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Real Tag, released in Japan as Riaru Onigokko, is a 2018 adult computer-animated suspense action horror movie produced by Glass Ball Productions, Chernin Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and Toho with animation provided by Creative Step Studio. Written and directed by Ash Brannon, it is a loose remake of the 2015 Japanese horror film Tag by Sion Sono, which in turn is based on the novel Riaru Onigokko by Yusuke Yamada, and stars the voices of Ashley Johnson, Mandy Moore, Kate McKinnon, Dana Davis, with Jennifer Lopez, and Lucy Hale. The film follows a female high school student who is cast adrift into an increasingly strange set of alternate realities in which each scenario ends in bloody carnage.
Real Tag premiered in Sydney, Australia on October 13, 2018 and was released in Japan on October 5, 2018 by Toho. It was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox on November 26, 2018 in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D. It was also the last Glass Ball film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox as a standalone distributor before The Walt Disney Company took control of the majority of its assets on March 20, 2019. The film has received universally negative reviews from critics, fans and those that are familiar with the original Japanese film, who criticized its inconsistent plot and lack of fidelity to the source material, although Johnson' performance was largely praised. The film was also a box office bomb, grossing only $294.2 million worldwide against its reported final budget of $175-200 million.
Plot[]
Mindy, a quiet high school girl, survives a gust of wind which slices through her school bus, bisecting everyone else on board. She manages to escape the gust of wind, which chases her and kills all the other girls she comes into contact with. Dazed and surrounded by numerous dead high school girls, she cleans herself off and changes into another school girl clothes and stumbles onto a different high school campus. She is greeted by girls named Amy, Sur short for Surreal and Tanya. Not knowing who they are, Mindy confesses to Amy that she cannot remember if she ever attended this school and believes that she had a nightmare about girls being killed by a gust of wind. Amy reassures her that it was just a nightmare and proposes that they all cut class and go to the woods to cheer her up.
In the woods, the girls muse about whether destiny is truly predetermined and whether there are multiple realities with multiple versions of themselves. Sur illustrates predetermination with a white feather, stating that it would mean the time it takes for the feather to fall and where it will land are all decided already. Mindy wonders if there is nothing she can do to escape destiny, but Sur suggests that fate can be tricked by simply doing something one would never normally do, thus changing the outcome. The girls happily return to school. Amy and Mindy home room teacher begins class, but suddenly brandishes a machine gun and opens fire, killing all the girls except Mindy. Before she can fire another round, Sur and Tanya burst in, grab Mindy, and the 3 hide. Another home room teacher, who has just killed her own entire class, finds and kills Tanya and Sur. Mindy and the remaining girls flee the grounds, running for their lives as they are gunned down. One of the girls recognizes Mindy and pleads for her to do something and think about why this is happening. The remaining girls are then sliced apart by a gust of wind.
Mindy continues to run, and then finds herself in increasingly surreal situations where her identity and appearance change 1, as a bride named Karen on her wedding day, who is forced to marry a grotesque groom with a boar head while her guests all girls from the previous school jeer at her, then later as a student named Izzy in the middle of a marathon, flanked by her friends and well wishers again, made up of the girls from the school and wedding ceremony. In each scenario, she is supported by a version of her friend Amy, who either readies her for combat or distracts her attackers, made up of the groom and the 2 home room teachers from before. In every scenario, she must flee while the surrounding girls are slaughtered in various ways.
After encountering a group of reverent girls who try to kill her after stating that so long as she lives, they all will continue to die, she is once again rescued by Amy. Amy tells her to focus and remember that although she is both Karen and Izzy in these scenarios, she is ultimately Mindy. After returning to her original appearance as Mindy, Amy tells her that the 2 of them and all the girls are in a fictional world being observed by someone and that they will continue to hunt Mindy down and try to kill her while slaughtering the other girls unless Mindy, as the main character, does something to change it. Each of the scenarios she encountered is a different world, and to reach the final 1, Amy tells her that Mindy must brutally kill her. Urged on by Amy, Mindy reluctantly kills her and a portal opens up before her.
