is a 1989 Japanese science fiction horror film directed, written, produced, and edited by Shinya Tsukamoto. The film centers on an unnamed Japanese salaryman who wakes up to find pieces of metal sprouting from various parts of his body and becomes haunted by visions of metal-oriented sexual fantasies. As the man steadily becomes a hybrid of man and machine, he develops a connection with a victim from a hit-and-run accident, who is undergoing a similar transformation.
The film was the first feature-length film by Tsukamoto after he spent his youth creating film shorts and entering Japanese experimental theatre. Through his theatre work, he met like-minded people to perform in plays and later short films such as Kei Fujiwara and Tomorowo Taguchi. Filming proved to be difficult, as much of the cast and crew abandoned the production and only Taguchi and Tsukamoto arrived on set to finish the film. After winning the Grand Prize at the Fantafestival in Italy, the film grew in popularity in Japan, becoming a top seller on home video for non-mainstream cinema.
Outside Japan, critics compared the film to the work of directors Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, and David Lynch, while still finding the film to be original and difficult to parse. Tsukamoto directed a sequel titled Tetsuo II: Body Hammer in 1992, and a third film Tetsuo: The Bullet Man in 2009. In 2012, Michael Brooke of Sight & Sound declared the film "remains one of the most pulverisingly effective sci-fi horror films of the past quarter of a century". In Japan, the film magazine Kinema Junpo included the film on their list of top 200 Japanese films in 2009.
Plot
After a young man (referred to in the credits as the 'metal fetishist') inserts scrap metal into a self-inflicted wound on his thigh, he becomes a victim in a hit-and-run accident. The driver, a typical salaryman, later finds a metallic thorn protruding from his cheek while shaving. On his way out to a subway station, he is attacked and chased by a woman who sprouts metallic tentacles. The salaryman later finds metallic scabs on his own skin.
At home, the salaryman sleeps next to his girlfriend and has a dream in which he is sodomized by organic metal machinery. Waking up, he either imagines or discovers that metal is taking over his body. When he attempts to have sex with his girlfriend, his penis becomes a metallic drill, which leads him to lock himself away from his girlfriend. She approaches him saying she is not afraid of him, but he attacks her and, when he tries to sexually assault her with his transformed penis, she stabs him in the neck causing him to fall into unconsciousness. The salaryman regains consciousness sometime later to find his girlfriend has impaled herself on the drill, killing her.
Meanwhile, the metal fetishist recalls memories in the form of looping videos, recalling the moment of the accident and a doctor who tells him they discovered metal in his brain. The fetishist realizes he has telekinetic powers and reaches out to the salaryman and his girlfriend initially to menace them, but then to promise the salaryman a "new world of metal".
The salaryman flees in a panic as a local tramp meets the victim and starts beating him. The salaryman and the fetishist eventually meet again, finding their entire bodies more metal than flesh. The fetishist's tone changes from anger to love and says he needs to merge with the salaryman as he is overcome with rust that is attacking his body. The two merge into a giant metallic monster where the salaryman feels powerful and the fetishist feels relaxed. They take to the streets of the city convinced they can mutate the entire world into metal, the salaryman out of vengeance whereas the fetishist for pleasure.
Cast Tomorowo Taguchi as the Salaryman Kei Fujiwara as the Salaryman's girlfriend Nobu Kanaoka as a Woman in glasses Shinya Tsukamoto as the Young Metal Fetishist Naomasa Musaka as a Doctor Renji Ishibashi as Tramp
Cast adapted from the Sight & Sound review.
Production
Background and pre-production As a child, Tsukamoto read Shōnen Tanteidan and other children's books by Edogawa Ranpo in late grade school and early high school, finding himself interested in what he described as the "dark edges" of the books. He recalled, "I had similar feelings from reading his books as leafing through SM magazines I read when I was in high school." Tsukamoto was also a fan of kaiju series as a child, seeing the Gamera and Godzilla films and the television series Ultra Q. Tsukamoto spoke specifically being interested in Ultra Q, noting the mismatched elements of the show gave it a surreal flavor, which he felt led him to become interested in surrealism in high school. One day while Tsukamoto was still in school, his father brought home an 8mm camera, which he soon inherited. He began making short and feature-length amateur films with his brother by 1974, which were initially monster movies. He began expanding his film input in high school, with the first non-monster movie he saw being Bitterness of Youth by Tatsumi Kumashiro, American films and the works of Akira Kurosawa. Tsukamoto stated that from Kurosawa he learned that one could work with light to manipulate the images on film, which Tsukamoto's biographer Tom Mes stated would anticipate his work in Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Tsukamoto has since expressed very mixed feelings on these early films, even only letting his wife see them in 2002. Tsukamoto became frustrated with film work towards the end of the 1970s and began focusing on stage work while entering university.
