(1998)
Dir - Ataru Oikawa
Overall: MEH
The first in a to-date nine-deep franchise based off of Junji Ito's manga of the same name, Tomie is a low-key and laboriously paced bit of supernatural horror that is minimal on both the supernatural and the horror. Narratively, it serves as a sequel to Ito's initial story and draws elements from the "Photograph" and "Kiss" segments therein, bringing Miho Kanno's Tomie to life as a bug-eating severed head baby that quickly grows into the manipulative, creepy, and diabolical succubus that she is. Kanno established the portrayal here that all future actors would take as Tomie's various incarnations, and her face is kept off screen entirely until the third act where her orange eyes are briefly shown to go along with her bewitching mannerisms. Filmmaker Ataru Oikawa would get behind the lens for 2005's Tomie: Beginning and Tomie: Revenge as well, the only such director to helm more than one in the series as well as receiving sole screenwriting credit while behind the lens. Sadly though, his sense of urgency is problematically lacking. It takes forever to link Aoi Miyazaki's protagonist to that of the title villain and it does so in a murky way at best, with other characters weaving in and out inconsequentially. The body count is low, but Oikawa stages a few mildly freaky set pieces at least.
(1999)
Dir - Toshirō Inomata
Overall: MEH
Edited down to a feature-length film from the V-cinema series Tomie kyōfu no bishōjo, Tomie: Another Face, (Tomie: anaza feisu), features Runa Nagai as the title villain, here working her seductive magic in three different stories that are linked by a former police coroner who has been tracking her down. While it is nothing spectacular, it makes for an agreeable anthology horror watch at only seventy-one minutes, trimming the fat from the already brisk episodes which could have been included in their entirety. First coming back from the grave to make her high school boyfriend and a competing love interest's lives miserable, Tomie then lures a photographer into her midst who was smitten by her image as a younger man. The last story is the one that properly introduces the one-eyed Oota who reveals himself to be hunting Tomie throughout her exploits, though audience members will no doubt surmise said character's agenda long before he spells it all out. Nagai turns in creepy performance, using the character's overt cuteness and coy sex appeal to hoodoo men into appeasing her diabolical needs. Things play out as one would expect for better or worse, with Tomie gaining the upper hand in her perpetually immortal quest that even an incinerator cannot finalize.
(2000)
Dir - Fujirō Mitsuishi
Overall: MEH
Released on a double bill with another cinematic adaptation of one of Junji Ito's mangas (the outstanding head-trip Uzumaki), Tomie: Replay takes its cue from the "Basement" chapter of Ito's source material. With a noticeably bigger budget and a more polished presentation than the previous two installments, director Fujirō Mitsuishi, (in his only movie credit of any kind), manufactures the same low-key tone that the franchise had already established. Some of the set pieces and graphic visuals are more bizarre, with Tomie having a deformed monster face in several shots, emerging out of a six year old's belly, and having her severed-head body be fully functional. Her particular brand of hoodoo evil is treated more like a virus here than anything, with most people who come in mere contact with her developing generalized, psychotically insane attributes instead of just being disturbingly smitten with her cold, cutesy aura. Unfortunately, the film is not exciting or strange enough to be front-to-back compelling and it ends in a confused whimper that anyone familiar with the series knows will merely lead into the next incarnation of the immortal title villain.
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