You know when you've got a 1000 words essay and run out of ideas 500 words, so you've got to add fluff to fill as much space: this is this movie
The first hour genuinely feels like a generic j-drama. You've got a cheating plot, a detective side-plot that goes nowhere. A better film could use that to carefully set up the climax, but this movie just drops half of what it sets up. It doesn't help that every scene feels like it lasts 1 or 2 minutes more than it really needed.
On the directing side, there really isn't anything at all. You've got one or two interesting shots, but the rest is barebones. It's obvious the director is a fan of Ito's work (for example, one of the kills is taken from "Hanging Blimp", a completely unrelated Ito manga), but it's kinda detrimental, as the movie relies on Chapter 4 and 5 of Tomie, but doesn't really explain what happened in them, leaving the viewer confused if they haven't read the manga.
As for the positives, the soundtrack is good ans memorable. Bar a few examples, the acting is pretty good, especially Miho Kanno as Tomie, who should have definitely reprised her role in it's sequels. The last 30 minutes of the movie is remarkably better than the first hour. Now, it isn't an amazing 30 minutes or anything, but it's relatively enjoyable
Sadly, the film as a whole is dreadfully boring. Like it's not a funny kind of bad, it's just really slow for no reason.
The first hour genuinely feels like a generic j-drama. You've got a cheating plot, a detective side-plot that goes nowhere. A better film could use that to carefully set up the climax, but this movie just drops half of what it sets up. It doesn't help that every scene feels like it lasts 1 or 2 minutes more than it really needed.
On the directing side, there really isn't anything at all. You've got one or two interesting shots, but the rest is barebones. It's obvious the director is a fan of Ito's work (for example, one of the kills is taken from "Hanging Blimp", a completely unrelated Ito manga), but it's kinda detrimental, as the movie relies on Chapter 4 and 5 of Tomie, but doesn't really explain what happened in them, leaving the viewer confused if they haven't read the manga.
As for the positives, the soundtrack is good ans memorable. Bar a few examples, the acting is pretty good, especially Miho Kanno as Tomie, who should have definitely reprised her role in it's sequels. The last 30 minutes of the movie is remarkably better than the first hour. Now, it isn't an amazing 30 minutes or anything, but it's relatively enjoyable
Sadly, the film as a whole is dreadfully boring. Like it's not a funny kind of bad, it's just really slow for no reason.