Sion Sono does not lack for ambition. Soon after Why Don’t You Play In Hell? hit U.S. shores and months before Tokyo Tribe eventually comes our way, the director announced plans to release six films in Japan this year. Although it can sometimes be a little hard to keep up with filmmakers this prolific, there are two trailers to remind you of what, exactly, he’ll be giving us in the near-future.
The first is for Tag, an adaptation of Yusuke Yamada‘s best-selling novel Real Onigokko (itself the basis for a recent series of Japanese films). There seems to be a bit of a change in material, however: this is about a killer who “targets female high school students rather than people with the family name of Sato,” and to compare other available descriptions of Yamada’s work with this preview would evince other changes, including the film’s a female protagonist. Not that you’ll be left wondering how things have been altered when what’s on display looks so enthusiastically reckless. But while both it and the other film, Love & Peace (which we previewed once before), look somewhat like parodies of the “crazy Japanese genre film,” I’m amused precisely because there are signs of care, attention, skill, etc. That, and mixing punk rock with the power of magical turtles.
Watch the trailers below (the second via Crunchyroll):
Are you anticipating these films? Has Sono’s work appealed to you in the past?