Jackson Booth-Millard This Japanese film was formerly in one of the editions of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before Die, it is a film known to use the science-fiction subgenre "cyberpunk", focusing on "high tech low life", the weird poster for the film certainly got my attention. Basically a strange, known only as the "Metal Fetishist" (Shin'ya Tsukamoto), seems to have an insane obsession to stick pieces of scrap metal to his body. The man is out walking and gets hit, possibly killed, by a Japanese businessman, or "salaryman" (Tomorowo Taguchi), out driving with his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). Following this accident the businessman notices a piece of metal protruding from under his skin, it seems he is being slowly taken over by some kind of disease, his body is being turned into scrap metal. It becomes obvious that the man he hit with the car is not actually dead, he is his nemesis and is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fuelled transformation. Also starring Nobu Kanaoka as Woman in Glasses, Naomasa Musaka as Doctor and Renji Ishibashi as Tramp. This film reminds me of Eraserhead, a black and white nightmare brought to life, this is indeed another film like that, there are so much surreal and disturbing imagery, with metal parts destroying the body of a man, a penis turning into a rotating metal drill and trying to rape a woman with it, and lots of blood spill, it is a strange art house style cult movie that will appeal to those who like scary movies, and have strong stomachs, an interesting horror. Worth watching!

Mithil Bhoras Shinya Tsukamoto's cult classic Tetsuo the iron man (1988) simply is beyond words! Cinema takes an obnoxious, bizarre and graphic form and results in the creation of one of the most scariest and shocking film experiences. It's hard to believe that this film had a very low budget and was shot with a 16 mm. All the elements such as the jaw-dropping stop motion effect, the incredible metallic soundtrack, the smart sound mixing, the extreme film editing, the black and white cinematography and an highly innovative story come together beautifully and prove that cinema, indeed, is limitless and low budget can never suppress a man's vision. At times, the film takes a (deliciously) surreal form but we never lose our grasp on understanding Tetsuo's story-line. This film is not, even for a millisecond, afraid of throwing the most bizarre and gut-wrenching images at it's audiences (Which are hardly pretentious, for the record). There is, supposedly, a metaphor hidden in Tetsuo that man has developed a 'fetish' for machines and has been consumed by it. The film graphically shows people transforming into hybrids of metal and flesh which was quite brilliantly filmed. The idea of recycling metallic scrap as props was a smart move!This film is, obviously, not for everyone. And whether you hate it or love it, Tetsuo still manages to rape your senses (I loved it!), giving you an experience that is totally new. I warn you again that this film is extremely bizarre and experimental so enter at your own will. A nightmarish near-masterpiece that easily beats David Lynch's Eraserhead, a film which had originally inspired Tetsuo.4.7/5

TheExpatriate700 My acquaintance with Tetsuo began when I was roughly ten or eleven years old. When I first read the advertisement in the paper, it sounded like a typical Japanese kaiju film, and my family looked into seeing it. These plans ended when my father read a review of the film including a content warning mentioning "phallic machinery." I've only recently gotten around to seeing it.Tetsuo the Iron Man is a difficult film to comprehend or categorize. At different points, it shifts between experimental film, science fiction, and an extremely graphic horror film. It also alternates between being interesting and headache inducing.The film follows a young businessman's transformation into a metallic monster. This is Cronenbergian body horror taken to the Nth level, complete with metal growths and a disturbingly positioned pneumatic drill. Given the extremely low budget, the special effects are amazing.However, the film is at times maddeningly difficult to follow or understand. The film's point is difficult if not impossible to pry out, and the how of Tetsuo's transformation is never explained.

Scarecrow-88 Sheer insanity as I've never seen before. This movie focuses entirely on the merging of the human body(..the flesh)and metal whether it be the rusted tubes used by the "fetishest" for which he inserts in his leg(after a grisly scene where he opens a long gash in his leg for the bizarre procedure) or the stainless steel razor blade which pokes from the face of "Salaryman"(Tomorowo Taguchi)before wires, a spinning crotch drill, and other objects emerge, Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo:The Iron Man" follows a very surreal nightmarish scenario to a really crazy conclusion. Tsukamoto is a man with a fixation for implanting metal in his body and in a crazed moment of madness(after seeing maggots all over the rusty tube he inserted)runs out in the street, getting hit by a man in glasses, tie, and white shirt(an obvious white collar worker of some sort). This man(the film dubs as "Salaryman")and his girlfriend(Kei Fujiwara)decide to discard the guy down some hill to get rid of him(..and, after act, the couple get so hot and bothered by their misdeed, the two have sex as we watch them through metal fetishist's point-of-view), awakening a monster. You see the "metal fetishist" will get revenge by causing Salaryman to evolve into some sort of human junk heap. Gradually wires and other metallic odds and ends burst from within Salaryman and the missus obviously doesn't respond well to his dilemma. After an attempt to kill him with a steak knife, the drill pops up to burrow through her, splashing blood all over the place. We also watch as metal fetishist toys with Salaryman by sending him down streets at warp speed, causing the fella to evolve faster than he'd like, and eventually deciding to transform him totally and completely into a metal trash pile. I think Cronenberg is especially noted as an influence in "Tetsuo" because of the eventual metamorphosis of man and metal, the creation of an entire new species, as metal fetishist and Salaryman "cohesively bond" at the end, ultimately deciding they will share their "union" with the world around them. I've never seen a movie quite like "Tetsuo", with the black and white photography, shot as if lensed by a madman, actually enhancing the hysteria in a way I can not describe. Tsukamoto uses incredible camera speeds with characters moving down streets at a blistering pace. But, what I was overwhelmed and exhilarated by was the stop motion effects where we see how metal fetishist and Salaryman slowly metamorphose into metal creatures...the way wires take on a life of their own. The movie is certainly an experience unlike any other, hard to define, and absolutely psychotic. It was probably for the best that "Tetsuo:The Iron Man" was only 60+ minutes long, because it is such a shock to the senses, so nutty that it could easily overstay it's welcome.