DVD Released: February 17th, 2004
Approximate Running Time: 95 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
DVD Release: Adness
Region Coding: Region 1 NTSC
Retail Price: $19.99

Tomie Replay goes right for the viewer’s throat as the film opens with a group of surgeons operating on a young girl that has something moving inside of her stomach. After one of the doctor’s make an incision an eye looks out through the slit made by the incision before a full human head dislodges itself out of the young girls’stomach.
Yumi Morita (Sakaya Yamaguchi) is looking for her father who has recently disappeared. Dr. Morita (Sugata Shun) Yuri’s father was the head surgeon who operated on the young girl with a head in head stomach and while making the incision he cut his thumb contaminating his blood with that of Tomie’s. Flash forward Tomie is now full size and she befriends a young man who takes her home and takes care of her. He soon like all men becomes obsessed with Tomie and when she threatens to leave him he chops her into little pieces. Tomie doesn’t stay down for long as she reanimates herself and she returns to the hospital to settle unfinished business.

Mai Hosho has spent most of her career working on television and besides playing Tomie in this film her other major film role was that of Nurse Sawada in the film Suicide Club. Kenichi Endo is a veteran Japanese actor who since Tomie replay has made several films with Takashi Miike including Dead or Alive 2: Runaway, Visitor Q, The Happiness of the Katakuris and Deadly Outlaw: Rekka. Shun Sugata has appeared in several successful Japanese films like Kaïro and Takashi Miike’s Graveyard of Honor and Ichi the Killer. In recent years has made the transition from Japanese to American cinema he has appeared in Kill Bill volume one and The Last Samurai. Tomie Replay relies less on style than its predecessor instead this time around the focus is more on horror by delivering some strong chills through its unsettling visuals. This time around Tomijiro Mitsuishi is in the director’s chair as he works with stronger characters and at times he leaves some of the horror up to the viewer’s imagination instead of showing it in graphic detail. Tomie Replay explains Tomie’s origins more then its predecessor lessening the character’s mystique making her not as sinister. She comes off more like a malicious femme fatale, still in the end Tomie Replay is leaps and bounds ahead of predecessor.

The DVD:

Tomie Replay is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the films original 1:85:1 aspect ratio. The overall color palate of blues, reds and oranges are vivid through out the transfer. The black’s levels are solid and the detail is better then most transfers culled from Japanese sources. I have seen Tomie another Face and Tomie DVD’s from Adness so far and Tomie Replay’s transfer is the best looking one so far Adness. The only option on this DVD is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese audio track that uses that surrounds perfectly without ever overwhelming the viewer. The dialog is comes through clearly and there is no sign of distortion or audio hiss. The English subtitles are easy to read and follow and unlike previous editions the subtitles are more accurate.

Tomie Replay unlike previous Adness Tomie releases is essentially a barebones DVD and the only extras outside of the trailers for the five Tomie film is a still gallery featuring four images of Manga that inspired the film. Tomijiro Mitsuishi takes over as director in Tomie Replay the third installment in the Tomie series and his baroque style with unsettling visuals and some of the most terrifying moments in the Tomie Series. Tomie Replay is Japanese horror at its best and the series evolves with each new Tomie movie. The series finally achieved all of its potential with Tomie Replay by delivering a visceral film loaded with enough scares that even the most hardcore horror fan will feel its chill long after the movie is over.