Review of Tomie: Replay (2000) by Paul C — 21 Aug 2006

Tomie: Replay.

Starring: Sakaya Yamaguchi, Yosuke Kubozuka, Masatoshi Matsuo, and Mai Hosho.

Director: Tomijiro Mitsuishi.

Yumi (Yamaguchi) receives her father's journal following his dissapearance, and she discovers that a name keeps coming up in it: Tomie. Meanwhile, Fumihito (Kubozuka) discovers that his best friend Takeshi (Matsuo) has become obsessed with a girl named Tomie. An accidental meeting between the two cause them to combine their efforts to locate this mysterious woman, but when they eventually do, they discover that Tomie (Hosho) is beauty and beast wrapped into one.

After the first, awful "Tomie" movie, I almost didn't bother with this one. I'm glad I did, however, as this film is closer in tone and approach to the original Junji Ito "Tomie" stories, and it has some thoroughly scary moments in it. It also sheds some light on the character of "Tomie", giving her an almost sympathetic side. (I say "almost", because she is a monster, through and through.).

For the unitiated (which is probably most readers out here), Tomie is a series of short comicbook horror stories by Japanese artist Junji Ito. They revolve around the terrors inflicted by a monstrous, female-appearing creature whose great beauty cause men who see her to fall in love with her, then become obsessed with her, and ultimately insane with jealousy. This last part causes them to go on homicidal rampages, killing their "rivals" for Tomie's love and ultimately Tomie herself so no one else can have her. Death only makes Tomie stronger, however, as not only is she reborn, but if her body has been dismembered, she may well rise from the dead more than once, so several of her can be walking around, spreading misery, at the same time. ("Replay" provides an interesting look at this, as well as spelling out a way to kill Tomie for good--it's something that I don't recall from the comic, but it's something that explains why she keeps coming back.).

The film is not without its flaws, though. The frightening scenes (like when Yumi and Fumihito visit Takeshi's apartment, when Yumi's father resurfaces, and when Yumi finally comes face to face with Tomie) are seperated by stretches where the film feels like it is being performed by sleepwalkers. Oddly, Tomie feels like the most alive character in the entire film, because she is the only character that projects energy outside scenes of horror. Despite the extremely low-key acting, the movie never gets boring--there's a sense of tension and dread throughout from the opening scene to the very end.

"Tomie" is a flawed film, but it captures the work of Junji Ito nicely. I think it's worth seeing, but it's not something you should put high on your list.