Tetsuo: The Iron Man

1989 [JAPANESE]

Action / Fantasy / Horror / Sci-Fi

26
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 76% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 76% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 28655 28.7K

dystopia transformation fetishism gore cyberpunk japanese cyberpunk

Plot summary

A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.

Director

Shin'ya Tsukamoto Photo
Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Top cast

Renji Ishibashi Photo
Renji Ishibashi as Tramp
Naomasa Musaka Photo
Naomasa Musaka as Doctor
Kei Fujiwara Photo
Kei Fujiwara as Woman
Shin'ya Tsukamoto Photo
Shin'ya Tsukamoto as Metal Fetishist
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
618.38 MB
968*720
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 7
1.12 GB
1440*1072
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 53

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Ham_and_Egger 8 / 10

Manga-influenced man vs. machine Japanese scifi film with a razor-sharp visual style

It's so visually striking that you could never fully describe Tetsuo in words. But here are a few that apply: Japanese, hyperactive, perverse, industrial, surreal, Faustian bargain, contrasty, black-and-white, Kafkaesque, scifi, stop-motion, manga-influenced, revenge, technology, alienation, supervillains.Shinya Tsukamoto is an actor (he's the antagonistic "Metals Fetishist" here as well as Jijii in Ichi the Killer) as well as a ground-breaking writer/director/cinematographer. Tetsuo's influence can be seen clearly in directors as diverse as Darren Aronofsky, Takashi Miike, and even David Cronenberg.There is definitely a plot, but due to the non-linear editing and sparsity of dialogue you'll need to pay close attention on a first viewing or else you'll be overwhelmed by the engrossing visual style (which might be a good thing). It's filmed in contrasty black-and-white. Each frame is cramped and chaotic, much of the time it's filled with wires, pipes, chain-link fences, and all the other incidental debris of life in the late 20th century... which suddenly seems significant and even menacing.Towards the fifty-minute mark (it's 67 min. total) the willful excess starts to feel a little too excessive, perhaps the manga influence is a bit too strong. But Tetsuo finishes strong, with an end that's at once unexpected and inevitable. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by christopher-underwood 8 / 10

Breathtaking film making that deserves to be seen, at least once.

There is a knowing relentlessness with both visuals and soundtrack equally compelling that forces attention despite the obvious horrors. Not always quite clear what is going on or to how many or how pleasurable or painful the numerous metallic body insertions are but that there is something that demands our attention is undeniable. The streets rush by, there are repeated showings of the motoring hit and run incident that precipitated everything and still the sound pounds and the metal scrapes. The only comparison possible seems to be Eraserhead with this similar unworldliness yet primal connections and almost unbelievably an element of humour. Breathtaking film making that deserves to be seen, at least once.
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