Tetsuo

This is another one of those films where you have the "sheer brilliance 10/10" battling against the "worst film of all time 1/10" people. I'm not partial to either, I wanted to see this film after watching a preview that was so intense it made my brain hurt. So I absolutely had to pick it up at the video store.

Tetsuo, more than anything, is absolutely surreal. The cinematography and camera work is way ahead of its time, and I have never seen anything quite like it. The stop motion and use of metal twine and scrap is stunning and also menacing, especially with the heavy industrial-electronic soundtrack thumping throughout most of the film. I imagine that some scenes must have taken ages to go through frame by frame and create the visual image of cyberpunk terror that is conveyed in this film.

Besides these things I can't credit the film for much else. Some say it's impossible to follow, but the story is quite simple. A metal fetishist that has been inserting pieces of metal into his body is hit by a car, and begins to transform and haunt the person responsible. Then he begins to transform, and his world quickly spirals down as he becomes the metal obsessed monster that his crash victim was already into. However, there are lots of parts of this film that don't contribute to the overall image of the film, and a few scenes that could have been replaced with something entirely different and were a little slow and unnecessary. While hilarious, there is a scene involving the man and his "woman" (as credited) that, while serving a purpose, became more of a sick joke than a part of the film.

As the movie continues on you get more and more lost as to what is going on when cuts become more frequent and the film becomes extremely frantic and fast paced. I viewed it a second time to see if I missed anything, but I felt the same after a second view. Tetsuo is good for its expiremental editing and cinematography, and has its place in cyberpunk filmography. But if you're looking for a film with solid scriptwriting and direction, you're not going to be happy.

Sheer genius? On some aspects, yes. Worst movie ever? You have to be kidding me. There isn't much talking in this film, and the worst films ever have way too much talking in them. Sometimes it's nice to have the actors shut up and, maybe, scream in terror at a piece of metal sticking out of their face instead.

The first time, and perhaps the last, depending on how you feel about it, you watch TETSUO: THE IRON MAN, you'll sit wide-eyed. Your mouth will open, emitting sounds of choking mixed with laughter.

TETSUO is a fever dream at light speed interrupted by jolts of sexual sadism and mega-violence. It's techno-industrial mayhem on acid. Whatever it is, it must be seen many times. Not to further understand it, but to allow the viewer to relive the same nightmare.

Director Shin'ya Tsukamoto not only created this miraculous abomination, but stars in it as the demonic Metal Fetishist, whose plot to dominate the world is fulfilled through metal-flesh infusion.

When your mouth finally snaps shut, love it or hate it, all you'll be able to say is: "Ho-lee $h!t! What the hell was that?!"...

Japan is a crazy country. Their workaholism is affecting western culture all the time. Coming to Tokyo first time, one can get lost not only in translation, hehe, but mostly in all these technological gadgets that leave you with only three questions: "what the hell is this for?", "what the hell is that for?", and "how the hell does it work?". On one side, coming to Japan, one might see something very rare today: amazing technology next to tradition, remains of culture hundreds and thousands years old. But on the other, Japanese does seem to have a lot of fear about all that technology. Won't that materialistic, technological approach kill emotional and spiritual aspects of human existence? There has been made a lot of movies asking that question, projecting hypothetical versions of future based on what Japan looks like today. See Ghost in the Shell for example. Yeah, alright, but what does Tetsuo have to do with all that crap? Everything. This Tsukamoto piece of art is a manifestation of great great fear of cold and soulless technology. Main character is a guy who has rather serious problem: one day he notices that metal parts are slowly beginning to reveal themselves from under his skin. Why, and what does it mean? Where will it lead to? You'll see. What I can say is that you don't need to live in Japan to enjoy this movie. The atmosphere is amazingly unconventional, and can be compared only to other industrial/anti-industrial masterpieces of Japanese cinema. The movie is black and white only all the time. Camera work is incredible, it builds intense paranoid atmosphere. If you've seen other Shinya's movies, you know what you can expect. The way the story is told, with all these cut-and-paste elements... oh God :D If you've already seen some totally psyched-out movies like this one, you might get a laugh sometimes, otherwise I guarantee you'll be strongly shocked, because as I said before: you probably haven't seen anything like this before, so watch your back, you have been warned ;) Budget used to make this movie may be equal to something like two cokes and a hamburger, but, as we can see, some don't waste even that small amount of money. There are movies made with a little help of millions of dollars which are not even worth a cent. On the other side, there are gems like this, where you can't notice signs of low-budget, because it doesn't harm this movie even in one moment. I can't think of one thing I'd change in this movie. Highly recommended, this one is a blast!

PS. If you're willing to get some other Tsukamoto movies, avoid Hiruko the Goblin.

Tetsuo is, perhaps, the most brilliant film I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. I feel that most viewers are not mature enough/experienced with extreme cinema to look beneath the superficial "story," of which there is very little, to appreciate the wealth of subtext lurking beneath the most mind-blowing and exhilarating hour and seven minutes ever committed to film.

At once, it is an allegory of technology in the modern age (and the dehumanizing effect it has on its unwitting victims), a commentary on the psycho-sexual fetishization of industrialization, a critique of vengeance and violence, a celebration of nihilism and the potential beauty of destruction, a deranged superhero fantasy, a metaphor for failed dreams, an indictment of sexual repression (including homosexuality) and, at its core, a modern day ghost story, in which a hit and run driver (of sorts; he does carelessly dump the metal fetishist's body in the woods) is haunted by his metal-obsessed, ambiguously homosexual, marathon runner victim, a crazed nihilist who has acquired the ability to manipulate metal with his mind after a piece of steel (from the car) became lodged in his brain during the accident. In this modern age, the fear of the afterlife and the spirit has been replaced with that of technology gone haywire, the fear of weapons falling into in the "wrong" hands and of a human creation rising up to overcome, overpower and, ultimately, destroy the humans responsible for it. The events of the film, when taken to be no more than the actual images depicted, are too disturbing, complex and, ultimately, too alien, for the average, unthinking audience member to make heads or tails of, and thus are insulted as pointless, "offensive" and "weird," as if these highly subjective concepts denote something inherent in the movie. If you are one who can handle complex films with fairly simple story lines told in a completely non-linear fashion (what we actual artists/filmmakers call USING THE ART FORM!), then, please, do yourself a favor and buy this film immediately! You will gain something new from it each time you view it (I have seen it over thirty times and am still learning!). If you, however, are unable to read (and read into) images (the currency with which the medium of film traffics), and are unable to handle "weird" things without being spoonfed clear cut "heros" and "villains," then rent/buy "Titanic" and leave complex films to the thinkers and artists and revel in your own ignorance, but do not put down Shinya Tsukamoto, a man who has won my undying respect with ONE film.

This is a very artsy and experimental film that is full of disturbing and phantasmagorical images. It is difficult to watch and follow at times. Best viewed as an experiment.