder of high school girl Tomie Kawakami (Miho Kanno). They learn that in the months following the crime, nine students and one teacher have either committed suicide or gone insane. The detective assigned to the case learns that three years prior another Tomie Kawakami was murdered in rural Gifu prefecture. Other slain Tomie Kawakami's are discovered stretching all the way back to the 1860s, right when Japan began to modernize. The detective tracks down one of Tomie's classmates called Tsukiko (Mami Nakamura), an art student who is being treated for amnesia. She has absolutely no memory of the three-month period around Tomie's death, and is starting to suspect the cause has a supernatural source. Meanwhile, Tsukiko's neighbor is rearing a peculiar baby-like creature. Over the span of a couple weeks, it grows into a beautiful teenaged girl with orange eyes responding to the name of Tomie Kawakami.Soon afterwards Tomie begins seducing Tsukiko's boyfriend Yuuichi (Kouta Kusano). Meanwhile, Tskuiko enters her new neighbor's apartment to investigate. Upon discovering her friend's dead body, she is attacked by her landlord and passes out due to asphyxiation. She wakes up in her psychiatrist's office and encounters Tomie. Tomie starts emotionally abusing Tsukiko and tries feeding her live cockroaches. She then begins taking group selfies with her. Soon thereafter, Tsukiko's boyfriend murders Tomie. As they go bury Tomie's headless body in the woods, she comes back to life and Tsukiko runs off further into the woods and finds herself on a boat dock. Tomie then appears once again, now fully regenerated, and kisses Tsukiko on the lips. They both begin laughing as Tsukiko lights a flare and sets Tomie on fire.Tsukiko is now shown leading a normal life, still taking photographs and being interested in art. One day as she goes to develop a picture she took of herself, she notices a mole under her left eye she didn't have before; the same kind of mole Tomie had. Tsukiko then looks at herself in the mirror in shock as Tomie appears, smiling.

Tags: murder, paranormal, violence, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, tragedy

Review:
I think I'd rather be confused by a plot than have a badly filmed, acted and directed movie.
If you're looking for a horror movie that makes perfect sense, and will make you say, 'wow, that's clever!' go home.
anyone who is familiar with the writings of Junji Ito would know the basic story of Tomie, and what to expect from this movie.
you will be able to recognize bits from the stories in the manga's, it's a fairly good movie, unless you don't enjoy reading subtitles.
after watching the trailers, i am more looking forward to buying the 2nd and 3rd movies due to what i have seen of them.
Instead, TOMIE is a comic-book adaptation about an otherwise ordinary schoolgirl who has one special talent: she always, without fail, comes back from the dead.TOMIE is a weird movie.
On the other hand, it's undoubtedly an atmospheric film full of off-kilter scenes and eerie moments (most of these involving a guy who finds himself 'growing' a new friend).It's difficult to fault the efforts of cast and crew, and the highlight is the wonderfully weird piece of music that accompanies the titles in which a distorted, computerised voice proclaims an obsessive friendship.
It's like those moments in a Miyazaki film that are so peaceful, with a tinge of Dario Argento's Goblin soundtrack.It is very hard to find a decent review of this movie.
It's one of those movies that is so metaphor-laden, it makes absolutely no sense if you just watch the images and hear the sounds.
There is a lot more going on here than just a few murders.Like many (too many?) Japanese movies, there is a lot left unsaid.
As much as Tomie may look like Sadako (and every other female ghost), this is a truly engaging film that still has me thinking 24 hours after viewing it..
"Tomie" is rather an interesting but unambitious murder melodrama - that happens to have a few scenes of gruesome violence, an atmosphere of weirdness and creepiness throughout, and which is based on an understated supernatural premise.I don't think this is as bad as some are letting on though - the story itself holds together nicely, for instance, and in that respect "Tomie" is roughly 50 times better than that contemptible Korean mess called "Tale of Two Sisters" that so many are raving about sycophantically.The ending is a little arbitrary but that's nothing new to naturalistic fiction; the characters are all interesting and well-acted; the cinematography is gloomy and occasionally oppressive but the choice of camera angles and composition is very well done.
