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Tomie
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (6th December 2024). |
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The Film
 Photography student Tsukiko (Love Exposure's Mami Nakamura) has moved away from home, the stress of her amnesia after a car accident three years before being a source of tension between her and her mother who seems reluctant to discuss it. She lives with her boyfriend Yuuichi (Moonlight Whispers' Kôta Kusano) who is an assistant chef at a local restaurant with his fellow failed bandmates and is also sleeping with her classmate Kaori (April Story's Rumi). Tsukiko has been seeing hypnotherapist Dr. Hosono (Cure's Yoriko Dôguchi) due to her problems sleeping and recurring nightmares in which she can only remember the image of herself covered in blood. When reclusive student Yamamoto (Pulse's Kenji Mizuhashi) moves into the apartment beneath Tsukiko and Yuuichi, strange things start happening to Tsukiko: her bicycle is vandalized, her dreams become waking hallucinations, and from the apartment below she hears a strange song that starts triggering more concrete memories. What Tsukiko does not know is that Dr. Hosono has been approached by sinister police detective Harada (Tetsuo, The Iron Man himself Tomorô Taguchi) who reveals that the source of Tsukiko's amnesia might not be a car accident but witnessing the murder of schoolmate Tomie Kawakami at the hands of Tsukiko's then-boyfriend, members of a high school class that has met with an inordinate amount of freak deaths and institutionalizations. More disturbing, however, is that Harada has traced a number of cases involving a Tomie Kawakami going all the way back to the Meiji period (1868-1912), each one murdered by a boyfriend and whose body vanishes after the crime; and Harada is certain that there really is and always has been only one Tomi Kawakami, and that she has something planned for her reunion with her old schoolmate Tsukiko. Meanwhile, a new waitress Tomie (Dolls' Miho Kanno) has driven Yuuichi and his two best friends and co-workers as well as his boss to distraction to the point of violence Based on a grisly serialized manga by Junji Ito – whose subsequent "Uzumaki" was also adapted into a film– Tomie entered the J-Horror filmography because it struck a chord with teenage girls whose viewership of television and video market "scary true stories" motivated Japanese producers to put some money behind theatrical releases starting with Ringu. The film has a lot of J-Horror elements including schoolgirls, at atmosphere of dread that largely eschews graphic violence – usually only shocking the viewer with the aftermath of a violent death – a female supernatural figure that may be a demon or a vengeful ghost, rain and water imagery, and largely ineffectual males. Some J-Horror films have also utilized the trope of an amnesia heroine; however, Tomie shares with later South Korean horror films the figure of an innocent-seeming protagonist who either does not remember or represses some ill deed they have done to a now vengeful ghost. While Tsukiko's sin is not as drastic as some of her K-horror counterparts, she is presented as the innocent with some throwaway dialogue that does suggest that she has problems with other females – mostly from catty Kaori and from boyfriend Yuuichi who we assume is not that observant and belittling her – and while we take it for granted that another college classmate she dislikes is the aggressor, we are never actually shown evidence of the girl doing anything other than ignoring Tsukiko.  The manga is episodic and features Tomie causing havoc with men and being killed repeatedly, and Tsukiko in the source only occupies a few chapters. If the reason that Tomie feels anger towards Tsukiko seems obvious if she were just a ghost, it does not seem to make sense if she were a demon since she repeats her actions that drive men to violence and ultimately murdering her. If we were to ascribe some humanity to monsters – as we have seen evidenced in tales of the yuki-onna (snow woman) who spares her mortal husband because of the child they have together – then Tomie may genuinely have liked Tsukiko and then stolen her boyfriend in revenge even if it does fulfill her fate again (or she may just be affronted by being betrayed by a woman). While she terrorizes Tsukiko – the film's murders are all committed by men seduced into doing her dirty work – Tomie also seems genuinely hurt, and even a little jealous as she gloats that Tsukiko will marry unhappily and grow old and ugly while she remains beautiful. She may as much embody an adolescent youth's view of a girl whose power is her beauty, but she also possesses a vanity that might be off-putting to other teenage girls so sure someone prettier or just more sexual than them is out to steal their man. Tomie asks Tsukiko "what is a monster" and we do have to ponder whether it is Tomie doing what she is compelled to do over and over again – even if she may find sadistic pleasure in the steps leading up to it – or a human who chooses to hurt another (even if it is in the petty sense of circulating a photo among her classmates with the childish caption "monster girl"). While the typical J-Horror film builds an atmosphere of encroaching dread, Tomie is a more languid slow-burn emphasizing not so much the position of women "othered" by an inability to fit into the traditional arrangement (sometimes due to the actions of the male partner) but more on the overall dead end prospects of its young characters (male and female) who have dreams they have already stifled with their own cynicism and that of their elders no matter how far they get from home (the only positive adult figure is the janitor of Tsukiko's apartment building but even he can be manipulated by Tomie). Director Ataru Oikawa – who would return to the Tomie franchise a couple entries down the road but whose other J-Horror film Apartment 1303 was a sincere effort bogged down by genre concessions and spawned a poorer 3D American remake – sets the film in overcast, rain-slicked urban environments on the outskirts of Tokyo away from the neon glitz and the distractions it offers Japanese youth and international tourists. The settings are drab but the photography of Akira Sako (Pinpon) and Kazuhiro Suzuki (Gamera the Brave) contrasts natural light exteriors and interiors with the "unnatural" strobing sodium vapor light used during Tsukiko's hypnosis sessions. There is a score credited to Hiroshi Futami and Toshihiro Kimura but apart from a climactic cue that repeatedly "jabs" at the viewer with bursts of electrical noise the most memorable musical elements are the repeated use of the robotic "Robby's Song" by World Famous – introduced over the opening sequence of eye-patched Yamamoto walking through the city streets with a plastic bag we know contains a living severed head – and the sprightly end title song "Raymond" by Yukari Fresh; the latter reminding viewers of J-Horror's target audience in the manner of producer/distributor Kadokawa featuring a pop or techno song on their J-Horror end credits for the purposes of a tie-in single. While the film is interesting as a drama that gives way to the horrific, and is anchored by a good performance from Nakamura embodying the character's contradictions – in seeming contrast to Kanno whose performance is more of a special guest appearance where she gets to reveal hidden layers after being objectified as an image and a presence for much of the running time – and Taguchi whose detective seems not attracted to the mystery of Tomie as a monster rather than her irresistible beauty, Tomie is perhaps not the best introduction to Ito's world with Oikawa doing something different due to the familiarity of the manga to Japanese audiences. While the subsequent entries in the franchise are more overtly in the spirit of the manga, the best introduction for foreign viewers perhaps is on paper to see the ways in which the film subverts expectations. Ito has a cameo as a forensic photographer. 
