Cast:
Tomorowo Taguchi (the Salaryman), Kei Fujiwara (the Salaryman's girlfriend), Nobu Kanaoka (Woman in glasses), Shinya Tsukamoto (Young Metal Fetishist), Naomasa Musaka (Doctor), and Renji Ishibashi (Tramp) Written, Produced and Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto.
Review:
Okay, this might be an odd one to choose when it comes to strange horror choices, what with its aspects of sci-fi and a runtime of just over an hour that doesn't exactly have a straight plot. But if you told someone that it seemed right at home with a David Lynch film, your curiosity is right there for the taking. Shinya Tsukamoto wrote, directed, edited, and co-shot the film. Born in Tokyo, he has cited a variety of influences for being a director that ranged from Akira Kurosawa to David Lynch, and he started shooting his own films at a young age; he also looked up to Gakuryū Ishii (formerly known as Sogo Ishii), who had managed to get his thesis film Crazy Thunder Road sold and released into theaters. He formed his own theatre group that included a few actors that would appear in Tetsuo, which became his debut feature after years spent in advertising, in an attempt to get access to film equipment by directing commercials. The production was rough enough that only Tsukamoto and Taguchi ended up making it to the end of shooting. Since this film, Tsukamoto has continued to direct (along with act in) his own films for over three decades. In 1992, he directed Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, which is considered more a companion piece to the original. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man was released in 2009.
The human body and the city might not seem like an interesting theme for a horror film until you realize what you are in for with a movie that has a robot penis and clanging noise that batters one's senses at times that might remind one of say, Eraserhead (1977). It basically is a horror film of the mind that literally rips right into you with the metal representing the claws of life that just beat you down into the ground until only a puddle of flesh is left to writhe and squirm. It is essentially a movie that is ripped into a time different from our own that might as well be decades forward and behind what we think films are. People come, people go, but metal (in this case, scrap metal and small electronic appliance parts) is forever. Visceral and kinetic in the most hellish of ways, one can't look away at what they see in crisp black-and-white photography that goes right in with the occasional stop-motion use. It sure as hell isn't for everyone (paying attention helps but be ready), but you really have to see it to believe yourself when it comes to a dream that basically grinds and moans at you. For all of the things you can say about it being, say, ultra-violent, more can be wondered aloud about just what it means to see a life go by the wayside. You really do have to just go with the flow with this film, which doesn't have too much dialogue in the first place; you might say the actors are playing it to heights that come in crazed horror (this is to say about on point for a film made on a stealthy budget where the art is the goal). The way to get people to wake up about the chaos of modern life is to essentially shake at them, you might say. As a whole, it manages to have plenty of curiosity in the horrific realities of metal and flesh running hell on each other. As a debut feature, it serves as damn good way to make an impression on the curious in distinct filmmaking that assaults the senses in the most determined of ways.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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