imperfection is perfection
Sporadic film reviews by a wanna-be filmmaker
AFF: TAG [2015]
Sadly the Adelaide Film Festival is now over, but many more thoughts are to come on the incredibly unconventional films I was lucky enough to see. saw. It is a biennial event, but there is an encore of the Australian film ‘Highly Strung’, which sold out two times and is screening soon, check out the details here.
Directed by Shion Sono, Written by Yûsuke Yamada (based on the original story by), Shion Sono
Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano, Mao Asô
Horror-comedy seems to be the new trend at the moment, and here is Japan’s entry. Not much can be said about this one really, it is an absolutely bat-shit crazy, surreal ride. It is a bit like Battle Royale, one of my favourite Japanese movies, but on acid. There isn’t really a horror element now that I think about it, though the film does start that way. Pure insanity is a more accurate way to describe this film in a succinct way. “Life is surreal, don’t let it get to you, don’t let it consume you“, one character says short into the film. Shion Sino seems like an incredibly prolific filmmaker: 45 films to his name, this film being one of six made this year. What is even more impressive that this film isn’t bad at all, and certainly doesn’t look like low-budget, horribly acted schlock.
Mitsuoka is a normal school-girl. She likes to write poems, which inadvertently saves her. Shortly into the film we see one of the best multi-kill scenes in the history of cinema; Misuoka is the only survivor. It seems that the wind has the ability to slice and dice, including entire buses of school children. This sudden terror of the wind is brilliantly realised with inventive camerawork as we become the wind, following Mitsuoka as she runs for her life to get away. The camera continues to fly forward and follow Mitsuoka, we are still following the wind but we never know if it will strike or if it won’t. All we know is that when it is done people will be in pieces with blood spurting from what is left.
As she continues to run away from the wind, she inexplicably runs into schoolmates who all seem to know her. They joke about her having amnesia as she struggles to remember these friendships. By now it is not clear at all what is happening, especially when a teacher pulls out a mini-gun because Mitsuoka and her friends skip class. I’m just tagging (heh) along for the ride at this point, the story is becoming more and more like a Rubix Cube.
More running ensures, a recurring motif in the film, when suddenly she bumps into another person who seems to know her. Is she ready for the big day her friend wants to know. Mitsuoka has no idea what is happening, until she looks in the mirror: she is now Keiko and is basically forced into a gown by her new friends. What on Earth is going on? Don’t ask me, but what I will say is this film is quintessentially Japanese. There is no doubting their particular brand of insanity and it is on full display here and the events become increasingly bizarre, making even less sense; much like many Japanese television commercials. I’m still hanging on for dear life at this point, nothing is making sense at all yet I am loving every second.
Another unexpected theme of this movie is feminism; there isn’t a single important male character to be found here. Plus she is always running forward, perhaps a metaphor for the increasing rights that women are receiving, though we are still not close to where we should be.
This film unexpectedly made my night. It is very Japanese, so you Japanophiles or whatever you are called will love this bucket of blood and madness. The
gore element isn’t huge but it certainly is there. However much like Deathgasm the gore here is funny, the cinema I was in was filled with laughter despite a small attendance. If you are looking for some serious cinema, despite the feminist undertones this is not the movie to see, I can’t recommend it to folk looking for something like that. However, if you want some senseless fun, see this if you can. It is filled with laughs, violence and truly some surreal film-making.
Five beers out of a six-pack
5/6
15 Comments on “AFF: TAG [2015]”
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imperfection is perfection 
Hmmm, can’t say I’m interested in Battle Royale on acid (or Deathgasm you reviewed earlier), Jordan. Let’s just say I have a similar aversion to this genre the way you do w/ romantic films 😉
Btw, I should have my review up for YOUTH later today.
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Oooo interested to read that
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Excellent coverage, you def saw some good ones we haven’t seen over here!
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Thanks jay 😀 we were lucky, there was a lot to pick from!
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Oh man this one sounds deliciously f**ked up. Great spotlight man, something tells me I would have never heard of this if it weren’t for your review.
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“deliciously f**ked up” haha! I couldn’t have put it better myself!
And yeah I would never have heard of it if it weren’t for the film festival either man. There were some truly weird films that I still have to post about
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i need to attend a film festival so bad.
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Ours is only biennial but hell they really go for it when it is on. Bummer I have to wait two years for another one. If I actually have money next year I’ll probs fly to see one interstate. There aren’t any film fests in your area at all?
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I’m sure there are (I mean, outside of the NY Film Fest), I live in northern New Jersey right now so I don’t know if there are smaller gigs here in this state. NY is so damn expensive and without a job right now it’s difficult to justify spending money on anything (you know, other than the weekend trips to the theater hahah! What a hypocrite. . . )
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Hmmm yeah I guess its a lot different over there. Here we only have eight states/territories, so almost every capital has a film fest and stuff like Italian or French film fests will tour the entire country (though they often skip Adelaide, the pricks). I’m surprised we even have a film fest to be honest, I live in a capital town, not a city. We barely have a million people living here!
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Well that’s some balls.
Yeah with so many prominent American cities the opportunities could be extremely vast but I really haven’t looked into these yet. Shame on me really. NY is the closest major city to me and there is a lot of stuff going on there (obviously). I couldn’t even tell you what the next most prominent fest would be. My guess would be Twin Cities (Minnesota) or SXSW (Texas, I think?). Those are so far away from me it’d cost me about as much to drive there as it would be to attend the thing for a few days dammit! Haha. The size of the US is both a blessing and a curse. . .
I envy your area gets the opportunity to see French and Italian selections. That has got to be exciting. Even if they’re not always accessible.
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Yeah the setup of this country is rather unique. I mean, its as big as the US psychically, but only has 21 million people. Outside the capital cities its just desert (or ‘bush’), barely inhabitable – especially in the middle of the country. Right now there is a British Film Fest doing the rounds, and clashing with that is a Japanese film fest!
I guess it isn’t so bad down here, even if a fraction of the films released in the US make it to our cinemas. I should stop complaining!
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I think it’s all relative. Market demand is weird. It’s amazing to me the kinds of films I miss here in my area when there’s NYC 45 mins away and the other random trite shit we get that no one could care less about (why do we have to have ‘Our Brand of Crisis’ when some of the people I know somewhat locally have already seen things like ‘Room’???) Blows my mind.
I think you have an unique opportunity to see some stuff my area might not ever get. And it’s vice-versa of course. Like you said, you won’t see many American pics or maybe not until much later. I wish just everything got distributed at the same time to all locations. That’d be the shit.
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That would indeed be the shit. Wow ‘Room’ is already screening? I’m not sure if that has been scheduled for an Aussie release but I bloody hope so
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