Tomie - Arrow Limited Edition

Tomie, written and directed by Ataru Oikawa, based on the manga by Junji Ito (Uzumaki), tells the story of the murder of a young high school girl. The problem is, she’s been murdered before. Tomie (Miho Kanno) has a secret and Detective Harada (Tomorowo Taguchi) wants to locate her and find out what it is. Meanwhile, Tsukiko is undergoing hypnotherapy treatments for amnesia. She seems to have known Tomie and witnessed something so horrible that it caused her to black out and an entire three-month period of her life is gone, like ephemera.

The severed head of Tomie is being cared for by one of her former classmates, where she is fed yogurt and the occasional cockroach until her body regrows. She has a cycle she repeats: She keeps men under her hypnotic spell, using her orange eyes. Before long, the men under her spell will inevitably be driven mad enough to kill her and hack her into pieces, where she will regrow and regenerate.

As a villain, I quite liked Tomie. Miho Kanno plays her with a sort of childlike innocence and sophomoric pettiness toward revenge. She’s a monster of the best variety: A monster whose biggest sin is vanity and who can’t stand a wounded ego. Tomie’s eyes are dead, she giggles wildly and her hair is wild, frizzy, and untamed. She looks maniacal in her glee to exact torture against people who wronged her with perceived slights.

When Tomie works, it works. There are haunting, lasting images that deserve a more consistent movie—Tomie’s head in a wicker basket conjures images of Basket Case. A grocery bag filled with writhing, wriggling cockroaches, that also once contained Tomie’s head, eyes glowing from a gap in the handle. It’s just that, far too often, Tomie is just kind of dull. A lot of the screen time is dedicated to a relationship drama between Tsukiko and her philandering boyfriend. Or Tsukiko’s boyfriend and his restaurant job. These scenes aren’t bad, and in fact contain some good dialogue and excellent, naturalistic acting, it’s that these scenes don’t help set up the horror of the film. It feels like two different stories that are at odds with each other and competing for screen time. They never coherently or satisfyingly mesh. They just sort of collide at a certain point.

Granted, when the two dynamics do finally converge in the final reel, the movie kicks into gear. It’s just, for a movie about a girl who gets murdered again and again, whose severed body parts regenerate, it’s a shame that it’s not more exciting. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Tomie a failure, because it’s quite ambitious and is successful in its own way, but I’d call it something like an ambitious disappointment. A disappointment because something like this should have been a slam dunk.

Tomie spawned a series of sequels and has garnered a cult following, so don’t take my word as gospel. J-horror completists will likely find a lot to love and will gladly clear a space for it in their collection, or upgrade their existing DVD.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
For this review, we were issued a check disc, but retail editions from Arrow Video will offer Tomie on a single-disc Blu-ray that contains the film along with all listed supplemental features. The disc should be housed in a standard case with an identical slipcover containing newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck. The case should also feature reversible artwork, one side is the original poster artwork that has also accompanied the previous DVD release, and the other side is the new artwork that is on the slipcover. Collectors will also find an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Zack Davisson and Eugene Thacker.

Tomie was shot on 35mm film in 1998. The technical notes on this release don’t specify anything about any sort of new remaster from its original 35mm negative, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there had been some sort of restoration process. Arrow’s release of Tomie looks great. The film itself, at times, suffers from a very 90s aesthetic of overdoing it on the color correction and certain sequences are awash in a greenish-bluish filer. These sequences are rare and, for the most part, the film looks natural, warm, and free of any sort of technical issues like aliasing or color banding. Lowlight sequences are covered in a thin layer of film grain and noise, which is not an issue, per se, just a product of the film production’s time and the technology used to create the film. Overall, in terms of color realization and black levels outside of extreme lowlight looks terrific.

There are two audio options available: A 5.1 surround sound option in DTS-HD MA 5.1, and a lossless LPCM 2.0 stereo option, both in Japanese. I did toggle back and forth between the two and there’s not a huge difference between the two. Both the stereo option and the surround sound option are pretty front-heavy presentations on the soundstage. Looking at details on the previous DVD release and technical specs, Tomie’s original audio mix was in mono, so it sounds like the 5.1 surround mix is honoring the original source. The biggest difference between the two would be the emphasis on the “point-one” of the 5.1 audio mix. The surround sound option did have better bass realization. Certain sound effects did make their way to the rears but it wasn’t a common occurrence. Either option ought to be just fine for you because they were both mixed very well. Dialogue was always clear and emphasized, music was layered nicely, and sound effects came through clearly and precisely without being overly loud.

Arrow has added some great supplemental features for its release of Tomie, including a brand-new audio commentary, and brand-new interviews with the writer/director Ataru Oikawa and star Mami Nakamura.

• Audio Commentary - By critic and Japanese cinema expert Amber T.
• It's a Girl's World (HD 34:58) - Interview with director Ataru Oikawa
• Scream Queen (HD 15:43) - Interview with actress Mami Nakamura
• From Manga to Screen (HD 12:46) - Interview with producer Mikihiko Hirata
• Making-Of (SD 28:13) - Archival documentary on the making of the film
• Trailer
• Image Gallery
• Illustrated Collector's Booklet - Featuring new writing by Zack Davisson and Eugene Thacker

Tomie is an original horror film unlike most anything else, even in the world of Japanese horror. Screenwriter and director Ataru Oikawa has great affection for the characters and gives them room to develop and become fully realized personalities before putting them through the wringer. While I don’t think the film is always as successful, it does soar in its best moments, and Arrow Video has given it a terrific release, with excellent audio/video quality, and tons of supplemental features. Tomie is Recommended for casual fans and die-hard J-horror fans alike.