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I'll say one thing for Tomie: Forbidden Fruit. It was hands down the easiest one to get out of the case. OK, technically? It was originally pinned down under Rebirth, which is otherwise the hardest, so the added effort of just lifting it out after first getting that one out of there would technically put it over, but see, I anticipated this and made sure to just leave that one loose in the case rather than re-peg it. Also? Least listenable menu screen track. It's this very Silent Hill repetitive clanging, then a couple quick linkes of dialog before the loop point.
So this is the one by the guy who... huh! No, Rebirth was the one by the Grudge guy! Well now I'm just kinda torn on whether I should get around to watching those! So let's see. The title screen music had a Silent Hill vibe, and we're at least starting off with this actually nicely done red tinted sepia tone look, presumably for a flashback, which reminds me of the general look of Siren. So.... yeah, I'm getting a major vibe of that guy who made those games whose name is escaping me. Also, woo! Daikons! They really do grow with the top sticking out of the ground it seems. Various Super Mario World levels seem way more plausible. Also, we've got a bunch of girls talking about Tomie, as kind of an urban legend thing. One's all "Oh, kinda like the girl from The Ring?" "Well, she also seduces people." "OK, so kinda like if the girl from The Ring was a total slut?" Also, they're taking turns firing a crossbow at a scarecrow, then up comes their nerdy loser friend Tomie. That... could get potentially confusing. I'm just going to call her Glasses until such time as we have a plot twist like in Sakura Wars where that guy named Satan turns out to be Satan, OK? Anyway, she has low self-esteem, and wishes she could be more like that other, more popular girl, also named Tomie that she goes to school with. Then her dad suggests she put her contacts in but screw you I'm committed to Glasses! Anyway, on her way to school, a trio of Bitches put her down and bum money off her.
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After school, Glasses invites Tomie over to her house. "Sorry, my dad's kinda turning into a dirty old man." "Used to it!" "Sorry, my house is kind of a mess." "Yeah seriously, this place is a freaking dump. I particularly dig the weird stain on your ceiling that looks like a screaming face, and your totally %@#$ed up violent renaissance art book. So what is there to do for fun around here anyway? Ooh, is this where you write your depraved slash fics? Lemme see." This is one of those rare instances where I'm throwing in swears and the subtitles aren't, but seriously, she's in top snarky form right off the bat. Anyway, Tomie gets Glasses to read her cheesy short fiction, halfway through she's all "And the stew's made from her boyfriend. Got it. Hey, you ever actually eat human flesh?" "No." "Well you can't write about it if you've never done it. Tell you what, I'll hook you up later." Meanwhile, Dad's out playing pachinko, but sees her coming and going, because, well, he saw Tomie before like 20 years ago or so apparently.
By the way? You know how the title of this one is Forbidden Fruit? Yeah, you go write ahead and read that as Overt Lesbian Subtext. Or possibly text-text. Anyway "So hey, close your eyes and open your mouth. That's what human flesh tastes like!' "..." "If you buy into how pomegranates are supposed to taste like people. Also, lick my finger." OK yeah. I'm going to go with text text. I believe they just totally had off camera sex in a field just now. We're being classy about it though. Did you ever see that weird illustrated diary entry from the guy talking about seeing a bunch of Japanese High School Girls at the end of the school year kinda making out but phrased in a way that some how doesn't come off as an incredibly creepy thing to be commenting on? It's that sort of vibe.
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Now Tomie's going over to Dad and she's all "So let me guess, you remember me from 25 years ago, right? Yeah, that was totally me. Don't let the whole thing where I 'died' and should look older throw you off. You were pretty cute back then by the way." Here's a flashback. "So hey, why'd you let your old dead friend rape me anyway." "... He did?" "Yeah, don't sweat it, it happens. So hey, wanna make out?" Anyway though, yeah, on the lesbian front, with a lot of things, I'd object to that, but let's be honest here. If every single guy you ever met was instantly reduced to a drooling obsessive zombie who dropped their whole life to worship you and/or murder you out of insane jealousy, you'd have to at least give girls a shot now and then. Kinda nice to have the occasional relationship with someone who has free will. Anyway, Dad's burning pictures of dead Mom now... and her altar, and they're both getting all mopey and eating really nice looking plates of sushi in separate rooms. Dad's also trying to work out and get in shape to properly impress Tomie, and she's egging him on in doing so, because, well, that's kind of her thing and all.