Mindy finds herself in a lewd, dingy city called Men World filled with only men who pervertedly enjoy a poster advertisement for a legendary violent 3D survival horror video game called Real Tag, depicting Mindy, Karen, and Izzy as playable characters. She passes out and awakens in a temple where all the girls from the various scenarios are showcased like mannequins. She arrives at a room where a decrepit old man is playing the game on his TV, showing the various trials she went through. Mindy is horrified to see full size models of herself, Karen, Izzy, Amy, Sur, and Tanya behind a glass display case. The man tells her that she is in the future and that 150 years ago, she was a girl he had admired as a fellow student. When she died, he managed to take her DNA and that of all her friends and make clones for his 3D game. A younger version of the old man appears beside a bed and strips down, beckoning her to come to bed with him. The old man tells her that the final stage is the fulfillment of his deepest wish and he tells her to succumb to her destiny. Instead, Mindy attacks the younger man, screaming at him to stop playing with girls like toys. She rips 1 of the pillows, showering the room with feathers.
Remembering what She said about tricking fate, Mindy then commits suicide by stabbing herself, to the shock of both the old man and his younger self. Finding herself once again in the beginning of each of the three game scenarios, she simultaneously commits suicide on the bus, at the wedding chapel, and during the marathon before any of the violent scenarios can begin. Mindy then awakens alone in a field of white snow, gets up, and runs away, realizing that everything is gone forever.
Voice cast[]
- Ashley Johnson as Mindy, a quiet high school girl. Her Japanese counterpart is Mitsuko.
- Mandy Moore as Karen, a bride who is forced to marry a grotesque groom with a boar head. Her Japanese counterpart is Keiko.
- Kate McKinnon as Izzy, a student who is flanked by her friends and well wishers in the middle of a marathon. Her Japanese counterpart is Izumi.
- Dana Davis as Amy, 1 of Mindy friends. Her Japanese counterpart is Aki.
- Jennifer Lopez as Sue. She is the only character in the film that shares the same name as her Japanese counterpart.
- Lucy Hale as Tanya. Her Japanese counterpart is Taeko.
- Anna Akana as June.
- Halle Berry as Linda.
- Joyce Kurtz and April Lawrence as home room teachers.
- Ash Brannon as the old man in the future who managed to take Mindy's DNA and that of all her friends and make clones for his 3D game, Real Tag.
- Brannon also voices a younger version of the old man.
- Kimberly Brooks as Bus Driver
- Sumalee Montano as Background Girl
Additional voices[]
- Stephen Apostolina
- Kirk Baily
- Ashley Peldon
- Fryda Wolff
- Niall Cunningham
- Robin Atkin Downes
- Johnny Gidcomb
- Jean Gilpin
- Nicholas Guest
- Sean Kenin
- Kari Wahlgren
- Courtenay Taylor
- David Michie
- Zehra Fazal
- Kimberly Brooks
- Joey Naber
- Arthur Ortiz
- Juan Pacheco
- Paul Pape
- Devika Parikh
- Cristina Milizia
- Al Rodrigo
- Grey DeLisle
- Nick Shakoour
- Justin Shenkarow
- Dennis Singletary
- Bryce Papenbrook
- Shane Sweet
- Dean Wein
- Debi Derryberry
- David Zyler
- Keith Ferguson
- Jessica DiCicco
- Ashly Burch
Production[]
After the release of the original Japanese Tag film in 2015, Glass Ball Productions president Clive Nakayashiki saw the film and decided to do an American remake. In December 2015, Glass Ball announced that the film was in development, with 20th Century Fox distributing worldwide and Toho handling distribution in Japan. Will Finn was originally the director of the film, but was replaced by Ash Brannon. By April 2016, Fox set the film, titled Real Tag, for an October 2018 release. In June 2017, it was announced that Chloe Grace Moretz, with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Fanning were cast to provide the lead voice roles.
The film was animated by Creative Step Studio. The characters were created in photorealistic-like animation combined with motion capture, a first for the company. Its animation has various similarities to those of other films with similar animation like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, and The Adventures of Tintin.
The film initially received an NC-17 rating by the MPAA due to the nonstop graphic violence of the film as well as a graphically realistic sex scene at the climax. This caused Fox to forcibly remove some of the violence from the film as well as removing a handful of scenes, which resulted in massive transition and continuation issues. The studio also reportedly had never shown any support of the development of the project to begin with. The film'S budget was originally in the $130 million range, but ended up being $200 million after tax rebates, Toho's fees to the film, and the $15 million pay to Chloe Grace Moretz and Tiffany Haddish.