Tsukamoto had performed and directed plays in high school, finding that they were "quite conventional" and that he preferred to do more experimental theatre. Tsukamoto specifically spoke about the work of Jūrō Kara as an influence, whose work often dealt with themes such as matricide and incest. Tsukamoto appreciated working in plays as it led to immediate feedback from audiences, who started out as spectators, who would want to work with him. Among the early people who reached out to Tsukamoto was Nobu Kanaoka who had roles in Tsukamoto's 1980s short films and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Working with enthusiastic supporters led to Tsukamoto being able to make films and plays without outside funding and outside influences from production companies. Following graduation in 1984, Tsukamoto entered into advertising agencies which he hoped would give him access to professional film equipment. It took 18 months before Tsukamoto was allowed to direct commercials. He recalled that in those eighteen months he was almost never at home, and that working as a corporate employee for long hours was a major influence on Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Tsukamoto was able to return to doing theatre work in 1985 where he created the Kaiju Shiata group. His plays retained the experimental style of his previous stage work, and connected him with Kei Fujiwara, who had been a member of Jūrō Kara's company. Fujiwara would appear in Tsukamoto's later shorts as well as Tetsuo: The Iron Man, even letting him film large portions of it at her home. By 1986, Tsukamoto quit his job at the Ide Production advertising company, with the intention of returning to filmmaking.
Tsukamoto's first work was The Phantom of Regular Size, a short film made with members of his Kaiju Shiata group, about a salaryman whose body eventually turns into scrap metal. The film was shot in less than a week. Among the cast was Tomorowo Taguchi, who had met Tsukamoto when he was performing in a theatre production that Tsukamoto had seen. They two collaborated on a play titled The Adventure of Denchu Kozo and later was cast in this short as a salaryman. Mes noted the short had themes and elements that would be expanded upon in Tetsuo: The Iron Man such as a woman with a metallic claw hand and the adverse effects of city life on people.
Filming Tetsuo: The Iron Man was shot back to back with the short film The Adventure of Denchu Kozo. Among the major changes from his short film work, was changing from 8mm film to 16mm, which would make the film suitable for theatrical presentation. The film was initially going to be made as an additional short film, at about thirty minutes in length. The choice was made after seeing some Derek Jarman films which were shot in black and white and when blown up to 16mm and 35mm projections, Tsukamoto felt the excessive grain produced interesting imagery. The black and white also provided leverage with ratings certificates, since the blood would be hard to decipher. He then purchased a Canon Scoopic 16mm camera with 10 reels of black and white film stock and began production on the film in September 1987.
The film's narrative was built upon his previous short The Phantom of Regular Size, with actors Tomorowo Taguchi, Nobu Kanaoka, and Tsukamoto portraying similar roles to the short. Other actors included Naomasa Musaka and Renji Ishibashi who had worked in major film studios such as Nikkatsu and Toei in the 1970s. Tsukamoto initially sent him a fan letter, and then asked him to appear in the film. The costumes in the film were made from scrap metal and small parts of electronic appliances stuck onto the actor with double-sided adhesive tape. This led to issues with Taguchi, who had metal added to him until Tsukamoto felt it looked right, only to find that the outfit was so heavy that Taguchi could not get up from his make-up chair. Initial tests led to Taguchi being in great discomfort, saying that at the end of a shooting day, his skin felt like sandpaper. As filming progressed, Taguchi's make-up and suit were refined so he could easily take off and on the suit.
Like his 1980s short film work, a large portion of the film was shot in Fujiwara's apartment. Exteriors of the film were shot at Kawaguchi iron factory, north of Tokyo. On traveling between locations, the cast members could not take their make-up off, which Tsukamoto recalled led to, "people looking at us like we were crazy". Tsukamoto explained that the cast and crew, "thought this film would be a parody", and that since they only had time to do things in one take, they ended up performing in what he described as a "more exaggerated, over-acted style, which is easier". Arguments would often erupt on set between the cast and crew, as well as Fujiwara's neighbors. Fujiwara stated that the two had always argued, but it became more difficult as they began working on films. Taguchi said that nearly every day they would lose a crew member, and towards the end only actors were showing up, leading to the cast members filling in for various technical roles. When Tsukamoto had to appear on screen, he would set up his shot and then have Fujiwara operate the camera. Consequently, Fujiwara is credited in the film as an assistant director, costume designer, and the second director of photography.
After four months of shooting, Tsukamoto began developing what footage he had in the editing room, which he had access to for free from former co-workers at Ide. While editing, Tsukamoto realized he needed more material and went to film pick-up shots, which continued until the end of 1988. Tsukamoto ran out of money while filming, and thus made a trailer to show to potential film distributors to gain further funding. Through his connections at the PIA Film Festival and F2 distributing, Tsukamoto connected with Japan Home Video, who were able to invest money to get the film completed. Cinefantastique suggested the final budget of the film was approximately $100,000 while The Japan Times stated the budget was 13 million yen.
Post-production