I watched this, the first of the Tomie series, after having already seen the second, "Tomie - Replay," which builds on the storyline that's started here. From the reviews of I'd read I expected this, the original "Tomie," to be fairly pedestrian and mediocre and... that's exactly what it is.
This one is not really horror, not really even a murder/suspense thing. "Tomie" is rather an interesting but unambitious murder melodrama - that happens to have a few scenes of gruesome violence, an atmosphere of weirdness and creepiness throughout, and which is based on an understated supernatural premise.
I don't think this is as bad as some are letting on though - the story itself holds together nicely, for instance, and in that respect "Tomie" is roughly 50 times better than that contemptible Korean mess called "Tale of Two Sisters" that so many are raving about sycophantically.
The ending is a little arbitrary but that's nothing new to naturalistic fiction; the characters are all interesting and well-acted; the cinematography is gloomy and occasionally oppressive but the choice of camera angles and composition is very well done. The music is probably the scariest thing about this movie. There's an English-language song that's sung in a voice filtered through an absolutely demented signal-processor patch that conveys a palpable and unsettling malevolence. It's just too bad none of that song's creepiness spilled into the movie's plot.
What's lacking is a needed element of intensity that really grabs you and sucks you in. In that sense you could almost consider "Tomie" to be a lengthy trailer or prologue to the vastly-superior "Tomie-Replay." I have yet to see the third and fourth, respectively "Rebirth" and "Forbidden Fruit." This first one is optional - good for Japanophiles and completists - but "Replay" works as a standalone film with no problem. Do *not* miss that one - it's easily one of the best Asian horror flicks I've yet seen and I was not expecting that at all.
