Junji Ito’s manga Tomie is a grotesque fever dream about obsession, murder, and the horror of beauty that refuses to die. Ataru Oikawa’s 1998 film adaptation, on the other hand, is about… taking bad selfies, feeding cockroaches to people, and making audiences wish they’d just read the manga instead.
Ito gave us an iconic monster: a girl so beautiful men kill for her, then kill her, then discover she comes back anyway. The movie gives us Miho Kanno smirking, sulking, and occasionally catching fire while the rest of the cast wanders around like they accidentally walked into the wrong audition.
Plot: Murder, Amnesia, and Awkward Neighbor Babies
The story kicks off with police investigating the murder of Tomie Kawakami, a high school girl whose death is followed by a trail of suicides, madness, and general weirdness. The detective discovers there have been dozens of Tomies killed throughout history, stretching back to the 1860s, because apparently immortality gets boring and she can’t stop getting murdered every decade.
Meanwhile, Tsukiko (Mami Nakamura), an art student with amnesia, is trying to piece her life together while being stalked by supernatural nonsense. Things escalate when her neighbor starts rearing a weird baby-creature that grows into—surprise—Tomie, complete with creepy orange eyes. Forget Rosemary’s Baby—this is My Neighbor Totoro if Totoro was a regenerating nightmare girlfriend.
Soon Tomie is seducing Tsukiko’s boyfriend, taunting Tsukiko with bad photography, and force-feeding her cockroaches like it’s Fear Factor: Yokohama. Eventually, the boyfriend kills Tomie, they try to bury her body, and—of course—she comes back. Because that’s Tomie’s whole deal: she dies, regenerates, and keeps being a nightmare until everyone’s too exhausted to fight anymore. Including the audience.
Tomie Herself: Immortal, Yes. Interesting, No.
Miho Kanno was handpicked by Junji Ito himself to play Tomie. And, sure, she looks the part—ethereal, doll-like, with a mole under her eye that screams “bad news.” But the performance is flatter than a VHS tape left in the sun. Instead of an unstoppable siren of destruction, we get a moody teenager with the emotional range of a half-charged Tamagotchi.
Tomie should radiate charisma so strong that men throw their lives away for her. Here, she’s just… mildly annoying. She taunts people, pouts, and occasionally makes out with Tsukiko before bursting into flames. She doesn’t seduce; she irritates. If anything, the true horror is realizing you’re stuck in a 95-minute movie with her and there’s no fast-forward button.
Tsukiko: Art Student, Human Doormat
Tsukiko, the ostensible protagonist, is given the thankless job of reacting to everything. She gasps, she faints, she hallucinates. She’s attacked by her landlord, wakes up in her psychiatrist’s office (conveniently), and generally floats through the film like a leaf caught in a drain.
Her boyfriend Yuuichi cheats on her with Tomie (of course), murders Tomie (also of course), then helps bury the body. At no point does Tsukiko seriously ask herself why she’s dating a guy who jumps from infidelity to homicide in under ten minutes. Instead, she just wrings her hands and waits for the next plot contrivance.
By the ending, Tsukiko starts turning into Tomie herself, because why not? Apparently this curse is less about seduction and more about recycling actresses.
The Detective: Background Noise in a Trench Coat
There’s also a detective (Tomorowo Taguchi) who figures out that Tomie has been dying and coming back for centuries. You’d think this discovery would shake him to his core. Instead, he reacts with the enthusiasm of a man filing his taxes. He pops in, delivers exposition, and leaves—like Wikipedia with a badge.
Cockroaches, Flare Guns, and Laughable Horror
The horror in Tomie swings wildly between silly and snooze-worthy.
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Cockroach-feeding scene: Tomie tries to force-feed Tsukiko live bugs. Instead of terrifying, it looks like a deleted prank from Jackass: Tokyo Drift.
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Burning climax: Tsukiko sets Tomie on fire with a flare gun. Cool visual, right? Wrong. It looks like someone lit a sparkler at a birthday party.
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Neighbor baby subplot: The regenerating Tomie baby is genuinely creepy at first, but it’s rushed through so fast it turns into comedy. One week you’ve got a mutant slug-baby, the next it’s a sulky teen taking selfies. Call Guinness—fastest puberty ever.
There’s no consistent tone. Some scenes play like psychological drama, others like low-budget creature feature, others like soap opera. Instead of building dread, the film builds confusion.
From Ito’s Horror to Oikawa’s Drama Club
Director Ataru Oikawa admitted he didn’t want a “screaming with fear” horror movie. He wanted something more like a “drama for youth.” Great—except the source material was written by Junji Ito, a man whose entire brand is screaming with fear.
The manga’s grotesque body horror—mutating flesh, multiplying Tomies, men cutting her apart in madness—is stripped down to moody dialogue and the occasional dead stare. Oikawa said he wanted a “fairy tale in bad taste.” What we got instead was a soap opera with a mole.
Dark Humor Highlights
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Tomie regenerates every time she’s killed. Watching this film, you’ll wish you could regenerate the wasted hours of your life.
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The detective uncovers centuries of Tomie deaths with all the excitement of a man finding expired coupons.
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The cockroach scene proves that when in doubt, just shove insects at the protagonist until the audience gets bored.
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Tsukiko’s boyfriend goes from “hey, wanna hang out?” to “time to commit murder” faster than you can say “red flag.”
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Tomie ends the film by kissing Tsukiko on the lips—because nothing says horror like a little light fan service before immolation.
Final Verdict: A Curse of Mediocrity
Junji Ito’s Tomie manga is unsettling, grotesque, and unforgettable. Ataru Oikawa’s Tomie film is… a moody, low-energy melodrama that treats immortality like a minor inconvenience. Instead of dread, it inspires yawns. Instead of obsession, it inspires apathy.
The film spawned an endless string of sequels, each trying to figure out what to actually do with Tomie. This first attempt set the tone: half-baked ideas, bad pacing, and horror that feels like it was shot in someone’s apartment on a Tuesday afternoon.
Sadako crawled out of the well and terrified the world. Tomie walked out of the manga and tripped over her own cockroaches.
