Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
As the sole survivor of a horrendous and rather mysterious accident, teenage Mitsuko's day is off to a bad start. An unstoppable force of nature, a doomed field trip, and a strange case of amnesia easily coexist in a bizarre parallel universe, where a desperate Mitsuko is always on the run from something inexplicable, intangible, and utterly deadly. However, amid piles of fresh corpses, mounds of scorching bullet shells, and rivulets of fragrant adolescent blood, Mitsuko must fight to stay alive, before her already messed-up day becomes even stranger. But one question still remains: who or what is the enemy?
Sion Sono's Tag (2015) is a relentlessly inventive, viscerally surreal Japanese genre film that earns high marks for its utterly distinctive vision. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional — Sono stages mass carnage with operatic energy, whip-fast editing, and hallucinatory imagery that feels unlike almost anything else in contemporary horror. Novelty is similarly strong; the film's feminist metaphysical premise, shifting identities, and dreamlike logic make it one-of-a-kind even within Sono's already singular filmography. The plot holds together reasonably well as a feverish allegory, propulsive and coherent enough to sustain engagement across its multiple reality-shifts. Acting is serviceable — the leads convey the required panic and pathos earnestly, though characterization is thin by design. The ending, however, is a notable weak point: the philosophical reveal feels abrupt and under-developed, deflating some of the accumulated surreal momentum rather than satisfying it.