TAG (2015) (Riaru onigokko)

Directed by: Sion Sono, Starring: Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano, Yuki Sakurai. Action/Fantasy/Horror, Japan, 2015, 85mins, Cert 15.

Having escaped a supernatural maelstrom that results in the slaughter of two coach-loads of her schoolmates in one fell swoop, Mitsuko (Reina Triendl) finds herself constantly on the run from death and destruction. Alternative realities morph into one bizarrely surreal scenario after another, with blood and violence a constant companion. Eventually Mitsuko enters a portal into “The male world” where the truth of her horrific situation is finally revealed...

Opening with an outrageously audacious gory set-piece, I feared director Sion Sono had played his hand too soon and wouldn’t be able to maintain that initial catapult of insane momentum throughout the film. My fears proved entirely unfounded. After this overture sequence (which makes FINAL DESTINATION 2’s road accident premonition look like a minor scrape), TAG’s pace rarely relents as traumatised sole survivor Mitsuko (beautifully played by Reina Triendl) constantly flees multi-dimensional realities where, “Life is surreal”, “Every girl is reborn and lives twice” and, "Only something unexpected will change your destiny.”

Pillows and feathers are a constant motif heralding a transition where Mitsuko is ‘tagged’ and the baton is passed on into a fresh universe. Symbolism is thickly ladled throughout the narrative - no prizes for interpreting why the bridegroom (the only male character on screen until the final third) emerges from an upright coffin sporting a grotesque pig head with slavering tongue. The quasi pro-feminist thread is tightly woven into the fabric of the narrative and eventually emerges, literally, from best-friend Aki in a mecha-body horror symbiosis guiding our heroine to the (laughably oddball but contextually logical) denouement. All of which might explain Sono’s overtly fetishstic upskirt treatment of Japanese schoolgirls – but hardly justifies it. 

Visually impressive high overhead aerial POV tracking shots often peer down on our breathlessly hounded protagonist suggesting an omnipresence observing (or perhaps controlling) the unfolding proceedings. Director Sono stages the breathtaking and often jolting (CG reliant) carnage with an assured near-lunatic panache which erupts unsuspectingly at times and lavishes an inspired delirium on proceedings. 

The trailer states that it was “adapted from Yosuke Yamada's best-selling novel” which I confess I’m not familiar with so cannot pronounce judgement on whether it’s a faithful adaption or not. However, I can confidently say that the novel has inspired/spawned an exhilaratingly surreal, troubling and at times ultra-gory arthouse mashup which may defy being easily ‘tagged’, but is undoubtedly one heck of a wild ride.  

****(out of 5*)
Paul Worts