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Tetsuo - The Iron Man (Special Edition) Actors: Tomorowo Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara Director: Shinya Tsukamoto Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Closed-captioned Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 67 minutes Studio: Tartan Video Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-07-19 Buy from Amazon |
 "WHA?????"Ok, I JUST saw this, and this is messed up... I'm still trying to figure out whether I like it or whether it[s bad], which is why I am going neutral by giving it 3 stars. For a small budget movie, the production values are great. The 16mm black and white cinematography is great... but the story? Messed up! I am still in my train of thought on this, so I will end this by saying that I think it is a little too violent for most people's taste. Actually, it definately is.  "crazy as hell"makes you feel very weird inside  "well worth seeing"this is a great cyberpunk sci-fi horror flick. though rather short, the excitement and intensity is nonstop. the soundtrack adds tension from the opening credits throughout the show. if you are into alternative type, splatter punk movies that are twisted, this is a must see. next to "Possession" and "Wicked City," this is one of the stranger movies around.  "Way Too Long"What the director managed to accomplish with such a small budget is mindblowing, however this is one of those one-idea films which would have made a great short subject, but just doesn't have enough ideas or characterization to justify its actual length. This film is open to a great deal of interpretation because it is so lacking in any real character development or clear motivations. Psychotronic Magazine thinks it is some sort of message about "salaryman" (I assume Weldon means the mechanization of society). Others see in it an analogy about a man accepting his homosexuality (which, given the rather obvious symbolism of the last scene, appears more accurate to me). But really, it is little more than endless scenes of two guys merging with machines and constantly transforming into different configurations of metal and wire and struggling for dominance over each other as their wires, etc., merge with each other. It is filled with memorable images, especially the disgusting (and, depending upon your interpretation, morally repugnant) scene of the one man (I'm not sure which of the two is Tetsuo!) killing his girlfriend in a very sexual manner (I suppose the purpose of this scene is to show him rejecting women, but it appears more to me like he is just deciding she's a mere sexual object for his own use). Frankly, I think this film has much less depth than most people read into it and is little more than a gore film with one inventive idea played to death. What little "plot" there is (especially the ending) is somewhat reminiscent of Cronenberg's Shivers (an "all hail the new flesh" sort of thing), but Shivers is vastly superior considering there are actually characters and plot development in it. Get Shivers instead, which is brave enough to actually make its themes clear. The only way I could bear sitting through Tetsuo again is to view it as a purely visual experience and just watch it in small clips for its interesting effects (so it doesn't become boring through repetition), but if I want to look at disturbing artwork, I'd much rather go to a Francis Bacon exhibition. "Im bugging out real bad"Will change your whole world |
