Under normal circumstances, a river full of school girl
corpses, ones that have been cut in half no less, shouldn’t be funny. But when
this scenario is in the hands of manic madman Sion Sono, as it is in his latest
wingnut opus, Tag, it certainly elicits a chuckle, even if
it’s an uncomfortable one.
The mastermind behind the likes of Why Don’t You
Play in Hell?, Suicide Circle, and Tokyo
Tribe, is back with a twisted, warped, wildly unhinged concoction of
teen comedy, blood-spurting horror, surreal fantasy, and more. An adaptation of
Yusuke Yamada’s novel, Riaru Onigokko, there are also
touches of suspense thriller, magical realism, and science fiction thrown in,
just for the hell of it.
With a mixture like this, it’s hard to picture what the
finished product has in store for you ahead of time, and Sono doesn’t
disappoint. Tag never goes in the expected direction. At
every chance the story takes the least likely, most WTF turn—one that usually
winds up with geysers of blood or copious numbers of young Japanese women
ripped in half.
But for all the bonkers action, which includes crazed
alligators, vengeance-fuelled high school teachers, and alternate realities,
the narrative flow still somehow makes perfect sense. Watching
Tag may hurl you around like a dinghy in a squall of
madness, but for all the chaos—and there is so, so much chaos—there is also an
internal, discernable logic and building arc.
The plot follows Mitsuko (Reina Triendl, Ju-On: The
Beginning of the End), a student who, on her way to a class trip, is
the only survivor as two bus loads of her classmates are bisected by an evil
wind. And from there Tag gets strange, and in the most
bizarre, delightful way.
Mitsuko’s life spirals out into mayhem as everyone around
her meets gruesome, brutal fates, and as she becomes less and less certain who
she is or about the true nature of the world. Is she traumatized, suffering
from amnesia, losing her mind, or has shit actually come entirely off the
rails? To Sono’s credit, he never lets on, planting clues along the way,
bouncing from one astonishing situation to the next.
As inventive and vicious and hilarious as the gore can
be—Tag exhibits a sharp, sadistic glee as Sono finds new and
startling ways to antagonize Mitsuko—there’s more going on than simple havoc
for havoc’s sake.
There are no men to be found for the first two-thirds of the
movie, which is a conscious choice that takes a while to sink in. This
underlines comments about the male gaze and the way women, especially these
young girls, are objectified and sexualized in games and art. Amidst the madcap
action, there is a level of creep as the audience gawks at these teens being
hacked to pieces and otherwise killed and ravaged. Ideas of control and
oppression are juxtaposed against dark, surreal bedlam. It may be a blast, but
Tag has more than just that on its mind, and it never lets
he viewer off the hook or be entirely comfortable, pointing the finger of
complicity squarely at the fourth wall.
Tag can even be quite a lovely film to
look at. Sono channels his inner Sam Raimi. There are stylistic flourishes
lifted straight from Evil Dead, as the camera, from the
perspective of an unseen threat, weaves through the woods in pursuit of its
targets. Full of sweeping, soaring helicopter shots, there’s a scope and scale
that the director uses to great effect, enhancing and visually expanding on the
themes of watching and being watched.
Reina Triendl’s performance as Mitsuko humanizes all of
this, grounds the chaos, and gives the story some heft and substance. Not the
most fleshed out character—from the beginning, she’s different, she writes
poems, which is movie shorthand for, “she’s weird”—she brings enough emotional
weight to separate her from the bulk of her vapid classmates, and to keep
viewers on the line and invested in what she endures. It’s not much, but in
this scenario, it’s enough.
Tag is bananas and awesome and completely
deranged. For the absurdity, surrealist bend, and sheer mayhem alone, I would
be on board—fans will expect nothing less from Sion Sono. But for all the fun
and chaos and over-the-top gore, there are intriguing thematic currents that make
it more interesting than just another bloody romp. There are a few moments
where the pace flags, but you’re never far from a mangled school girl or
drastic shift in direction to pull you out of any period of stagnation.
It’s played a number of fests, and opened in Japan last summer,
but Tag shows at the Seattle International Film Festival. It’s
one to check out if you have the opportunity, a taste for total craziness, and
want to get your mind broke. [Grade: B+]
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