It's just too bad none of that song's creepiness spilled into the movie's plot.What's lacking is a needed element of intensity that really grabs you and sucks you in.
At the time I was really getting into Japanese horror, so the fact I knew nothing about it didn't stop me as that's what it was.
You see this isn't your average Japanese horror movie.
Tomie tried to imitate the recent brand of Japanese horror movies such as the Ringu but failed miserable.
Non-sensical jumping around scenes, psychological horror not working, just some of the bad points about this movie.The scariest moment came very early in the movie, that was, in the opening scene when an eye stared back at the viewer.
Oh my god, this movie is really fantastic, finally a horror that has good acting and good story, long time I have been sick and tired of horror movie that focuses on killing and blood and gore, that's not horror that's disgusting, Tomie from 1998 bring an awesome new genre to life.A young man with an eye pad moves in to apartment with a box, in that box is a girl's head, that girl is Tomie, later by later Tomie start to grow and as soon she becomes a woman, all men's life turns upside down, and go crazy, some kill them selves others kill others just for Tomie.
One girl Tsuziko who has insomnia get a funny when she hear the name Tomie, could she be part of her past?Every character is alive thanks to great acting specially Miho Kanno who play Tomie, oh my god she is tailor made for the role, her beauty and cold personality and demonic smile is spot on, it's unbelievable that's she is normally not an actress but a jpop idol, that's shows she is multi talented.
What's also good is every character has development, the heroine girl has a boyfriend and has crazy friends, the detective has an interesting theory of the Tomie name An she the doctor who treat the heroine is very likable.
Tomie is based on a manga series from the late 80's and what sounds like a great idea on paper just doesn't really translate well onto the big screen.This first film in the successful Tomie franchise is rather weak and confusing.
It also doesn't help that many of the scenes don't particularly flow well or make much sense adding to an even more confusing experience.The acting is fine, but Miho Kanno who plays Tomie never really comes off as seductive and instead just seems creepy all the time.
I know Japanese movies are not like your standard American flicks.
There are no real shocking moments in the movie, no scenes that make you jump or turn away.
I might have told the story from her point of view, leaving her apparent disinterest intact so that she doesn't mirror the hyper-involved researchers in the Ring films.
In Tomie, she's present only to trigger point-of-view girl Tsukiko's dream sequences.A word about translation.
As much fan as I am of Asian horror movies, then it was rather difficult to get into "Tomie".
Well, because it was quite slow-moving and not really having much of a solid and coherent storyline to it.The story is about a dead girl named Tomie, who apparently has come back to wreck havoc on those responsible.
But apparently Tomie has been appearing throughout various events in the last many, many years.For a horror movie, then there was absolutely nothing scary about the movie, and no shock moments at all.
The movie was fairly monotone and uneventful.As for the acting, well people did good enough jobs with their given roles, though there were moments where you sit with your toes curled up because of some rather bad acting and lack of emotions in given situations from some of the cast.I bought a 4-disc collection with "Tomie", "Tomie: Replay", "Tomie: Re-Birth" and "Tomie: The Final Chapter", so hopefully there will be more meat on the follow up movies, otherwise then this is a series founded on a very weak storyline.If "Tomie" is one of the movies that started the Japanese horror wave of movies like "The Ring" and "The Grudge", then they were off to a fairly weak start.
As I am a big fan of the Japanese cinema, I was looking forward to discover the universe of Tomie with this first movie.In the beginning, I was a little bit disappointed.
The movie has a dark mood but a very slow development while the story seems to be a rather ordinary one with a school girl suffering from amnesia that is haunted by its past and an evil demon in form of a beautiful girl that resurrects over and over again.
The movie seems to be filled with many scenes that have a couple of lengths, for example as a detective talks about seven minutes with the girl's psychologist.What we don't know at that point is that the details mentioned in this very special dialogue are important to understand the ending of the movie that finishes with a punch and a twist.
Still, I am not entirely sure how to interpret the end but that's what's so interesting, gripping and mesmerizing about it.Another good point is that the movie shows a lot of the Japanese culture which is interesting for the international public.
