Tomie (1999)

Directed by
Genre
Creepy, but lacking in depth
Reviewed by Simon on 2001-09-24

Japanese horror about... ummm... well, there's this schoolgirl who has to see a psychiatrist because she can't sleep, which the doctor suspects is related to the complete loss of memory of the events surrounding some accident she had some years ago. And then there's chap who lives on the floor below with a baby in a box, and ... well, some more stuff happens.

Something that I've noticed in a lot of Japanese horror films - no attempt is made to explain why the spooky things are the way they are, what caused them or whatever. It's just presented to you that this is how things are, take it or leave it. I'm not a big horror movie fan in general, so I generally prefer something beyond "ooh, creepy sensations" to hold my interest in a film. In this case the particular attractiveness of the main protagonist was probably the only thing that kept me watching, and the hope that somebody would explain it all before the end I guess. If you like creepy asian horror movies, I'm sure this one is well made... but I'm still not sure what the point of the exercise was. Would probably appeal to fans of Ringu anyway.