The 1999 Japanese television series Tomie: Another Face unfolds as a three-episode anthology, each segment presenting a standalone nightmare centered on the enigmatic and immortal Tomie Kawakami. The series follows a loose chronological structure, depicting Tomie at different stages of her cursed existence, from a high school student to a young woman in her twenties. A shadowy, persistent threat connects the episodes: a mysterious man in a trench coat and eyepatch who is always watching and photographing Tomie, hinting at a larger, hidden narrative.

The first episode introduces Tomie as a high school student whose lifeless body is discovered amidst piles of garbage on a city street. She soon returns to life and reunites with her former boyfriend, much to the distress of his current girlfriend. As a volatile love triangle reignites, the girl becomes determined to expose Tomie’s true, monstrous nature to her boyfriend. The confrontation culminates on the school rooftop, where Tomie is thrown to her death. Believing they are finally free, the couple buries her body deep in the woods. However, their relief is shattered the next morning when they encounter a fully alive Tomie on their way to school, proving that no grave can hold her.

The second episode shifts to a more atmospheric and surreal setting, focusing on a photographer who has lost his artistic passion. His inspiration is reignited when he discovers Tomie working as a model and dancer in a bar. She bears an uncanny resemblance to a girl from his past who first sparked his love for photography. As he takes her pictures, the man with the eyepatch continues his surveillance. When the photographer develops the film, he is horrified to find that each image of Tomie reveals a second face lurking beside hers—a ghoul’s visage. Confronting Tomie, she challenges him to kill her to prove she is not a ghost, as a true ghost cannot die. He does so, but while transporting her body, she revives in his car, causing a fatal crash that sends him running to a cliff, where he encounters another version of Tomie and falls to his death.

The final episode reveals the identity and motive of the persistent, eyepatch-wearing man. He is Oota, a former coroner whose life was destroyed when the supposedly dead Tomie on his autopsy table awoke, stabbed out his eye, and escaped. Now consumed by a quest for permanent vengeance, Oota targets a new incarnation of Tomie, who is on the verge of accepting a marriage proposal from her devoted boyfriend. Oota confronts the boyfriend, showing him a portfolio of crime scene photographs depicting Tomie murdered in various gruesome ways across different times and places, proving her immortal and parasitic nature. Together, they hatch a plan to finally destroy her. The boyfriend lures Tomie to an industrial incinerator, where Oota shoves her inside and successfully burns her body. Yet, as Oota watches in despair, Tomie’s ashes rise and coalesce into her face in the air, laughing as she declares that every single ash particle will grow into a new Tomie.