The lifestyle, the food and the landscapes are shown without giving an ordinary documentary touch to the flick.All in all, the ending is worth the wait and I would like to try out the second movie one day.
Yet, I have seen much better Japanese movies and don't understand why this series seem to be popular in that particular way.
Having been a huge fan of Junji Ito's works (Uzumaki, Tomie, Hellstar Remina) I will do my best to refrain from comparing the manga to the film.
As time progresses, she begins to come to terms with recent strange events and how they are linked to a shrouded unknown past.One thing to note: the Tomie manga excels at setting a dark, frightening mood and facial expressions (especially Tomie's) convey strong emotions of pain, fear, anger, betrayal, and obsession; a credit to Ito's talent.
Watching the film draws you into the phenomenon of Tomie and is accompanied by an eerie soundtrack sounding like ambient, psychedelic music done by Buffalo Daughter..great stuff!.
In the case of this one, it appears they just wanted to have Tomie look like Sadako, the nice ghost from Ring.
Turns out this isn't the first time this has happened to Tomie.
It is good movie for a horror fan.
It was well acted, the girl playing Tomie is magnificent and I thought it suited what the author would of wanted with this picture.
Tomie is another so called Japanese "new wave horror"that started with "the Ring".This one is based on a manga comic and tells the story of the girl Tomie who gets killed out of jelousy and manages to take bloody revenge trough reincarnation.
The movie starts promising by building up the tension very slowly and revealing the plot bit by little bit.But once the whole plot is carefully revealed with the help of flashbacks the movie speeds up to a very confusing end.As usually with Asian movies the camerawork and editing is nicely done but can't save the movie to give that extra boost to get to the same level as "the Ring" or "Shikoku".This movie was followed by Tomie2:replay.The soundtrack was provided by the hip Escalator records from Tokyo..
After working my way through the film (which unfortunately had the worst subtitles I've ever encountered), I was left with many questions unanswered.This isn't a movie geared towards viewers who want all plot lines tied up neatly.
It is, however, an atmosphere based thriller with more than a few supernatural overtones.The film features a great opening but, sadly, doesn't keep the pace or the scare factor up beyond the first scene.I wouldn't recommend this film but it's probably a worthy addition to a genre fan's DVD shelf..
There's also a detecting investigating into murders and this Tomie demon girl who he knows cant die.
Competently made, but lifelessMy Grade: C DVD Extras: Behind the scenes; Trailers for the first 5 "Tomie" film.
A few months ago, on a popular movie and game website I visit, I read scathing reviews of the first three entries in the "Tomie" series- a franchise of Japanese horror films based loosely upon a horror- manga.
And while not the train-wreck I was expecting, "Tomie" is quite a mess of a film.It follows a fractured series of story lines, mainly centered on Tsukiko, a student who studies photography, and has suffered memory loss after an apparent accident three years prior.
Also, a detective is trying to solve the mystery of "Tomie", a young woman whom Tsukiko knew before losing her memory that was allegedly killed and dismembered by another schoolmate, and may or may not be the same "Tomie" who has re- appeared throughout Japanese history, always subsequently disappearing or being killed.To call this film a convoluted mess is an understatement.
My first point to bring up is that this film seems to assume that viewers are intimately aware of the manga and are fans, because almost no effort is given to explain the seemingly random twists and turns the story makes.
The back-story, or lack thereof, makes virtually no sense whatsoever, and you will leave the film scratching your head in sheer confusion.
This is not good- films should be able to make sense on their own, without having seen the source material, otherwise, there's no point to an adaptation.The filmmaking is also cheap and amateurish to a remarkable degree.
(Camera angles that completely cut off half the actor's heads, static shots that sit for 30 seconds or more after the scene is finished, etc) The editing is foul and jarring, and has the subtlety of a brick to the face, and the few makeup and gore effects are middle-school quality- obvious fake blood and atrocious prosthetics that look like cheap plastic body-parts you can buy at the convenience store for Halloween decorations.
And be prepared for frustration, because there isn't much variety to the background music, so you will hear the same few songs over and over again, and it gets grating.That being said, there are a few good things about the film.
