Tetsuo (1988 ) Tetsuo the Ironman

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Starring Tomorowo Taguchi, Shinya Tsukamoto

An amazingly explosive debut feature, influenced by the likes of Bunuel/Dali (Un Chien Andalou), David Lynch (Eraserhead), David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome etc) and Jan Svankmajer stop motion animation. Has influenced Darren Aronofsky (Pi) and dozens of other films, pop promos etc including his former mentor Sogo Ishiis Electric Dragon 80000V. 

The story as such, a metal fetishist gets run over by a car, the driver and his girlfriend dump his near dead body and have sex. A few days later the driver starts mutating, jagged lumps of metal start appearing all over and protruding from his body, his penis turns into a large drill bit and gradually his whole body disappears under wires, pipes and assorted metal fragments. The fetishist returns, somehow he has managed to invade the drivers body and caused the transmutation, they battle it out until they are joined as one and decide to use their combined power to destroy the world.

Sounds daft? Yes but this strikingly bold, black and white staccato edited energy explosion is an amazingly surreal piece of film. Tsukamoto uses the transformations/mutations as a sexual expression as he sees each sexual encounter as something that transforms the participants. This type of symbolism is a common feature of all his films and are usually male/female although the last encounter in Tetsuo is between the two males ending in a combined mutation.

You want something truly different, give Tetsuo the Ironman a try, whether you like it or loathe it, youll never forget it.

Cheers Trev

BBFC rated 18