In a tense, medical mystery, a six-year-old girl is rushed to the ER with an alarmingly distended abdomen. The medical team makes a chilling discovery: a living, disembodied head that introduces itself as Tomie. The head is placed in a basement tank filled with an alkaline solution for observation, while a wave of fear spreads through the hospital. Soon after, five staff members who were in the operating room vanish or disappear without a trace, including the hospital’s Director Morita.
That same night, a man named Takeshi visits his friend Fumihito in the hospital. Tomie, now grown and having escaped from the basement, appears in the room and pleads to be taken away. Takeshi escorts Tomie to his apartment, leaving Fumihito alone to process what he has just witnessed. The next morning, a heated call from Fumihito reveals the emerging possessive hold Tomie has begun to exert. In a chilling moment, Takeshi blurts out that Takeshi believes Tomie “belongs to me,” revealing that Tomie already wields a dark, seductive power over him.
The following day, Yumi Morita—the hospital director’s daughter—searches for her missing father. She encounters Dr. Tachibana, the sole physician who has not fled the hospital, who hands her the journal of the missing director before taking his own life. Through the journal, Yumi learns that Tomie’s blood infected the director and another doctor during the operation, causing Tomie to regenerate inside their bodies and drive them toward madness. The narrative hints at a troubling history: the director had learned of a girl named Tomie and the danger she poses, a danger amplified by the appearance of Tomie within the hospital walls.
Later, Yumi visits the family of the six-year-old girl and discovers a disturbing detail: the child’s kidney transplant came from a girl named Tomie. From that kidney, Tomie begins to regenerate inside the girl’s body, signaling a feared and unending cycle of revival and threat. Meanwhile, Fumihito encounters Takeshi, who has descended into madness after killing and decapitating Tomie, only to witness her return to life. Takeshi is eventually confined to a mental hospital, and Fumihito finds himself marked as Tomie’s new target.
That night, a brief, eerie encounter with her missing father leaves Yumi unsettled as he mutters about needing to kill Tomie. The next day, his bloated and deformed body is found in the hospital basement. At his funeral, Yumi receives a note from Tomie asking to meet that night at the hospital, setting the stage for a final confrontation.
When Yumi arrives at the hospital, Tomie is there to taunt her, and Fumihito Sato is present under Tomie’s spell, seemingly intent on killing her. In a tense reversal, Fumihito chooses to strike at Tomie herself, chopping off her head and burning the remains. With Tomie momentarily defeated, Yumi and Fumihito walk away from the hospital, the threat apparently contained for now, even as the cycle of regeneration and peril hints at a nightmare that could begin again.
