Tomie: Revenge (2005) Reviews

• For Tomie buffs only.

  Caustic Pulp2006-04-15

  If you're a "Tomie" fan you'll find something to like here. If you have no idea what "Tomie" even is, well, how the heck would you get here anyhow? Now that it's available in all its English subtitled glory, I've had the opportunity to view "Tomie: Revenge" and to experience the kind of disappointment that's all too familiar to "Tomie" fans. The "how could they screw this up?" feeling. To summarize the plot of "Tomie: Revenge" is an impossible undertaking simply because there really isn't one. Most of the film's ideas are scattershot, thrown to the winds. The threads that connect the characters are painfully thin, and this film has easily the worst Tomie in the series (at least until I see "Tomie: Beginning.") There are some very good scenes and concepts here, and a few exciting parts, and for what it's worth, the film does try to at least tie all the "Tomie" films together. But that's not worth much; even the source material keeps little continuity between the incarnations of Tomie. This is the most disjointed film I've seen in a long time. Characters appear and disappear with little motivation. Tomie's personality is radically different from the manga and the previous films; so badly written and acted this Tomie is, that the most exciting scenes involving her are the ones where people are talking about her. The ones she isn't even actually in. If you're a "Tomie" buff you're going to see this movie no matter what I say, so go for it. Just don't show it to your friends.