Review: Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Shinya Tsukamoto’s fetishistic Tetsuo: The Iron Man is certainly worthy of Cronenberg.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Photo: Original Cinema

Tetsuo (Tomorô Taguchi) turns into the titular iron man via a series of bloody tableaux morts scenarios sensuously intercut with images of Metal Fetishist (Tsukamoto) trapped inside the confines of a demolished automobile. (Tetsuo’s narrative details are iffy but Tsukamoto seems to suggest that Tetsuo and his girlfriend were responsible for the death of Metal Fetishist.) Tetsuo grapples with his burgeoning metal self as he and his girlfriend contemplate the psycho-sexual ramifications of his new male unit (his penis is visualized as a colossal swirling power-drill). Tsukamoto’s pseudo-animatronic running scenarios evoke an industrial flux between humanity and its surroundings while Tetsuo and Fetishist’s homoerotic transformation into Iron Man becomes a response to the machinization of the individual in a systematically regimented Japan. Shinya Tsukamoto’s fetishistic Tetsuo: The Iron Man is certainly worthy of Cronenberg.

Score: 
 Cast: Tomorô Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, Renji Ishibashi, Naomasa Musaka, Shinya Tsukamoto  Director: Shinya Tsukamoto  Screenwriter: Shinya Tsukamoto  Distributor: Original Cinema  Running Time: 67 min  Rating: R  Year: 1988  Buy: Video

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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