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Tetsuo: The Iron Man follows an office worker (Tomorowo Taguchi) that is involved in a hit-and-run accident. After apparently leaving the scene, he starts being haunted by strange hallucinations of scraping metals. Eventually, he starts sprouting metal parts himself from various parts of his body sending him on a crazied frenzy. Can he retain his sanity or will his brain turn into metal as well?
This is one of those films I've been hearing about for a long time. One of those where you kinda know already what's going on, mostly because of pop culture. Still, after my first official watch, I can say it was even weirder than I expected. Not only because of its weird story and bizarre visuals, but also because of its unconventional narrative and frantic pacing.
Maybe the latter two are what kept me at a distance. Tetsuo: The Iron Man is not a character-driven film, so the director doesn't really give you a lot of time to know this man (he doesn't even get a name) or his girlfriend, or any other character. So when he starts suffering this predicament, it all hangs in this surreal imagery that he throws at us. This makes for an interesting watch, but not much more from an emotional angle.
As the plot progresses, things get even weirder, and the story gets more chaotic which, as far as I'm concerned, widens that disconnect. Overall, Tetsuo: The Iron Man feels more like a novelty watch; something cool and weird to watch, but not much more. With a 67 minute runtime it's still quite breezy, but your brain might be metal by the end.
Grade:
TETSUO: THE IRON MAN
(1989, Tsukamoto)
(1989, Tsukamoto)
"Soon even your brain will be metal!"
Tetsuo: The Iron Man follows an office worker (Tomorowo Taguchi) that is involved in a hit-and-run accident. After apparently leaving the scene, he starts being haunted by strange hallucinations of scraping metals. Eventually, he starts sprouting metal parts himself from various parts of his body sending him on a crazied frenzy. Can he retain his sanity or will his brain turn into metal as well?
This is one of those films I've been hearing about for a long time. One of those where you kinda know already what's going on, mostly because of pop culture. Still, after my first official watch, I can say it was even weirder than I expected. Not only because of its weird story and bizarre visuals, but also because of its unconventional narrative and frantic pacing.
Maybe the latter two are what kept me at a distance. Tetsuo: The Iron Man is not a character-driven film, so the director doesn't really give you a lot of time to know this man (he doesn't even get a name) or his girlfriend, or any other character. So when he starts suffering this predicament, it all hangs in this surreal imagery that he throws at us. This makes for an interesting watch, but not much more from an emotional angle.
As the plot progresses, things get even weirder, and the story gets more chaotic which, as far as I'm concerned, widens that disconnect. Overall, Tetsuo: The Iron Man feels more like a novelty watch; something cool and weird to watch, but not much more. With a 67 minute runtime it's still quite breezy, but your brain might be metal by the end.
Grade: