Tomie (1999) - It doesn't justify the hype but the ending is worth the wait - 7/10 (11/04/11)

This movie has kicked of a whole bunch of sequels and seems to be amongst the most popular contemporary movies in Japan. As I am a big fan of the Japanese cinema, I was looking forward to discover the universe of Tomie with this first movie.

In the beginning, I was a little bit disappointed. The movie has a dark mood but a very slow development while the story seems to be a rather ordinary one with a school girl suffering from amnesia that is haunted by its past and an evil demon in form of a beautiful girl that resurrects over and over again. The movie seems to be filled with many scenes that have a couple of lengths, for example as a detective talks about seven minutes with the girl's psychologist.

What we don't know at that point is that the details mentioned in this very special dialogue are important to understand the ending of the movie that finishes with a punch and a twist. The final scene excuses for many clichés and predictable events before and they really surprised me. Still, I am not entirely sure how to interpret the end but that's what's so interesting, gripping and mesmerizing about it.

Another good point is that the movie shows a lot of the Japanese culture which is interesting for the international public. The lifestyle, the food and the landscapes are shown without giving an ordinary documentary touch to the flick.

All in all, the ending is worth the wait and I would like to try out the second movie one day. Yet, I have seen much better Japanese movies and don't understand why this series seem to be popular in that particular way. I don't believe the hype yet and can only talk about a quite good but not an excellent flick.