This movie kind of assumes you've read the manga, doesn't it? (Spoilers)

It explains absolutely nothing in a satisfactory manner. If I hadn't read the manga beforehand, I wouldn't even be able to tell you anything about the film's title character and antagonist, Tomie.

This movie clocks in at about an hour and thirty-five minutes. 45 minutes in and there hadn't been a single murder, nor any body horror scenes. Aside from one guy, we don't seen Tomie turn any men into her mind slaves within this time frame. This IS supposed to be Tomie, right?
You know, Tomie, the temptress who drives men insane with lust and jealousy and has them go on a rampage doing her bidding in spreading misery and chaos across the land? And Tomie herself is like a mixture of The Thing and a succubus or siren. Like Wolverine, she regenerates from any wound and like The Thing various body parts grow into new Tomies, guaranteeing that you will never be rid of her unless you manage to burn every cell.

All the murder and mayhem occurs (mostly off screen) in the last 40 minutes. Bad form, Tomie: the movie. Had this been more like the manga, within the first hour, there'd already be a sizable body count (with Tomie, herself, comprising half of it) and most of the cast would already be driven insane and trying to kill each other in a full scale street war.

The film had an abysmal budget for what it was trying to adapt. Tomie requires a decent budget for practical and CG effects in order to portray the creative scenery and violence from the manga. We barely even see Tomie in the movie, despite the fact that she's supposed to be the villain. The filmmakers just referenced things from the manga and took images from it and stuck them in the movie thinking that would be enough but it isn't. It doesn't follow any of the stories presented and can't even manage to get basic things about the characters from the source material right.
It completely misunderstand the relevance of certain things (like Tomie's reaction to having her photo taken. She doesn't like it because photos reveal her true nature). And why did the severed head of Tomie spend a year as a head and then suddenly regenerate her body in like, three days?
Also, Tomie is supposed to be this unbelievably beautiful vixen who can put any man under her spell in just a look. When we finally see her, I was...unimpressed. She was pretty, but that was it. You need a royal bombshell for a sex-appeal oozing succubus character. Simple as that.

In all, considering the warped, dark, and creepily-entertaining material it was trying to adapt, it just failed on every level. It needed a bigger budget, a better director, and a MUCH better Tomie.



"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf