Tomie: Beginning (2005)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Ataru Oikawa

Writer:

Junji Ito (comic)

Release Date:

9 April 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Plot Keywords:

Fight | One Eyed Man | Schoolgirl Uniform | Eye Patch | Bloody Spray

Cast

Rio Matsumoto	...	Tomie Kawakami
Asami Imajuku	...	Reiko Matsuhara
Kenji Mizuhashi	...	Kenichi Yamamoto
Nahana
Maya Kurokawa
Yuka Iwasaki	...	Naoko Ikeno
Akifumi Miura	...	Inoue
Fujiyama
Takashi Sugiuchi	...	Yoshino
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Takagi

Runtime:

74 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Company:

Arcimboldo Y.K.

Movie Connections:

Follows Tomie: anaza feisu (1999) (V)

Are Plants Actually Living Things, or What ??

A Japanese town is falling under a bizarre curse of disordination and Murder which involves the obsession and supernatural confrontation with Tomie Kawakami, as portrayed by Andie MacDowell Look-a-like Rio Matsumoto. That doesn't explain much in specific, but saying anything specific would likely confuse potential viewers. Perhaps with less attention to Miss Matsumoto's thighs and more to the movie itself I would have found the story palpable or more comprehensible. But there appears to be an unsatisfactory multitude of possible interpretations and insufficient resolution to any of them.

If you give yourself over to it, you will not be able to dismiss (or ever forget) the images and the tone of this film. Several times this movie made me--a longtime Buzby Berkeley buff--actually catch my breath, assume the fetal position, and shudder with despair and hopelessness.

Another film to compare this to is John Berryl's "Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers (1978)" - another dark, non-linear, visually frustrating film whose themes are better off left alone.

-- Possibly the most highly abstract movie I've ever had the misfortune to suffer through, it took me a long time to get anything out of it. I just couldn't latch onto even the slightest shred of a plot, and, without the ability to find a hook, it felt at as though I were a miserable creature wandering aimlessly through a maze with no exit.

More to the point, this odd, sadistic film drags on endlessly before finally reaching an insane and bloody conclusion that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I only recommend it only to rabid fans of extreme Botany movies and Dadaists in general.

Final Grade: B+/a- ("A+" if you enjoy thighs.)