THE ORIGINAL IRON MAN - TETSUO (1989) TURNS 35!!!

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1989) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
TETSUO II: BODY HAMMER (1992) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN (2009) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)

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Winner of Best Film at the 1989 Fantafestival in Rome, Shinya Tsukamoto’s breakout 1989 feature Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a touchstone of cinematic cyberpunk, a relentlessly frenetic black-and-white 16mm assault on the senses and sensibilities, and a supercharged display of independent filmmaking.

TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN (2009) Movie Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 21
Total First Time Views: 14
Amount raised for ALBANY PARK THEATER PROJECT: $1,674.75

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan) (71 min) (1st viewing)

A couple’s life is shattered when their son is brutally, intentionally run down in the street, their grief driving them into separate spirals of misery. The businessman father Anthony (Eric Bossick) seeks muted solace in endlessly humming the “Mockingbird” nursery rhyme that his parents taught him while Yuriko (Akiko Mono) announces that she must have revenge on Tom’s murderer (played by writer/director Tsukamoto), eventually leaving Anthony. His inner turmoil – and his mysterious genetic origins, thanks to his mad scientist father Ride (Stephen Sarrazin) – transform him into a hulking metal beast, literally armed to the teeth with firearm muzzles. Now the past and the present will collide, with mayhem on the menu.

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1989) Blu-ray Review

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan) (69 min)

After a character credited as “The Metal Fetishist” (Shinya Tsukamoto) shoves a length of pipe into his thigh, the excruciating pain sends him limping into the street where he is subsequently run down by the Salaryman (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his (intentionally) nameless girlfriend (Kej Fujiwara). Fearing for their reputations, they take the fetishist’s seemingly lifeless body and dispose of it at the bottom of a ravine, pausing to make love in the shadow of their crime. Shaving in the mirror the next day, the Salaryman notices a small metal diode emerging from his cheek; attempting to pull it out only causes agony and a bleeding wound that marks him like a brand. In the subway, he is accosted by a similarly afflicted Woman with Glasses (Nobu Kanaoka), her hand encased in metal, and while he manages to escape her frenzied attack, the relentless metamorphosis continues, his flesh slowly and inexplicably being replaced by iron, chrome, and steel.

HENGE (2012) review

Henge (2012) (1st viewing) d. Ohata, Hajime (Japan)

The best way to describe this flick is to imagine David Cronenberg, Shinya Tsukamoto and Ishiro Honda’s three-way cinematic love-child. In a little less than an hour’s running time, we witness a couple (Kazunari Aizawa, Aki Morita) attempting to cope with the husband’s increasingly violent and frequent seizures. Medical science is baffled, especially when he starts speaking in prehistoric, mystical tongues and segments of his body begin inexplicably mutating. I could have done without the patently false CGI blood splatter, but that’s a mild complaint against this brilliantly surreal taste of vibrant body horror whose final reel payoff will Blow. Your. Mind.

BIFFF Day #4 (Monday, 4/9)

Later start to Day 4, as the early slots were taken up with Dutch and French language screenings of The Lorax (which I had little to no interest in seeing, even in my native tongue) plus we were slated to partake in Barbara Steele’s press conference at 2pm. I’d say that the conference itself went pretty smoothly, and since I’d situated myself down front and center, I got to make sweet, sweet goo-goo eyes with the Queen of Gothic Horror for the better part of an hour. The lone American voice amidst a sea of French and Dutch-accented reporters, I think we had a little connection there (wishful thinking perhaps, but hey, you weren’t there, you don’t know!) I got her to pose for a quick snapshot with me afterwards, and then got out of there before things got ugly. I say this because you could tell that the Reele Steele was growing tired of dealing with the rabble, especially when they started pulling out DVD covers for her to sign and blog banners to hold up for pictures. Truth be told, it was pretty evident that she was DONE with us and wanted out of there even before the interview ended, so I can’t blame her for being annoyed when the press corps refused to pick up on the signals she was putting out. Ah well, the price of celebrity, I suppose. And not for the first time, I found myself hoping that I would be more gracious should I ever find myself in such an enviable situation.