Tetsuo: The Iron Man

This article is about the Japanese cult film Tetsuo: The Iron Man. For the character from the Akira anime and manga, see Tetsuo Shima.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Region 2 DVD Cover
Directed by	Shinya Tsukamoto
Produced by	Shinya Tsukamoto
Written by	Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring	Tomorowo Taguchi Kei Fujiwara Shinya Tsukamoto
Music by	Chu Ishikawa
Cinematography	Kei Fujiwara
Release date(s)	July 1 1989 October 5 1994
Running time	67 min.
Language	Japanese
Followed by	Tetsuo II
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (鉄男: Tetsuo) is a 1989 Japanese film by cult-film director Shinya Tsukamoto. This, his third film, is an extremely graphic but also strikingly-filmed fantasy shot in the same low-budget, underground-production style as his first two films. Tetsuo established Tsukamoto internationally and created his worldwide cult. It was followed by Tetsuo II: Body Hammer.

Synopsis

The film opens with a man (called only "the man", or sometimes the "Metal Fetishist") tearing open a massive gash in his leg and shoving in a piece of scrap metal. Upon seeing maggots festering in the wound, he screams, runs out into the street, and is hit by a car. The driver of the car (cult actor Taguchi Tomorowo) tries to cover up the mess by dumping the body into a ravine, but the dead man comes back to haunt him -- by forcing his body to gradually metamorphose into a walking pile of scrap metal. This process starts when the driver finds a piece of metal stuck in his cheek while shaving. He tries to remove it, but realises it is growing from the inside. The first of several highly stylised chase scenes starts with the driver pursued through an underground station by a woman whose body has been taken over by the Metal Fetishist. In one of the film's most controversial sequences, the man discovers his penis has mutated into a gargantuan power drill. This is how his terrified girlfriend meets her demise. The film ends with a duel between the man and the Fetishist with the pair transformed into a giant mutated monster.

See also

• Tetsuo II: Body Hammer

External links

• Review at midnighteye.com
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man at the Internet Movie Database
• 鉄男　ＴＥＴＳＵＯ (Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.