It’s safe to say that the name “Iron Man” has become synonymous with both superheroes and summer blockbusters. Over the past five years, Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark has headlined four of the biggest films in box office history, turning Iron Man into one of the most recognizable brands on Earth.
But for some film fans, hearing the name Iron Man conjures up a very different image. Instead of America’s beloved red-and-gold crimefighter bravely saving the world from super powered terror, they think of pounding industrial beats, shocking scenes of fetishized horror and a micro-budgeted black and white experimental film that revolutionized the world of cult cinema forever.
Move over, Tony Stark, because it’s time to take a look at “Tetsuo: The Iron Man.”
Based on his own student short films, “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” was the brainchild of Japanese auteur Shinya Tsukamoto. Filmed on less than a shoestring budget in 1988, “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” which was Tsukamoto’s first feature length effort, stars a number of Tsukamoto’s friends and former classmates in a nearly psychotic exploration of the effects of modern technology on the human mind.
Or at least, that’s one interpretation of “Tetsuo: The Iron Man’s” mind-blowing imagery. Rightly compared to the weirdest works of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, the film’s plot is almost secondary to its visuals and music. Starting off with a look at a man known only as the Metal Fetishist, a guy (played by Tsukamoto himself) who gets his kicks surgically implanting hunks of metal into his own flesh, “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” takes a quick turn into left field when the man is nearly run over and killed by a typical Tokyo salaryman and his girlfriend.
The salaryman (Tomorowo Taguchi) then begins having a series of increasingly bizarre and disturbing dreams and encounters as his own body slowly transforms into a metallic monstrosity. With wires, gears and pistons jutting from his flesh, he finally faces off against the Metal Fetishist who has been haunting his nightmares. Instead of defeating him, though, they end up merging in an orgiastic battle scene that culminates with the duo, now one being, embarking on a rampage in an attempt to transform all Earth to their metallic worldview.
So that’s the “story.” But the main point of the movie is made through its unique style, which is half frenetic black-and-white dream sequences of people racing through Tokyo’s deserted streets while transforming into cyborg monstrosities and half pounding, industrial rhythms that get inside your head and stay there like a steam engine you can’t shut down. The result is like a long-form music video full of the creepiest imagery this side of a Tool concert.
Check out the trailer for a taste:
As this clip makes clear, Tskuamoto named his character the Metal Fetishist for a very good reason. If the movie is exploring man’s affair with technology, then Tsukamoto has no problem making that affair a very literal one.
Or in other words, this is a perfect example of the classic literary rule known as Chekov’s Giant Crotch Drill. If you introduce a giant crotch drill in act one, that crotch drill has to go off in act three. And it very much does in an encounter with the salaryman’s girlfriend that is a wee bit too intense for us to embed it here.
Which is part of the point of “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” which doesn’t shy away from examining not just the sexuality of its characters, but the sexual politics inherent in the mechanization — and therefore equalization — of modern society. In one of the film’s most famous segments, the salaryman is pursued by a strange woman who is herself in the process of transforming into a metallic monster. At one point, as the ecstasy of transcending mere flesh consumes her, she gleefully detonates one of her breasts, showering both of them with blood.
We’re pretty sure you’re not going to see Pepper Potts do that in “Iron Man 3.”
Though “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” hit Japanese theaters in 1989, it wasn’t until several years later that it finally arrived in limited release in America. Over the course of the past decade, the film’s cult status has grown, as have the number of unsuspecting viewers who have stumbled upon it and ended up curling into the fetal position while wondering wtf just happened.
That’s because, unlike “Iron Man 3,” “Tetuso: The Iron Man” most definitely isn’t intended for mainstream audiences. But if you find experimental cinema interesting and want a first hand look at what many critics consider to be the pinnacle of cyberpunk film, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
After all, an open, inquisitive mind is what really makes Tony Stark a superhero, isn’t it?
Categories: FeaturesTags: Iron man, Iron Man 3, Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsuo: The Iron Man