Late at night, it's spooky time! Really, it's kind of unprompted, but Glasses is just kinda wandering around the house in the middle of the night with that Silent Hill clanging going on, finding her increasingly creepy dad just kinda... standing out in the yard in the middle of the night for no good reason. Then Tomie calls. "Hey, I'm crashing at your place tomorrow." "Yh.... you sure you want to? Dad's kinda acting creepy?" "Yeah I totally don't care what's up with your dad." He possibly here's this, just kinda lurking in the background with a knife. But anyway, she comes over and she's all "Hey, let's act out this scene from your lesbian bondage slash fic! Here, I'll blindfold you tie you to your bed, kill the lights, and wander off for an unspecified period of time so you can get properly freaked out, then I'll come rescue you." Then she goes off to hit on Dad. Tomie's kinda being a bit of a jerk in this one, but hey, at least she's efficient about it. There's also possibly a long con sorta thing going on. "So hey, your daughter is a whiny clingy loser. No way I can shack up with you with her in the picture. Hey, you know, if you killed her, we could run off together somewhere. Also, it's kinda messed up how you named her after me."
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Dad's pretty much ready to go through with this, but then all of the sudden he's all "Wait a minute, what the #@$% am I doing? You're some kind of monster!" whips around, and... that was actually a pretty nicely done quick brutal meat cleaver through the temple. So yeah, drags the body to a saw mill, bzzzzzzzz, toss some chunks in the river. And... OK, this right here? This is TOTALLY Silent Hill music. Weird moody stuff. Naturally, the next morning, at least one, presumably several Tomies get out of he river and... huh. Glasses is still tied to her bed. Tomie throws some broken glass down on the floor... of maybe he just dropped it because he was drunk, sees Tomie coming in, runs up to strangle her, and eventually catches himself actually strangling Glasses. After a quick apology, she's all "So... where's Tomie." Dad says "Killed her. She's a monster. Look, here's an old picture of me and her from 25 years ago, looks exactly the same. So I hacked her up and tossed her in the river." "Which river?" Oh, and now we have more short story narration. It's quite possible that the entire premise of this movie is just that Tomie is a DIEHARD LARPer. Well hey, there's her head. "Hey, help me out here? We're still friends, right?" "Yeah..." So she pulls the severed head out of the water, gives it a hug, and takes it home. Or... takes it somewhere anyway. Possibly Tomie's place. She picks up a nice fancy looking hemorrhoid pillow, puts it on a nice little end table for her... checks out the stumpy little new body she's starting to sprout, "Hey, don't stare. It's embarrassing." And she heats up some baby food for her. I like this.
Again, Tomie's not really evil or anything, just kind of a snarky jerk. She's not big on baby food though, and asks for some shark fin soup. So OK, a spoiled snarky jerk. But hey, that's understandable. Several lifetimes of people totally worshipping you, and you're going to be kind of high maintenance. Now here's some creepy old dude who used to work with Glasses' Dad showing up out of the blue and hitting on her. She's all yeah no. Meanwhile, dad's inside with a metal bat ready to cave in Tomie's skull when she comes back for revenge. He's also kinda hiding under a blanket. I dig Dad for some reason. I also dig when these movies remember to respect conservation of mass. Oh, I totally have to remember to screen grab tubby tuber half-formed Tomie here. And I love how Glasses is TOTALLY COOL with all of this. She's like "Aww! Look, the fingers are coming in on your stubby little proto-arms!" and now she's taking her for a ride in a stroller. A random middleaged woman comes by while they're hanging out at a bench and goes all "Oh you can't cover a new baby up that much. "Scram Lady!" Cue screaming. Yeah, this here? This is one of the good Tomie movies.