Like I said, the complete ineptitude of the production does supply a lot of good, unintentional laughs, making it ironically enjoyable at times.
Based on a manga, and spawning four sequels, this film is about a young lady named Tsukiko (Ms. Nakamura) who has enlisted the help of a psychiatrist (Ms. Doguchi)to try to remember the events of 3 years before, described as an "accident".
The film moves slowly, and even drags a little at times, but for fans of the manga it is essential viewing.
TOMIE - Japanese horror about...
Something that I've noticed in a lot of Japanese horror films - no attempt is made to explain why the spooky things are the way they are, what caused them or whatever.
I'm not a big horror movie fan in general, so I generally prefer something beyond "ooh creepy sensations" to hold my interest in a film.
If you like creepy asian horror movies, I'm sure this one is well made...
As the film goes on, moving with all the creepy speed of a ghost meandering down a long dark hallway, we come to find out that it was no accident Tsukiko witnessed, but a horrific murder in which her then-boyfriend decapitated a fellow student named Tomie.
Tomie, much like her predecessor Sadako, keeps her "frighteningly lovely" visage veiled for much of the film, leaving a trail of dead men, victims of their own lust for her, in her wake.
No matter, it's Tsukiko she really wants, and in an odd, ambiguous ending, we are left to wonder "Who is who?" A slightly disturbing musical score and surprisingly little violence make this an intriguing effort, but may leave many confused and bored.
We follow the man "growing" Tomie with great interest and every scene with her as she grows fills us with hope - never seeing her face, just her hair, long, black hair.Tsukiko has memory loss, friends she doesn't like, a cheating boyfriend, and nothing else.
The detective suggests that Tomie has appeared for a long time, over and over in history.
It gives us some back story, but never comes to fruition.The movie just drags on and on and on.
The real horror of the movie is that I sat there, through the whole dull, non-plot, waiting for something to happen, something to scare me, something to make me see a point to making this movie.I came away empty.
There is no reason for this film.Watching the extras, I learned that the author of the comic was afraid of women and wanted that to come across.
What little we were given did not live up to expectations.If you want Japanese horror, try a Miike film!If you want a suggestion for time better spent, watch some paint dry!Just don't say you weren't warned...A generous 2/10.
With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best movies of 1999,I started searching round for Horror films to view from the year,and I stumbled upon the first in a long-running Japanese Horror film series that I've not heard of before,which led to me getting ready to meet Tomie.The plot:Unable to remember anything from the last 3 months,art student Tsukiko Izumisawa decides to attend intense therapy.Talking to therapist Dr. Hosono in a dream-like state, Tsukiko mentions a person called "Tomie." Asked about who Tomie is, Tsukiko says that she does not know anyone by that name.As Tsukiko continues her therapy sessions, Detective Harada starts investigating the school that Tsukiko attended,due to 9 fellow students and a teaching having either killed themselves or gone insane.Taking a look at the school records,Harada discovers that a student called Tomie Kawakami (nicknamed "Tomie") appears to be someone who can come back from the dead.View on the film:Pulling Junji Ito's Manga from the page to the screen,writer/director Ataru Oikawa takes a clinical approach,as stilted distance shots cloud the film in an eerie atmosphere,which the movie starts to sink deeper into,as Tsukiko's memory starts to clear.Backed by a superb industrial hum from Hiroshi Futami and Toshihiro Kimura,Oikawa slowly pulls away the haunting shadows to unveil Tomie in the final tense 30 minutes,with Oikawa cleverly using the build-up to give the shots of dry red blood a melancholy mood.Sitting in on Tsukiko's therapy sessions,the screenplay by Ataru Oikawa takes a great fragmented root,by linking Tsukiko's attempt to uncover her memory with that of the police trying to solve the mystery of Tomie's origins.Kept lingering in the shadows by Oikawa for as long as possible, Miho Kanno gives a wonderful performance as Tomie,thanks to Kanno wrapping a deadly mischief making grin around Tomie,as everyone starts to discover that you can't trust Tomie..
They set the mood very well and it's kind of creepy through the whole film.
But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for action or gore/splatter.I like the rather slow pace and what you never know what will happen.