TOMIE

Tsukiko Izumisawa (Mami Nakamura) learns that a quiet young man has moved into the apartment below hers, but she doesn't know that he's Tsukiko's old boyfriend Tanabe (Kenji Mizuhashi), and that he's keeping an odd pet in a wicker basket (likely a deliberate reference to BASKET CASE), which he occasionally carries around the city in a shopping bag. Tsukiko has been suffering from amnesia and insomnia since having an accident, and is undergoing hypnotherapy. Dr. Hosono (Yoriko Douguchi of CURE) is puzzled to hear Tsukiko mention the name "Tomie" while under hypnosis, but the mystery only deepens when Detective Harada (genre regular Tomoro Taguchi) reveals that a girl named Tomie Kawakami was Tsukiko's best friend, until Tomie stole Tanabe from her, after which Tomie's body was found hacked to pieces in Tsukiko's room and several of their classmates went insane or committed suicide. What's more, all the pieces of the body have since disappeared, and Harada has learned that the name Tomie Kawakami is listed as the victim in unsolved murders dating back hundreds of years. When more of Tsukiko's classmates are murdered, Harada comes to an unconventional conclusion. Meanwhile, the Thing in the basket has grown into a lovely, terrifying young woman named Tomie (Miho Kanno). But what is Tomie after, and what is the grudge she has against Tsukiko?

We generally think of an indestructible monster as a hulking juggernaut in the mold of Jason Voorhees or Godzilla, but TOMIE combines ideas from past horrors to invert this notion. Tomie is more of a ghost made of flesh, an immortal seductress that doesn't usually need to get her hands dirty there are always plenty of slaves available to do her killing for her. She's an elusive presence, despite the bloody destruction left in her wake. Director Ataru Oikawa plays this perfectly, not revealing the face of the monster until late in the picture, when Kanno steals the show, effectively mesmerizing the camera as well as any man she comes across. Her slow, careful movements are perfectly in keeping with her character. Tomie has all the time in the world, and being what she is, has a unique point of view on the world.

However, the many threads of the plot aren't brought together very well, resulting in much confusion as to what's really going on. The result of this is frustration for the viewer, when what their obviously aiming for are chills. Based on Junji Ito's manga story, TOMIE seems much more effective when taken as part of a series, and the demon girl returned in several sequels. Oikawa, who crafts his images in the cool style of modern Japanese horror, unfortunately has yet to direct another feature to date, devoting most of his time to the NATSU-CHAN'S HOUSE television series, but we can only hope that we'll see another feature from him sometime soon.

The DVD, which gives TOMIE an adequate transfer and animated menus, gets off to a bit of a rocky start, as the English subtitles are not the default setting, and are coded as the "Spanish" setting. (There is a subtitle menu, but it's been planted in the "special features" menu, which is an unlikely place for a viewer to look for it. This is especially confusing since the film has no dialogue for the first couple minutes, and the credits are not translated. However, once this hurdle is passed, there's really nothing to complain about in the presentation other than that the volume on the menus is a bit too high in relation to the features.

Adness, a newcomer among the crowded DVD field, has done a commendable job bringing this Japanese hit to the states. They have more of the TOMIE series on the way already, and have acquired several more Japanese genre films for US video distribution. They've included trailers for all the TOMIE movies (to date), plus a half-hour Making-Of featurette. This film, which is oddly narrated by a little girl, spends way too much time on the creation of a key prop (the false head of Miho Kanno), but otherwise gives the creators a chance to explain their view of the project, and even includes the filming of a deleted scene.

We'll look forward to seeing the 3 sequels, the 1999 TV movie TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE, the 2002 prequel TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT, and as Tomoro Tuguchi says in the featurette, "TOMIE VS. JASON... TOMIE VS. FREDDY..."