Tetsuo: The Iron Man

A man obsessed with metal drives iron into his own leg; a salaryman hits him with a car and dumps the body in the woods. After that metal starts coming out of the salaryman's body. First a small screw in his cheek, then his arms, then all of him. Both men are inside the same transformation and they find each other at the end. The narrative is deliberately fragmented, made of rhythm and noise rather than plot. Shinya Tsukamoto wrote, directed and acted in it. It was shot in black and white on 16mm, runs 67 minutes and cost between 100,000 and 130,000 dollars. The conditions explain the film's harshness. Much of it was shot in the actress Kei Fujiwara's apartment. The costumes were made of scrap metal and electronic parts fixed on with adhesive tape. People kept abandoning the production, forcing the actors to take on technical roles. Taguchi suffered badly inside the metal suits. Critics compared it to David Cronenberg, Sam Raimi and David Lynch. Michael Brooke in Sight & Sound called it one of the most pulverisingly effective science fiction horror films of the past quarter century. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 84 percent. It became a cult film after winning the Grand Prize at Rome's Fantafestival, and Tsukamoto turned into a folk hero at home. Two sequels followed, in 1992 and 2009. Who it is for: viewers who like body horror, experimental cutting and noise. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a story to be told. The film attacks for 67 minutes and does not stop to let you breathe.