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Released by: Ventura
Released on: 1/27/2004
Director: Ataru Oikawa
Cast: Miho Kanno, Mami Nakamura, Yoriku Douguchi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kouta Kusano
Year: 1999
The Movie:
Based on the Manga by Junji Ito (who's work was also mined for Uzumaki and Kakashi a. k. a. Scarecrow) and directed by Ataru Oikawa, Tomie is a pretty weird little movie that, while at times quite confusing, proves to be worth a look and explores some interesting ideas and themes.
After we see a teenage boy toss a plastic bag containing a human head to the side of the road, we meet Tsukiko (Mami Nakamura). A young woman who has recently had to deal with some pretty harrowing issues in her past, Tsukiko is trying to rediscover her repressed memories from her younger days with the help of a psychiatrist named Doctor Hosono (Yoriko Douguchi). While she's under hypnosis, she continually repeats the name 'Tomie' over and over again, but once she's up, she has no idea what it means or where it came from.
While this is going on, a police detective discovers a string of nasty murders going on around town that are connected in a sense - Tomie has been a murder victim for the better part of three years now and the first time she/it was killed was while Tsukiko was in school. As they investigate things further, they find that Tomie is somehow able to regenerate and has a habit of turning her boyfriends against her before she is ultimately murdered.
Sound bizarre and confusing? Well, it is. Parts of it are pretty hard to unravel sometimes and the ending is still a bit of a puzzler to me even after watching it for the third time. It would probably help to have a familiarity with Junji Ito's Manga that the series is based on (two volume of which are available in English so far from Comicsone.com) but I haven't gotten around to checking the comics out yet so I'm still a little murky as to why the events that occur in the last fifteen minutes of the film happen, but at the same time, the film is still able to maintain an odd and effective atmosphere of dread that goes a long way towards making it creepy even when you're not entirely sure what the Hell is going on.
It's far from a perfect film though - there are a couple of scenes where very little, if anything, is actually going on. Sometimes characters are just sitting around in rooms and not actually really doing anything. This can be a bit alienating at times, as it causes the film to move at a very languid pace, but overall the good outweighs the bad in the film and for Japanese horror buffs, it's worth a look.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Tomie is presented in an okay non-anamorphic widescreen transfer at roughly 1.78.1. Colors are pretty good, though they do bleed ever so slightly in a couple of scenes, but there is an unusually soft feel to the image that takes away from the film a little bit. Print damage though is minimal and the movie is quite watchable, though it could have been better.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is in its native Japanese language with nice, clear, removable English subtitles that are typo free and don't suffer from the same translation problems that the HK import version is afflicted by. Overall, the sound quality is very strong with nice use made out of the rear channels when necessary.
First up are trailers for Tomie, and it's four sequels. In addition to the five trailers though is a lengthy twenty-eight minute 'making of' featurette that has interviews with director Ataru Oikawa, writer/creator/manga artist Junji Ito, and most of the cast members involved in the production as well. It's an interesting piece and a welcome addition to the DVD.
The Final Word:
The improved English subtitles, 5.1 surround mix, and slightly better transfer on this release make it preferable to the Universe Laser release that was previously available. Tomie, the movie itself, is worth checking out, even if it is all slightly confusing. The atmosphere is nice and there are a couple of nice scares inside.