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Also, remember those three random Bitches from earlier? Which I'm capitalizing because seriously, they're like, professionals or something? They hear apparently Glasses had a baby or something and go to... just arbitrarily mess with her. She'ss not home though apparently. Just cruising around town with a half-formed person in a duffle bag, shopping for an apartment, because, well, Dad's getting kinda hard to live with with all the paranoia, and Tomie's place has kinda been abandoned a while. Some random creep asks if Glasses is a hooker, and Tomie's all hollering out of the bag "Oh yeah totally! Got 15 man? No? How about 10?" Uh... add a 0 on those for a proper conversion to dollars I think. Then she's all, "Hey, you know what I could go for? Some caviar! Why don't you rob that bank and buy me some?" She gets the money somehow, but it's the cheap stuff, and Tomie complains. Also, when she goes to change her diaper, turns out she's kinda sprouting a separate head, presumably having gotten pretty banged up when she dropped her on running from the would-be-John. Happens more often in the manga. So... yeah, Glasses has pretty much had it at this point, and heads up to the roof to do a murder suicide thing because the whole second face thing needs medical attention, and you know the hospital would just freak out. Tomie's all "OK, OK, I was pushing it with the caviar thing, sorry. Look though, the whole suicide pact thing doesn't ever work out. I don't die and I'm not going to let you go and kill yourself either. I like having you around too much." "You really like me?" "Well honestly, you're kind of a creepy gloomy idiot but hey, beggars can't be choosers." At that point, she goes to jump, Tomie bites her, and she accidentally drops her... to what she assumes is her death because, well, let's be honest. Glasses IS a creepy gloomy idiot.
Meanwhile, the Bitches swing by Dad's place looking for her. He's all "What do you want with her? They say they're going to rough her up a bit and maybe kill her, somewhat jokingly. So... Dad smacks'em around a bit with his bat, and the get cut up tripping in his caltrop field on their way out. See? Dad's cool. Then Tomie shows up. "So hey, been a while! Wanna hook up again? But... Glasses shoots her through the neck with a crossbow. Because seriously, she's had it with this." "Well, now what are we going to do with her? I mea, she's just going to come back again." So... OK, I'm still not sure what it is Dad does for a living, but apparently it gives them access to just encase her whole body in a solid block of ice, which they take home and keep in a refrigerated room. Oh. OK, he works in "the ice factory." Didn't know that was a thing. Anyway yeah, thy just kinda keep her frozen here, on display, and agree to swinging by every now and then and stare at her for a while, because hey, life wrecking monster or not, thy both think she's totally hot. After a while of staring though, the ice melts enough for her to move her jaw and ask to be let out already. Dad gives in, breaks her out, and gives her a kiss. Glasses is all "Dad! What the hell! Monster! We've been over this!" But he's kinda mentally checked out, so now Tomie and Glasses are going to have a duel with ice tongs and a shovel.
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Pretty standard by this point. "Admit it, you're totally jealous that I'm totally hot and immortal and you're going to get all old and gross and die." "Shut up!" Clang clang clang, go crying to Daddy. Tomie asks Dad to kill Glasses instead. Dad says "I love Tomie" which is nice and ambiguous, and, locks Glasses in a freezer. Tomie's all "Well, your turn to get frozen I guess!" and... leaves with Dad? What? I totally thought he was bluffing there. Random old guy eventually wanders in, and finds Glasses before she freezes to death. Gee, I guess sometimes its good to know a creepy old guy. Oh, and apparently Dad secretly cranked the thermostat down, not up, but... it's kinda hard to give him the benefit of the doubt on having this all planned out. Some time later, with Glasses... still living with creepy old guy? Her phone rings, she just kinda naturally assumes it's Dad, forgives him, saying it's all cool, and goes back to writing her slash fics. And... she apparently picked up a severed Tomie ear to grow her own fresh one from. Then her and Dad can each have their own Tomie and not have to fight over her. And then the credits have nice happy relaxing music... are we officially calling this a happy ending? I mean, I was going to interpret it as one, but I didn't think they were going to!
Anyway, yeah. Thus ends the Tomie-thon. There's actually one movie in the series, Tomie: Revenge, but... yeah, I rented that like right after Beginning way back when, as they're the only two Netflix stocks, and while I don't particularly remember it, I remember it sucked enough to about the consciousness stream I was starting to write. I don't especially want to take another stab at it either. I'm honestly pretty Tomie-ed out. On the other hand, I'm actually running really dangerously low on new messed up garbage to ramble on about, so I might have to out of sheer desperation down the road.
