When I watched Parasyte Part 1, I thought I have already watched the most violent movie this year, but another movie topped it. Tag (Blu-ray release 2015-11-20) toke its basic idea from a novel about people being tagged for killing. When I first read its plot description, I thought it may be yet another exploitative trash movie from Japan. The truth is that it’s exploitative, but it’s not trash – it actually has a serious message in it. The production quality (by exploitative standard) is very good. The photography is great. It has no nudity, but there are more upskirt shots than necessary. At 85 minutes, it moves quickly. The story is very imaginative instead of the dull stuff typically found in exploitative trash. The actresses that play the different stages of the protagonist are all pretty.
I want to reveal the opening scene, but I should not. Doing that would be a huge spoiler, because it’s an awesome scene. (Caution: Many other reviews spoil the opening scene.) I can say that schoolgirls get massacred in a really special manner. The protagonist luckily survives, runs to a school and a friend told her that she is a student there even though she has no memory of it. They relax a bit, talk about parallel universes and fate, then another massacre occurs.
This movie protests against the objectification of women in society, in video games, and of course, in movies. It does this by objectifying women in this movie. Hypocrite? Perhaps, but it conveys the message clearly.