Tomie 1999 Adness America Co., Inc.   Buy It Now

The success of Japanese horror being remade in Hollywood has led to just about every DVD company trying their best to find whatever J-horror they can to license for release. It’s not always for the purpose of remakes, but these days it seems that if it’s horror from the land of the rising sun, the public is going to be into it. Tomie is one of those films that both Aaron and I have looked at during our horror shopping trips. There’s something about a head in a bag that seems appealing, but we’ve never actually committed to watching the film. However, I decided that it was high time someone take the plunge.

Tomie is actually based on the manga by Junji Ito, the same man behind Uzumaki, and thanks to the rise of horror in Japan after the release of Ringu, Tomie was quickly snatched up to be made into a film. Tsukiko Izumisawa (Mami Nakamura) is dealing with a huge degree of difficulty in her life. As she’s been told, she was in a horrible accident and since then, she doesn’t have much memory of the events that happen or even much before that. Dr. Hosono (Yoriko Douguchi) has been trying to help her recover these lost memories, but it’s been rather slow going.

Tsukiko also has a new neighbor who has just moved in beneath her and the quite boy doesn’t seem to be too much danger. What she doesn’t know is that this new tenant, Yamamoto (Kenji Mizuhashi) has also moved in with a head in a bag, the remains of Tomie (Miho Kanno.) A recent murder case has brought Detective Harada (Tomorowo Taguchi) into the mix, and it involves Tomie, but what’s even stranger is that there seems to be records of Tomie’s death dating back over 100 years; several times, and always with the same name.

The idea behind Tomie is actually a very good one; a girl who even when killed and dismembered can generate herself. In her regenerative state, Tomie starts out as a young girl, and then becomes an adult, or teenager in this case, and it’s something that happens quite quickly. Again, it’s a great idea, but it’s also one that in the film is executed very poorly. Tomie is a plodding film that needlessly drags its feet almost from the very beginning, and it really doesn’t pick up the pace as it goes along.

The biggest problem with Tomie is that the director, Ataru Oikawa, tends to include shots that are far too long for their own good. Instead of making a point, he will hold on a scene for what seems like an eternity, almost inducing sleep in some cases. There are also moments when Tomie has a sequence or two (or several) thrown in lacking dialog and even music, but not in some artistic style. While they are meant to interconnect to another moment in the film, usually much later, the lack of style or direction pulls the film down even further, taking it to an even slower pace than it already was. Quite literally, there the first 40 or 50 minutes of Tomie could be sped through, stopping occasionally when there is obvious dialog, and you really wouldn’t miss too much, but you’d get the film watched in about half the time.

When Tomie isn’t too busy trying to lull you to sleep, it’s attempting to solve the mystery of the connection between Tsukiko and Tomie. Most of this is done through brief, very brief, flashbacks. The detective on the case also drops clues here and there, and things start to finally come into focus, but not really until nearly over an hour into the film. It’s slow going from the beginning of the film and it becomes nothing more than an uphill battle from there. The film delivers much in the way of scares, instead trying to create an unsettling atmosphere with its bland approach and unstylish camera work.

The only bonus features found on the DVD is behind the scenes for Tomie, but it does nothing to make the film itself more insightful. After over an hour and a half of shallow horror, and efforts to further bring credence to the movie are a wasted effort.

Tomie again is a good idea, but it’s the execution that drags the movie down and ends up creating a highly annoying, boring and quite miserable presentation. Tomie of course came shortly after the success of Ringu in Japan, something that apparently led ever producer and movie studio to scramble to find whatever horror they could. This might have been a better choice were a different director attached, and rumor is the this is yet another J-horror film that is on the remake plate. While I’ve grown tired of Hollywood dipping its hands into the Eastern horror cookie jar, let’s hope this is one instance where they might be able to deliver something better.

-mike-