Release[]
Real Tag was released by 20th Century Fox on October 26, 2018 in the United States. The film was accompanied by the independent short film Alleycats. Due to the film's content such as its strong violence, nudity and graphic language, the film secured a release date in China. The first trailer was released on June 22, 2018 and was shown before Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Uncle Drew, and Ant Man and The Wasp.
Due to the popularity and preference of IMAX in 2D as opposed to 3D among filmgoers in North America, the film was shown in IMAX 3D theaters in only 2D domestically, but was also screened in 3D formats internationally.
The film has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual references, and brief drug use".
Home media[]
The film was released on Digital HD on December 18, 2018 while the DVD, Blu-ray Disc and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on January 15, 2019.
Reception[]
Box office[]
Real Tag grossed $31.9 million in the United States and Canada and $262.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $294.2 million. With the production budget between $175-200 million with an additional $150 million spent on promotion and advertising costs totaling $350 million, the film would have needed to gross at least $550 million in order to break even. On December 2, 2018, the film surpassed The TeenV Movie to become Glass Ball's highest-grossing film of all time until being surpassed by Havoc on the Planet of the Apes a year later.
A week after its worldwide debut of $32.2 million, Variety wrote that the film would make Fox lose millions of dollars off of a projected final total gross of $200-250 million while The Hollywood Reporter estimated the losses would range from $80-120 million. In November 2018, in response to the film's poor commercial performance, director Ash Brannon tweeted he was "proud of the film", and was "sorry that fans were not turning out to see it", but was "happy for those who had enjoyed it". Dani Di Placido, blogging on Forbes, described Real Tag as a "bad idea, with a surprisingly good execution". In March 2019, Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost the studio $137.4 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.
North America[]
In the United States and Canada, Real Tag was released alongside Hunter Killer, Johnny English Strikes Again, and Suspiria, and was projected to gross $17-19 million in its opening weekend, with a chance to go as high as $21 million. However, after making $3.2 million on its first day including $900,000 in Thursday night previews, both the lowest of all time for Glass Ball Productions, estimates were lowered to $10 million. It later ended up grossing $9.8 million, the lowest-grossing opening weekend gross for Glass Ball while landing in fifth place with the weekend being topped by Halloween with $32 million, being their first film to not be number 1 in its opening weekend, which led to the film being reportedly labeled as a box office bomb. Deadline Hollywood attributed the film's underperformance to poor critic and audience reactions, negativity from fans, and competition from Halloween, Venom, A Star Is Born, and Cool Spot which is another Gingo Entertainment property which were all older releases still going strong at box office. Forbes blogger Scott Mendelson also attributed this to the absence of notable movie stars. Despite the presence of Kristen Wiig, like any number of would be big stars who are best known for a certain genre of film, her opening weekend strength dips when she was not playing her usual act. Outside of the Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon franchises, her biggest opening was The Martian at $54.3 million, which the film failed to reach. In its second weekend, the film dropped over 35% and grossed $3.4 million, making it fall out of the top 10. In its third weekend, the film was pulled from 2,012 theaters and grossed a mere $762,100.
International[]
Real Tag opened on October 5, 2018 in Japan, Russia, and Ireland. In Japan, it grossed $7.3 million on its opening day and $22.1 million in its opening weekend, both the biggest of all time for Toho while it grossed $600,000 in Russia and $1.2 million in Ireland. In its second weekend in Japan, it grossed $9.2 million, while in it 3 and 4 it grossed $3.1 million and $1.3 million respectively and to date, has grossed $43.2 million there. Outside North America, the film opened in 63 overseas territories, with the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Russia receiving the film the same day as in North America, and was projected to debut to $25 million. It ended up underperforming, and grossed $13.2 million. The film was released in India, which was its final market on November 9, 2018, where it was expected to gross $20 million in its opening weekend. It later ended up underperforming with a gross of $6.2 million.
Critical response[]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 19% based on 102 reviews with an average rating of 3.2/10, making it the first Glass Ball film to earn a Rotten certification. The sites consensus reads, "Real Tag may get a few scares out of audience, but fails to reimagine the Japanese horror with its lackluster plot, and is an insult to Sion Sono's original work." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of C+ on its A+ to F scale.
Transcripts[]
Main[]
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.
Trailers[]
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.