This will be a flash review. I don’t really think you can go overboard when you review a short film, especially one that runs for just under eight minutes. Writing any more than a few hundred words seems excessive. Here’s the premise, a simple nostalgic game of tag played between two Japanese women is spiced up with a razor blade. We open with a shot of a damp bloody stomach and then go back in time to the start of the harmful game. A waifish young Japanese woman wearing a white gown walks down some wooden steps, we see a hand reaching up between the steps; the hand is holding a razor blade and it pokes the girl just below the Achilles tendon. Ouchy.

The voice under the steps says “You’re it”. Now, I’m not going to spoilt the rest of the short film but actresses Miki (Eri Akita) and Aki (Mariko Miyamitsu) do a pretty good job in their short time on screen. ‘Oni-Gokko (Tag)’ is a tense tale of revenge that is available as part of the ‘Theatre of the Deranged II’ anthology. If you like skin crawling close up shots of gouging gore and naked Japanese women then this might just be up your street.

– RJW
7/10