Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

Just another Japanese-language, surreal, horrifying, chilling, gross, sadistic, industrial sixty seven minute nightmare in glorious black and white.

What can I say about the plot? A victim of a hit-and-run accident has his revenge on the couple that ran him over. That sounds like a pitch to an average Hollywood movie, and it has been done, but "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" quickly leaves all safe Hollywood ingredients in its wake. The victim somehow gets the male driver to slowly turn into a raging machine. It starts with a small wire sticking out of his cheek. Soon, he is being chased in a subway terminal by a woman with the mechanical affliction. He escapes her, but still tries to make it with his girlfriend. In the film's most horrific scenes, he grows a giant ugly drill, and the two spend many minutes both trying to kill and love each other. Halfway through, we find out what the victim is trying to do, and the climax involves the two men joining together in more ways than one.

Surrealism is so hard to describe- quick, give me the plot of "Un Chien Andalou," but this film is one of the most violent films I have seen. So much can be read into this, from machines taking over our world, to impersonal love relationships, but all in all, director and writer Tsukamoto stuns the viewer with eye imploding visuals. The stop motion special effects work well, and everyone involved seems to be in actual pain in many scenes. The makeup and mechanical costuming are top notch, and the music totally kills- not quite heavy industrial, but not just another rock soundtrack, either. There is not a lot of blood here- there are torrents of it. This is a blood monsoon. The soundtrack has little dialogue, and the sound effects consist of a lot of metal scraping metal, which had me climbing the walls. Watch for the now infamous scene as the unnamed man feeds his girlfriend breakfast.

"Tetsuo: The Iron Man" is a hardcore sci-fi/horror fan's dream, I'll never curse my car or microwave again. Followed by a sequel.

Stats:
(1989) 67 min. (10/10)
-Written and Directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto
-Cast: Tomoro Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Naomasa Musaka, Renji Ishibashi
(Unrated)
Media Viewed: VHS