Tomie: Re-birth (2001)

2001
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Starring Miki Sakai, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masaya Kikawads and Shugo Oshinari

Back in the day (like, circa 2005-ish), I used to have fun perusing the aisles at the Hollywood Video in my college town.  For a chain store, this particular brick and mortar establishment had a pretty impressive stock.  Rows upon rows of VHS tapes, that ridiculously taped off porno section, an entire rack devoted to professional wrestling.  In other words, glory.  But while I spent the vast majority of my time in the place looking at the old-school horror aisle, there was always one video on the rack that always seemed to draw my attention.  The art, the freaky-looking hateful chick, the eerie clawed fingers...it was a perfect storm of seductive horrorific charm.  Yet, for some reason, I never rented the damn thing.  The epic conclusion?  It was Tomie: Re-birth.  And yes, folks, that weird hyphenation is indeed the correct title and, much like Colin Quinn, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  So imagine my shock when I begin my initial J-horror buying binge (I should really trademark that phrase) and see that exact same image looking back at me on Amazon.com.

Released a mere year after Tomie: Replay, it was with this flick that the series truly hit its apex.  For starters, it was directed by Takashi Shimizu, he of Ju-On fame - for my money the single greatest horror franchise of the 21st century.  Admittedly, there are some movies in the Tomie series that just go through the motions, but this guy seems to be genetically predisposed to do anything but go through the motions.  Even though the movie came out before the first theatrical Ju-On, his trademark style is all over this thing, with the slow-burning build-ups, high body count, artful lack of graphic violence and insanely eerie score that makes you question life and reality itself.  If any film company - American, Japanese, Bulgarian, you name it - ever decides to remake Suspiria, I PRAY that this is the guy who draws the assignment, because I believe him to be the only person in humanity who could possibly pull it off without reaching Rob Zombie levels of banality. 

I suppose that's enough ringing in.  On with the show.

PLOT:  It's a new day, and we've got a new Tomie - the name that has popped up in Japanese crime reports since the 19th century in murders, suicides and all other manner of debauchery.  This time around, the action is centered around a small group of college friends, affording us plenty of opportunity for chaos.  The movie starts with a bang, as aspiring artist Hideo (Shugu Oshinari) is painting a picture of Tomie only for her to insult the work.  Poor Hideo, in turn, resorts to killing the f**k out of his girlfriend with an art knife.  Hey, he was proud of that painting.  The movie never looks back, maintaining the same sense of forward momentum that was the hallmark of the Ju-On series as Tomie is soon reborn in customary fashion and just keeps building and building, bringing the two friends who help Hideo bury Tomie into the fray as well as one of the characters' mothers.  What makes this particular entry different from the previous is that two of the characters are VERY focused on actually killing Tomie.  Most of the films in the series have a LONG buildup to the initial murder, but the sheer desperation that this movie's "the cat that just keeps coming back" story is just loads of fun to watch. 
PLOT RATING: **** out of ****.

CHARACTERS AND ACTORS:  I've got to go with Miki Sakai as my personal favorite actress who has ever played the title role.  Much like he did with Takako Fuji, Shimizu really did strike gold when it came to casting his leading lady, as this version of Tomie comes across as decidedly much more freakin' evil than the previous versions.  She seems to take great joy in insulting her future victims and has few redeeming qualities - just the way I like a horror villain.  The central protagonists, however, aren't quite as engaging - these are Takumi (Satoshi Tsumabuki), one of the friends who shoveled dirt onto Tomie's lifeless body in the first act, along with his girlfriend Hitomi (Kumiko Endo).  I will, however, give ten Ric Flair cool points to Shin Kusaka, the aforementioned character mother who not only cuts off Tomie's head at one point in the film but happily insults said head while it is resting in a toilet.  Note to horror directors: there is some serious untapped potential in having heroic-yet-murderous loving maternal wenches in your movie.  This lady was just gold.
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.

COOL FACTOR:  Compared to what came before it, this film is much more focused on mayhem, and there are few Japanese horror film-makers who do it better than Shimizu.  Sure, there's Takashi Miike, but some of his films border on cartoon.  Tomie: Re-birth has stabbings, suicides, a couple big special effects sequences and the coup de grace middle chapter with the mother and son repeatedly trying to do away with Tomie once and for all, affording the audience plenty of visceral stuff to enjoy.  Having said that, I will admit that the pace is a little slow compared to what we're used to here in the States, and that some of the stuff involving the Takumi-Hitomi domestic drama does drag (alliteration alert).  Still, it's hard to find a movie in this series more downright creepy and violent than this one.
COOL FACTOR: *** 1/2 out of ****.

OVERALL:  I'm not quite sure that my current review format does the Tomie series justice.  It feels like the concept alone - a mysterious woman who causes love, murder and strife wherever she goes, and who cannot die no matter what anyone does to her - is something that needs the old format.  You know, the mammoth-sized recaps complete with about nineteen bullet-point pictures.  Then I remember that I'm not suicidal.  Hopefully, the quality of this film was able to be conveyed with the less-is-more approach, because Tomie: Re-birth is just a damn fun time.  Yeah, the boyfriend-girlfriend heroes are a little weak, but all things considered, they are only onscreen for a comparatively short amount of time.  Unlike Tomie: Replay, this flick grabs your attention, hits you with the DDT and scores the pinfall. 

OVERALL RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.  Another touchdown for Shimizu, but that's to be expected.  Joe Bob says check this one out.