Tomie will not die

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:22:00 +0200

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:01:00 +0200

The Tomie Actresses: Miho Kanno Runa Nagai Mai Hosho Miki...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:03:00 +0200

The Tomie Actresses:

Miho Kanno

Runa Nagai

Mai Hosho

Miki Sakai

Nozomi Andô

Rio Matsumoto

Anri Ban

Yu Abiru & Emiko Matsuoka

Miu Nakamura

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:26:00 +0200

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:53:22 +0200

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:51:08 +0200

“This is my masterpiece. I call it Tomie.”

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:31:26 +0200

“This is my masterpiece. I call it Tomie.”

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Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:54:34 +0200

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Fri, 14 Jun 2013 22:02:45 +0200

"Ito’s iteration of a vacuous, but monstrous, femininity is based solidly in misogyny- of that I have..."

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 20:50:56 +0200

““Ito’s iteration of a vacuous, but monstrous, femininity is based solidly in misogyny- of that I have no doubt. Tomie is exactly the kind of female creature that misogyny would produce as an object of horror. Tomie’s horrific qualities are all qualities that turn the objectifying male gaze back on itself, causing, at the very least, a decentralization of power. Tomie gnaws happily at the flesh of patriarchy by turning her own objectification and violent abuse at the hands of men against them.””

- On ‘Tomie’ by Junji Ito via Serial Box

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Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:09:54 +0200

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Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:47:33 +0200

As requested~

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:44:00 +0200

As requested~

Can you make a rebloggable version of that interpetation of Tomie?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:43:21 +0200

Sure.

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Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:43:02 +0200

How do you interpret the whole story of Tomie?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:39:00 +0200

Tomie is such an ambiguous story so this is very difficult to answer.

I always looked at it as sort of a feminist story with social commentary and essentially a story about humanity in general. As many of you know Tomie can be seen as a a living embodiment of all of society’s flaws and negativity (including lust, selfishness, misandry, misogyny etc…) and it is also a story about us (the influencers of this evil and negativity) ultimately falling victim to it

Tomie is often portrayed as a superior “human” being – a lovely girl who drives men crazy and who girls envy, an “ethics officer” even. She possesses what all of the people in the world seek for – eternal beauty. I also think she’s occasionally comically misandristic. Look at the seventh Tomie film in which she herself boldly states that “Men are so stupid, and all men everywhere should just die. So stupid they’re disgusting!” She also blames men for war, poverty and everything wrong with the world. Which is partially true IMO. This is also seconds before she gets killed by a man yet again.

The story portrays shallow men not caring about a woman’s (Tomie’s) personality and simply get blinded by her looks. Once they find out what Tomie truly is they viciously murder her. This ultimately leads them to their own demise.

Speaking of which, in most vintage slasher films (which were trendy during the time Tomie first came out) women usually served a purpose of looking good (sometimes getting naked) and then dying a violent death for the viewer’s entertainment. Tomie does cause her own deaths, she does make men murder her in an indirect way. Intentionally or not? Left as ambiguous. But Tomie is a complex story overall and she is the “slasher victim” who came back to life to terrorize her killer, not by actually DOING anything, but merely by living, and unnerving him with her unshakeable presence, becoming the “slasher villain” herself.

I also find it interesting that she victimizes other women as well, and in one of the films even gets sexually involved with a young woman. However, she appears to be only slightly hostile towards women and does acknowledge that they are most likely jealous of her. Which they are. What woman wouldn’t want to stay young and pretty forever? I mean really??!! As Tomie says: “You will marry a incapable guy one day… You will give birth to a dumb child, you will be a wrinkled old lady soon. This is the happiness of being a woman. But since I am a “monster”, I will be lovely forever… Poor me.”

Tomie is not a moralistic story, it does not have a heroic lead character who defeats all evil. You can choose who to root for, or simply not root for anybody at all. The main, titular character is the fabulous and monstrous “villain” who is a self-destructive entity, yet survives anything, which makes it all so fascinating.

Which of the stories within the Tomie manga would you like to see as part of a new (and decent quality) addition to the Tomie films? Would you prefer it took the approach as something of a mashup of different ideas, individual shorts like Another Face or something different like Unlimited?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:05:00 +0200

I suppose it would be cool if they had a few seemingly unrelated stories about Tomie being told at the same time that ultimately end up being connected at the end in some clever plot twist. Most of the films focus of Volumes 1+2 and I haven’t seen a single thing from Vol.3 being used as source material so maybe they could do that too. Then again, the third volume’s sales were pretty mediocre so not many people are familiar with it.

But yeah I do like the fact that none of the films so far are direct adaptations of the mangas and that the first one could actually serve as a sequel to the first manga, which is actually really clever.

I also think that Top Model + Old and Ugly would make a fantastic movie. Anyways, a tenth installment is almost guaranteed to happen, since Unlimited is the most successful Tomie film to date. It even got a multi-regional DVD release and a Blu-Ray release in the UK, which is not the case with any of the previous Tomie films.

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Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:58:24 +0200

Sorry if you already got asked this but what is your favourite Tomie movie and manga ?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:32:41 +0200

My favorite movie is either Tomie Unlimited or Forbidden Fruit. Artistically and story-wise Forbidden Fruit is the best but Unlimited is so much fun and has numerous nods for the fans + Miu Nakamura plays Tomie perfectly. So yeah those two are a tie for me. I also liked Shimizu’s Rebirth a lot.

My favorite manga volume is Tomie Again.

Why is Tomie so perfect oh my god??

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:29:00 +0200

I actually thought for a long time how to reply to this one but idk??!!