Video
While Ringu found wide distribution in the U.K. through Tartan and in the U.S. through DreamWorks as a DVD tie-in to the remake, Tomie did not have a U.K. release and it's U.S. release was under-the-radar with a DVD from Ventura Distribution featuring an anamorphic transfer whose naturalistic colors were diluted by an overall yellow/green tinge that extended beyond the hypnotherapy scene. We have no information about the transfer, but Arrow's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray restores the naturalistic color balance, revealing more varied skin tones among the actors – Tsukiko only looking darker in contrast to Tomie's porcelain visage – and brings some life into the drab settings through more prominent greenery while the mostly white and bare walled settings reveal textural imperfections and age. Flattened, diluted shadows on the SD master are now deep and dark, giving mood to setups that once seemed more dictated by the direction of natural light and the simulation of its sources rather than sculpting the actors and the décor. 
Audio
Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 stereo tracks are included. The film is largely front-oriented, and the settings are often sedate in terms of ambient activity, but the surrounds are fully-utilized for scenes in pouring rain and the cacophony of Tsukiko's dreams while directional effects effectively get under the skin like insects (be warned). Optional English subtitles are free of errors.
Extras
Extras start off with a new audio commentary by critic and Japanese cinema expert Amber T. (who also appeared on some titles in Arrow's recent J-Horror Rising set of seven Kadokawa films REVIEWED HERE) who discusses Ito's manga and his other works, the popularity of this particular manga with teenage girls, its themes of violence towards women – particularly in the multiple depictions of Tomie cut into pieces making her easy to "consume" in parts than as a whole woman (and the parallels with the "Twitter Killer" case in Japan), beauty and vanity and photo manipulation – arguing that Tsukiko's sin in circulating a photograph is wresting away Tomie's control over her image – as well as how the attitudes of the characters reflect the pessimism of Japan after the economic bubble in the nineties.  In It's a Girl's World (34:58), director Oikawa reveals that he had directed an independent film and then did not work for four years after that, finding it difficult to get a foothold in the industry and was introduced to the Ito manga by a bar hostess when he queried what books were popular with teenagers at the time. He recalls his interest in the project, his choice to set it on the outskirts of Tokyo after observing the people who lived there, wanting Nakamura and Kanno for the leads, and Ito's input into the script, wanting a more languid type of creepiness over the more American style of horror Oikawa liked. In Scream Queen (15:43), actress-turned-psychotherpaist Nakamura recalls being struck by Ito's insight into young women and seeing Tomie as a projection of Tsukiko's inner conflicts. In From Manga to Screen (12:46), producer Mikihiko Hirata (Marebito) recalls that he was working in laserdisc production at Pioneer and had produced the laserdisc release of Oikawa's first film and hoped to work with him again, getting the opportunity when he left Pioneer to form his own production company and was approached to produce Tomie. He recalls Ito's involvement and his visit to the set, working around Kanno's busy television schedule, and being struck by the popularity of the film in other Asian territories (noting that Ito had been a part-time manga writer and part-time dental assistant but became a fulltime writer with "Uzumaki" after the success of the film). He notes that the sequel was produced by the crew of the Uzumaki film but he returned for the rest of the sequels along with Oikawa helming three more of them. A behind the scenes (28:13) piece features the input of Kanno and Ito in addition to more comments from Oikawa and Nakamura. Ito reveals that the manga was inspired by his fear of women when he was younger, describing Tomie as a girl who loves only herself and cares only for her genes – that is, the copies that spring from her disembodied remains – and expresses embarrassment at his appearance in the film with cutaways to footage of the shooting after which he receives an ovation for his single line of dialogue. Kanno is seen undergoing a face cast for her severed head and expresses how finding the character is more important than the fact that Tomie is a monster, and that if women were to express all of their desires freely they would all be Tomies. The disc also includes the theatrical trailer and an image gallery. 
Packaging
The disc includes a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck, while the first pressing includes a slipcover and an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Zack Davisson and Eugene Thacker (not supplied for review).
Overall
While Tomie as a film is perhaps not the best introduction to the manga, it is an interesting transposition of the source to another medium.
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