The Story:
For those who know nothing about Tomie, she's sort of a young, sexy seductress version of Sadako/Samara from Ringu/The Ring. There's even a blatant "in" joke about the similarities between Tomie and Sadako in this movie! Tomie, however, seduces a man (usually) and then is somehow killed (because she nags the man to murder, perhaps?) and then slowly regenerates herself, body part by body part.

This time around, the story begins with a young school girl—also named Tomie! She has a bizarre submissive relationship with a trio of other schoolgirls who torment her…yet she continues to hang out with them. Then she meets another girl named Tomie, (I'll refer to her as Scary Tomie) and they become fast friends. But when she brings Scary Tomie home, it seems Scary Tomie and Tomie's widowed father know each other.

Meanwhile, Scary Tomie begins seducing Tomie. If you're looking for hardcore lesbian action, it's not here. It's simply some kissing and finger sucking—and a lot of lovey dovey stuff. At the same time, Tomie's father starts getting all weird, because we learn he does indeed know Scary Tomie—from when he was young.

As the plot unfolds, we're treated to very few thrills and chills. Japanese directors are really milking the "youthful, innocent looking Japanese girl with long dark hair as monster" theme. Tomie just didn't creep me out all that much (maybe because she didn't do the routine hair in front of her face while clawing her way across the floor thing?). The musical score also does not seem to kick in at moments where it could help add a possible goosebump.

I won't give anything away, but I'll just say this—the movie suddenly turns into a remake of the horror camp classic Basket Case. At this point, I wanted to laugh more than scream in terror. I guess it was meant to make viewers go "this is sick!" but it just managed to add humor, because I've seen it all before. Even the director seemed to think it was rather funny, because it did come across as if it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

As for it being the final chapter in the Tomie storyline, I don't see this one satisfying any diehard fan's desire for a finale. It is very run-of-the-mill stuff. And if you haven't seen the other films, you really don't need to in order to follow this one, because it mostly stands on its own, not leaving you wondering what happened in the previous movies (which it really should). Sort of the way you never needed to see any previous Jason movies to understand why he was offing new victims in the film you were watching.

The DVD

Video:
The movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen, aspect ratio of 1:85:1. There was one jolting shock of layering during dialogue in the middle of the film. There's some film wear, and although it's not a lot, when it appears, you see some nicely dug holes. The picture itself was too soft, detail was muddy, the color was muted and the tint leaned towards the red and blue families. Also, the black and dark areas came across as gray. Maybe the filmmaker's intention was to create atmosphere, I don't know.

Sound:
The Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio track does not make enough use of the technology. It seems that the mixers chose to use the surround mostly when something loud happened on screen, rather than evenly throughout the film. Most of the time, the audio was center/front heavy.

Extras:
Since this is a Japanese film, you are offered the option of turning on English subtitles. There are screeners for all 5 chapters in the Tomie series (and all 4 previous films look scarier than this one), but the subtitles don't carry through. The subtitles are present for the "Making of" featurette. This half-hour special, however, doesn't focus much on dialogue, and is set mostly to a dance beat…with some really nice 2.0 stereo sound! There aren't any interviews with any of the cast or crew, but it is truly behind the scenes, capturing the filming of the movie and the making of the special effects.

Final Thoughts:
Tomie: Forbidden Fruit brings us a new chapter in the Tomie series, with the supernatural girl seducing yet another man—and his daughter. The lesbian twist seems to have given the movie its name—and seemed intended to sell the movie to viewers. It's just not enough to make this movie unique. It's unscary, silly at times, and a weak final chapter in the Tomie storyline. Diehard fans will probably be disappointed, yet still want to add it to their collection. As a DVD goes, it's pretty standard stuff, with typical extras, and nothing powerhouse about the audio or video presentation. I'd suggest you watch some of the earlier installments.