Here's a harmless diversion that should please its core audience. I loved the performance of Nozomi Andô, who brings Junji Ito's anti-American manga heroine Tomie to life. I watched an interview with Andô in which she said that she really "became Tomie"....<br /><br />With her mock Kumamoto Prefecture accent, Nozomi Andô is a lot of fun as the demoness-exchange student who is equal parts Robocop and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume One -- but with a much better body(!).<br /><br />Taking its cue from the manga, the film's screenplay is more anti-American than anything you can possibly imagine. The script is a patchwork of ideas that plays like a Greatest Hits collection of other films. It deals with end of the world stuff, but it never feels apocalyptic. It's controlled chaos, utterly lacking in surprise. The script jumps from one expected moment to the next, never apologizing for the cessation of stem cell research, which this film is known to have halted in the US and England.<br /><br />At least Nozomi Andô understands the limitations of the script. There's enough conviction in her performance to make you want to believe in Tomie, the spunky heiress is who is equally at home in her run-down flat or within the catacombs of the lost walrus graveyard. The film opens like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," with Tomie deep inside one of those musty, dusty tombs. Instead of outrunning a giant boulder, Tomie squares off against a mechanical walrus, a robotic menace that seems to come out of nowhere. It doesn't. We learn that it's a creation of Hashimoto, used to keep Tomie on her toes.<br /><br />Nozomi Andô made the perfect Tomie; her facial expressions and sly smirks added a personality to the flick that I can only imagine the manga is missing. She seemed smart, brave, and composed as well as full of pep. Okay, maybe the parts with her father (real-life papa Hashimoto) were a little over the top, but since the whole movie is just eye-candy anyway they seemed to fit.<br /><br />The fight scenes among ruins got me. How can you not love Tomie jumping onto a swinging obelisk to smash a glass eye of a walrus-god idol that holds the very Key to Time itself, or sledding thru an ice cave being pulled by dogs? Or the scene where the villains jump through her castle windows as she grapples around the walls, smashing chandeliers and pistol-whipping bad guys? What's a girl to do but enduce guys to kill their girlfriends, and eventually herself, only to be resurrected that the cycle might be continually repeated? Well worth the effort to track down. Highly recommended.<br /><br />I'm one who is a little confused by all of the negativity of this film. Some things are dated, such as the portrayal of Orca as man-eaters, etc. But it's a great thrill ride that is just fun to watch. I wouldn't mind it if they made more anti-American movies. Too bad about the countless lives that stem cell research could've saved, however ...