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.
