 |
| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
The rise of manga artist Junji Ito in the annals of J-horror
cinema continues to be felt today with ongoing animated adaptations of his
works alongside a forthcoming Uzumaki film. Compounded with renewed interest in J-horror
including but not limited to Arrow Video’s J-Horror Rising seven film box
and the Ju-On and Ringu boxes, Arrow saw fit to publish the first
film in a long running series of J-horror freakouts based on one of Ito’s most
beloved and very first mangas: the 1987 psychological thriller Tomie. While the film amassed a number of sequels
throughout the 2000s including V-cinema films spliced together into features,
the first entry written and directed by Door screenwriter Ataru Oikawa
prominently featuring Dolls actress Miho Kanno in the titular role of Tomie
remains one of the late 1990s benchmarks of J-horror emerging arguably at the boom
of the subgenre.
In the film with a premise echoing Irvin Kirshner’s Eyes
of Laura Mars, a photography student Tsukiko (Mami Nakamura) begins
experiencing violent nightmares and with a psychiatrist Dr. Hosono (Kiyoshi
Kurosawa regular Yoriko Douguchi) tries to recall deeply repressed memories of
trauma. At the same time Detective
Harada (Tetsuo: The Iron Man actor TomorÅ Taguchi) mounts an
investigation into the disappearance of a high school girl, finding a breadcrumb
trail with decades of kindred cases involving victims who went by the name of
Tomie Kawakami who were then decapitated by insane ex-boyfriends before
reaching maturity. Meanwhile a mysterious
new neighbor moves in next door with a plastic bag housing something otherworldly
which grows into a deadly manifestation of succubus evil.
Partially a youth drama ala All About Lily Chou-Chou with
something really very weird going on at the epicenter, partially a slow foray
into the manga series as a J-horror investigative piece, Tomie for being
one of the staples of J-horror at arguably the genre’s height is more than a
little bonkers. Basically the story of
an immortal seductress identifiable by a beauty mark beneath her left eye who
is beheaded but keeps coming back reincarnated in other forms told through the
prism of a Japanese after school special, Tomie is more creepy and
unnerving than effectively scary. Much
like Goodnight Mommy, there’s a fixation on cockroaches and other creepy
things amid a crime scene investigation thriller ala the vastly superior Cure.
Between the frankly atonal soft ambient score by Hiroshi
Futami and Toshihiro Kimura and joint cinematography by Akira Sako of The
Returner and Gamera the Brave cameraman Kazuhiro Suzuki, Tomie is
tough to pinpoint tonally. In one breath
you’re in the aforementioned gialli-esque world of photography ala Eyes of
Laura Mars, in the other you’re in outright bizarre creature feature fairy
tale shenanigans begetting some of the more outlandish Stephen King
manifestations. Still, where the film
works are the performances by Mami Nakamura as the heroine Tsukiko who finds
herself navigating a period of supernatural memory loss and Miho Kanno as the
titular angry orange-eyed Tomie Kawakami.
Tomorowo Taguchi who achieved Japanese cyberpunk screen horror infamy
with Tetsuo: The Iron Man gets a day off as the Detective Harada
alongside Cure actress Yoriko Douguchi.
Though a successful horror film franchise in Japan all
heartily endorsed by the manga artist Junji Ito, Tomie didn’t really
start to play like the original text onscreen until 2005’s prequel Tomie:
Beginning also by director Ataru Oikawa.
More than a little bizarre and labyrinthine in plot, presentation and
experience, Tomie is ostensibly a murder mystery that introduces some
uncanny supernatural elements. While
Junji Ito’s popularity and influence in Western and East Asian horror continues
to grow, it is curious to see a formidable J-horror franchise stemmed from such
a neo-noirish, intentionally convoluted horror item that’s more peculiar and
fascinating than frightening. Arrow
Video’s release is nice but one wonders whether or not a planned boxed set of
the whole series is down the line.
--Andrew Kotwicki
