Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Tag

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    C.D. Workman
    Senior Member

  • Tag



    Released by: Eureka Entertainment
    Release date: November 20, 2017
    Directed by: Sion Soto
    Cast: Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano, Yuki Sakurai, Aki Hiraoka, Ami Tomite
    Year: 2015

    The Movie:

    Yet another entry in Japan's long line of delirious horror-action hybrids, Sion Sono's latest feature is a Lynchian bad-acid trip into a nightmarish landscape of frightening forests, schoolgirl titillation, and weddings gone bad. Student Mitsuko (Reina Triendl) is traveling on a bus along with her female classmates when they experience a strong gust of wind. While Mitsuko leans down to pick up a pen she's dropped, the wind rips the top off the bus, along with the top half of all the other girls, the teacher, and the bus driver's head. Mitsuko then stands up to see the lower half of her friends' carcasses spraying blood. With some kind of sentience, the wind returns, angling to kill Mitsuko, but she flees the bus and runs down the road, having to step around her friends' upper parts as she does so. Some hikers and some bikers don't fare as well as Mitsuko and are likewise cut in half. In the woods, Mitsuko comes across the bissected bodies of other schoolgirls, borrows a fresh top from one corpse, and flees back to her school, where her classmates—whom she doesn't recognize—are surprised to see her in such a state of horror and confusion.

    Things quickly seem to return to a quiet normalcy. Mitsuko and her friends skip class to visit a nearby lake, where one of the other girls, Sur (Ami Tomite), tells everyone about the multiverse, the scientific theory that there are many parallel universes wherein the same people dwell but carry out different actions. To illustrate her point, she throws a rock into the water, suggesting that, in another universe, another version of her does not throw the rock into the water. The water is also a metaphor for the parallel universes, with each ripple representing the wave of a single action through time and space. She then tells Mitsuko that life is surreal, a phrase that will return to Mitsuko many times. Shortly thereafter, the girls return to school, only to experience their teachers opening fire on them, killing most of the school's attendants.

    Mitsuko escapes to the nearest town, where she soon realizes that she isn't Mitsuko at all, but a much older younger woman named Keiko (Mariko Shinoda), who is preparing to partake in a wedding. Things turn deadly, however, when most of the wedding party is slaughtered, and Keiko is forced to fight her way out of the situation. From there on, the film grows progressively weirder until the expected denouement, which may or may not explain things.

    Originally titled Riaru onigokko (literal translation: Real Tag), Tag hails from writer/director Sion Sono, considered by many to be the most subversive of all Japanese filmmakers (a mean feat considering the stiff competition he receives from fellow auteur Takashi Miike). Sono's career began with Bicycle Sighs in 1990, after which he turned his sights on the horror genre with The Room (1992). While he has worked across genres, it's his films that sit astride the horror and action genres that have brought him the most acclaim and derision, often finding release outside of Asia and gaining him a worldwide fanbase. Some reviewers have been quick to accuse Sono of misogyny, but a closer look at his work—and at Tag in particular—reveals a nuanced and intelligent approach to gender issues.

    While some of his films are fairly standard coming-of-age melodramas, his horror work is far from standard, and Tag is no exception. While the story seems to follow a linear path, it still throws a number of curveballs, thwarting audience expectations at every turn. In that respect, it's more akin to Miike's brilliant Audition (1999) than it is Kinji Fukasaku's challenging Battle Royale (2000), both excellent films in their own right. Sono understands that stories don't have to be orthodox in their telling, and he doesn't have to be orthodox in his directorial approach. Even when its mysteries are seemingly revealed, Tag leaves the viewer with doubts, and as the end credits role, Sono's unique vision remains fascinating and confusing and bleak in equal measure.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Tag comes to British Blu-ray via Eureka's Classics line with an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1080p high definition. The film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 and is locked to Region B. Some reviewers are calling the image soft and muted; but while the latter may be true, the former most definitely is not, other than in a few shots containing optical or CGI effects (such as during the opening credits or during scenes of visceral carnage), and those are used in moderation. Rather, the film is often very sharp, particularly when Sono's camera is flying over Japanese forests or creeping along the forest floor. Autumn leaves on the cusp of winter, blowing in the wind or lying underfoot, reveal just how clear and sharp the image can be and often is; snow-peaked mountains in the distance reveal how layered and deep the frame is. This is a beautifully textured presentation gorgeously rendered on Blu. Housed on a BD25 with few extras, the bitrate is relatively high, ensuring that there are no compression artifacts. There's a nice patina of grain added to the digitally shot picture to give it a more filmic look, and while this doesn't entirely work, it's doubtful there will be many complaints. As noted above, colors tend toward brown or slightly faded, and much of the image is white or pale, clearly a directorial choice designed to enhance the autumn-verging-on-winter look. Sono picked this time of year for a reason, and the result is as surreal as the storyline. Unlike the other colors, however, the blood is generally dark, red, and realistic.

    It seems strange, then, that Eureka would opt for Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio for the film's primary track. Though Eureka's website states that the film also comes with a 5.1 surround option, no such track is available on the check disc submitted to Rock! Shock! Pop! for review. While lossless, the sound and sound effects are limited in their punch, though otherwise the track is quite good and without issue. Then again, this is a film shot a mere two-plus years ago, so hiss and dropout shouldn't be a problem regardless. The score as well as various songs on the track are sharp and pleasant. Dialogue is crisp and clean, and there are no serious jumps in sound (or sound quality). There are, of course, English subtitles for those who can't follow the Japanese language.

    Unfortunately, Eureka has included only one extra, the original Japanese theatrical trailer (1:08). This is a film calling out for an audio commentary or making-of feature that offers insight into its weird world.

    The Blu-ray also comes with a DVD.

    The Final Word:

    Eureka has once again given to the West a superlative example of East Asian filmmaking in the form of Sion Sono's modern-day classic Tag. The image looks terrific, and while there isn't a surround mix (at least not on the disc we received), the soundtrack is solid as well. There are few extras, but the film itself should be more than enough to hold viewers' interests for its relatively short 85-minute running time.

    Christopher Workman is a freelance writer, film critic, and co-author (with Troy Howarth) of the Tome of Terror horror film review series. Horror Films of the Silent Era and Horror Films of the 1930s are currently available, with Horror Films of the 1940s due out in 2018.


    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!





























    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X