Tetsuo The Iron Man
Apologies if this has already been reviewed.
Basically this is a 1989 Japanese cyberpunk film by film director Shinya Tsukamoto. Its an extremely graphic, highly stylised, low budget fantasy shot entirely in black and white and set in modern day Japan. The main character (a businessman played by cult actor Taguchi Tomorowo), and his girlfriend try to cover up a hit and run after they knock down a man (who is suffering from what I can only describe as an extreme form of self mutilating Metal Fetishism) by dumping the body into a ravine. He is in fact still alive and watches them as they have sex.
As previously mentioned its shot entirely in black and white and there are (for the time) some very original and effective uses of camera angles, time lapse and speeded up footage shot in 16mm (but with the feel of Super 8 ) If you put a young John Carpenter, David Lynch, Cronenberg, Clive Barker, William Gibson and Ridley Scott in a room together over a late night game of Poker with a case of Absinthe they might have come up with a similar albeit Westernised version) and an Industrial metal score (which sounds like Trent Reznor and Al Jorgensen have been let loose in the BBC Radiophonic workshop) The dialogue is very sparse and there are only 6 characters in the entire film.
What follows is one of the weirdest, fucked up films I've ever seen. There are some very disturbing and graphic scenes of sexual fetishism/mutilation and dismemberment (Cannibal Corpse have probably written a song about the subject)
The plot unfolds through a series of flash backs, fast forwards and dream/nightmare sequences as the Metal Fetishist (in various guises) chases the businessman through a Distopian vision of modern Japan: a labyrinth of underground tunnels and corridors, decaying scrap yards, tons of abandoned and broken machines and rusting iron, miles of rotting cables and the entirely unpopulated streets of Urban sprawl as both mutate into extreme and psychotic lo-tech metal versions of The Borg from Star Trek and lose almost every last recognisable vestige of humanity in the process. After a brief fight they merge into a two headed 12 foot high moving junkyard. The metamorphosis/assimilation seems to unite them in a hatred for a Humanity that they have by now left totally behind and the film ends with them charging through the streets of Japan vowing to turn the world into rusted metal.
Can't believe its been almost 20 years since I saw this.
This is only the 2nd time I've watched it from beginning to end and its even more fucked up than I remember it being. Having said that its a great piece of low budget film making! I didn't realise there are now two sequels. I'm not sure if I want to risk these...the law of diminishing returns and all that. Anybody here who can recommend them or not?
