Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)

I heard about this movie reading a comic book magazine in elementary school. It piqued my interest and I searched for it on video for rental for several months before finding it. Also included on the video was a short film entitled "Drum struck" which didn't interest me at all. The real meat was Tetsuo.

The "plot" of this film revolves around a businessman (who apparently like to have sex with his girlfriend in public places and film it) who is involved in a hit and run auto accident with a metal fetishist. Soon the man appears to be hallucinating about people sprouting metal appendages until it begins to happen to him. Chunks of scrap metal grow like cancerous tumors. Soon, they're not random scraps but working appliances such as drills. If this isn't bad enough he soon finds out the man he hit (played by the director of the film) is in fact alive and rather peeved.

Absolutely insane violence permeates the film which retains its punch through the black and white film.

The review I read about this film compared it to Eraserhead (A film I still have not seen) which I believe says a lot about Eraserhead. To compare it to a film I've seen I'd say it reminds me of "Un Chien Andalou" with about three more lines of dialog and a lot more gore and violence.

I also recommend the sequel Tetsuo II: Body Hammer. It's similar but bigger. Color, dialog, etc.

10/10

Fmovies: "Tetsuo, the Iron Man" is among the strangest independent films I have ever seen. It isn't just because of the low budget black and white cinematography but the story--one that is incredibly strange, brutal and surreal. The film is packed with blood, violence and is one best not to watch if you don't have a very high tolerance for this sort of stuff--and my bet is that this includes most people! You certainly wouldn't want to show this to Granny (unless you were trying to kill her) or your kids (unless you want to turn them into psychopaths)!

The story is very choppy, has very little dialog and often seems to be missing a clear storyline. It begins with some freaky guy living among metallic junk--and he's shoving pieces of metal into his body! It's pretty hard-core stuff--complete with blood, guts and maggots! Soon, he's run over in an accident that cost nothing to stage--because they don't show the accident in order to save money. Next, a man is talking to his girlfriend on the phone about the incident and tells her he's feeling strange since the hit and run. Following this, the guy has a LONG surreal hallucination about a woman who is made up of flesh and metal--as he, too, is becoming metal. She torments him for a long time, becomes a monster and rapes him brutally. Then, he wakes up to find that while it was a hallucination, he still is having metal erupt from his body. He and his girlfriend then make out like monkeys. All this only in the first 20 minutes of the film!! I haven't even gotten to the portion where he has a giant spinning metal screw for genitals!! Need I go on?! I really don't think so.

The bottom line is that this is a film with almost no audience. Unless you love indie horror, Japanese films, extreme violence, sexual sadism AND surrealism, then you'll probably find the whole thing rather repellent. Believe it or not, actually found the film a bit boring after a while because it was so excessive there really couldn't be anything else to offend or surprise me after a while.

"Tetsuo: the Iron Man" is utter chaos. Shinya Tsukamoto has created a strange world of metal fetishists and human decay. To make it all the more insane, it's filmed at the pace of a speed adrenaline rush. An office worker slowly transforms into a mutated metal creature after cutting himself shaving. Wires, drills, cables and steel burst from his face and body. And who can forget the giant metal drill penis? The office worker faces off with a villain who has a metal fetish. The villain enjoys sticking metal objects in himself. The film turns into a battle to the finish between the two men. "Tetsuo" has to be one of the strangest films ever made. Stranger than both "Eraserhead" and "Begotten". It's fast pace style can be later seen in films like PI. Thank God, this film is in black and white; it's extremely graphic!

Tetsuo, the Iron Man fmovies. Wow. Unreal. You know what it feels like to bite down on aluminum foil or hearing chalk scratch on a blackboard through Bose speakers over and over again? This resembles what a viewing experience you'll have watching Tetsuo.

Trippy, bizarre, surreal. The sequence of events are just mind boggling that it's a bit trying to take it all in at once. The black and white definitely shows a very gritty, bleak environment and there's great use of dark color tones and shadow. Add some manic performances, great camera angles, and a very raw hardcore soundtrack which just intensifies the insanity even more. Definitely have to give it to the design crew because their attention to detail adds to the overall weirdness. There's even a love story in it too!

Very cool flick.

This movie can be explored in many ways: the relationship between human life and technology is the first which comes to mind. Then maybe this fits into a larger theme of industrialization. Still, there are several ways of interpreting each scene and at times I had the feeling that they try to show - or to produce a metaphor for - human emotions, such as cheating, sorrow, the will not to die alone. "And we can rust the whole world and scatter it into the dust of universe" You will certainly make what you want of this movie. You may understand that technology is evil, that industrialization takes our souls away, or that even in our worst moments we crave for closeness and we don't want to be alone. This is a special movie - so beware - it is not accessible to most people. There's a chance that you won't be able to think for yourself and that you'll expect some quick & nice Hollywood conclusions which you're not going to get - in which case, this movie will be a waste of your time.

I can honestly say that this is the strangest movie I have ever seen. It is not bad, just really weird. There doesn't seem to be any other way to describe it well. It's also very easy to get lost in it. Crazy camera action. Crazy things. Crazy people. WEIRD!