{"id":5991,"date":"2015-10-19T09:25:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T08:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5991"},"modified":"2015-10-27T09:38:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T08:38:06","slug":"tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/10\/19\/tag\/","title":{"rendered":"Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TAG\"<\/a>
Tag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nSeen at
L’Etrange Festival 2015<\/a><\/b>

\nDirector:<\/B> Sion Sono

\nWriter:<\/B> Sion Sono

\nBased on the novel:<\/B> Riaru Onigokko<\/i> by Yûsuke Yamada

\nCast:<\/B> Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano

\nJapan 2015

\n85 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Two coaches carrying high school girls on a school trip are hit by a sudden gust of wind that slices the buses and their sitting passengers in half. Everyone is killed but Mitsuko (Reina Triendl), who just then was on her knees picking up her pen. It is with this literally breath-taking visual motif that Sion Sono begins his new film, and the scene haunts the rest of the story. <\/p>\n

Tag<\/I> is one of the six films that the insatiable Japanese director shot this year, two of which were presented at this year\u2019s L’Etrange Festival. You might think that Sion Sono bites off more than he can chew, all the more so as his subject is not very original, since Tag<\/I> is an adaptation of Yusuke Yamada\u2019s successful novel Riaru Onigokko<\/i> (The Chasing World<\/i>). Yet neither the five low-budget films nor the short TV serial that preceded Tag<\/i> hold a candle to it. <\/p>\n

After escaping death, Mitsuko runs away from the supernatural wind-like forces that pursue her, and by changing clothes, she transports herself to another world, where she meets new schoolmates who seem to recognise her. This we only understand thanks to the character of Mitsuko\u2019s girlfriend Sur (short for Surreal), who exposes a theory of parallel universesthat can be altered by any unexpected action. In the second world, death again awaits Mitsuko, this time in the form of a berserk teacher who starts shooting her pupils with a machine gun (Sion Sono offers some comic relief here, nodding to Wes Craven\u2019s Freddy by having the teacher make a screeching noise with her gun while looking for survivors). Another universe shift and Mitsuko metamorphosises into Keiko (Mariko Shinoda, ex-member of AKB48), who is about to get married. But as the wedding ceremony turns into a Kung-Fu slaughter, another shift occurs, together with another identity change, giving us Izumi (Erina Mano, also in Love & Peace<\/i>) as a racing champion). <\/p>\n

Sion Sono\u2019s main departure from the novel is to change the target of the demons\u2019 attention (in Japanese the game of tag is literally called \u2018demon (oni<\/i>) game\u2019) by replacing characters named Sato with three girls whose names recur in his filmography: Mitsuko, Keiko and Izumi. This enables him to use the novel as a pretext to craft a complex film combining a theory of Twilight-Zone<\/i>-like parallel worlds with a reflection on the female condition in today\u2019s Japan, reduced to three roles: a fantasised schoolgirl, a successful student or an obedient wife. <\/p>\n

Despite the dashing rhythm of the three heroines\u2019 unending flight, the whole film is suffused with dream-like sadness and despair, which Sion Sono captures in wide shots of forests and snowy landscapes that are interspersed with the action. And the final scene of the nuptial bed, with a young man in his underpants inviting Mitsuko to consummate the union, leaves the heroine with only one disturbing way to exit the infernal cycle of a Japanese woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Pierre Kapitaniak<\/I><\/B><\/p>\n

This review is part of our Etrange Festival<\/a> coverage.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s one of the six films that Sion Sono shot this year, yet neither the five low-budget films nor the short TV serial that preceded Tag<\/i> hold a candle to it.
\nReview by Pierre Kapitaniak<\/I><\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-festivals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/surUP-tag","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6668,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/11\/10\/anti-porno\/","url_meta":{"origin":5991,"position":0},"title":"Anti-Porno","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"November 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Sion Sono diverts Nikkatsu\u2019s Roman Porno Reboot into a subversively playful and multi-layered take on the female condition. 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Review by Robert Makin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Land of Hope","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/The-Land-of-Hope-594x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/The-Land-of-Hope-594x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/The-Land-of-Hope-594x291.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6056,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/10\/22\/love-peace\/","url_meta":{"origin":5991,"position":2},"title":"Love & Peace","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sion Sono has made an insanely warped family film about a rock star and a turtle. 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