This strange Japanese movie isn’t too big on exposition. You meet a man, a white-collar type, who discovers a tiny piece of metal on his face. Later he is assaulted by a crazy woman under the influence of some type of technology and that night he has a terrifying nightmare in which his girlfriend is a machine monster intent on raping him. That of course all falls to the wayside when he realises he is actually turning into a machine.
We’re not talking a Transformer: but more like H.R. Giger having a go at the early costumes of Star Trek’s Borg. In fact, many have noted that Giger’s bio-mechanical paintings must have inspired Tetsuo and at first glance that seems obvious.
But compile a list and suddenly a lot of strange stuff qualifies. Tetsuo is most often held next to Eraserhead – both share similar themes, employ gritty black-and-white footage and crunch continuously on a hard industrial soundtrack. Yet it also makes you think of Videodrome, Franz Kafka’s stories, William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch and a lot of other stuff. At the same time you can see how it has influenced everything from the shlock-exploitation film Machine Girl to Darren Aronofsky’s debut feature film Pi to industrial trailblazers Nine Inch Nails.
This film is crazy, but not in that “throw bodyparts at the audience” way. It is too nuanced to be a simple piece of exploitation. And yet it is totally an extreme exploitation movie. Tetsuo walks a line only it can see: what appears on screen is not necessarily offensive (though this film is not for the easily offended or faint of heart), but it will offend your sensibilities. Tetsuo is a style over substance experience. It cares more about how you feel than what you think and even though the plot eventually reveals itself, you can’t avoid the “What the F*** did I just watch?!” moment.
One might call Tetsuo: The Iron Man a Luddite fantasy, a Reefer Madness against machines. But it’s not that simple and probably not even true. Maybe the movie is proclaiming that we should learn to love the machine. Or perhaps it’s not to mess with a mechaphile. The director of this cult-classic says its about his love-hate relationship with Tokyo. But know that if you suddenly develop rocket heels and a giant drill on your groin, you won’t make it to the office today.[/column]
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Cinophile is a weekly feature showcasing films that are strange, brilliant, bizarre and explains why we love the movies.
Last Updated: June 30, 2014
