The one and only Iron Man came to the cinema 35 years ago and is not called Tony Stark

Tony Stark is supposed to be Iron Man? What an analog impertinence. In my augmented eyes, there is only one true Iron Man – and his name is Tetsuo.

Not Tetsuo Shima from Akira, mind you, but Tetsuo: The Iron Manas Shinya Tsukamoto’s monstrous metal love letter from 1989 is known internationally. Since July 1st of this year, there have already been 35 spark plugs on the birthday cake of this hectic cyberpunk fever dream, which for me is the epitome of Japanese independent cinema. There is no trace of rust on this masterpiece.

35 years of Tetsuo: The Iron Man – Romantic cyberpunk horror from Japan

Do you know the scene from the beginning of the second Fleabag season, in which the protagonist turns towards the camera with a blood-stained face and, in defiance of the supposed massacre, “This is a love story” declared? Tetsuo could be introduced in a similar way, before a character played by director Tsukamoto himself Metal fetishist his cut leg is penetrated with pleasure and pain with an iron bar.

With an infected wound, the newly minted junkyard cyberpunk goes into traffic, where he is hit by a car. This collision between the steel car and the metal man is staged in a downright romantic way, with cheesy music and a camera that appears to be making love to the vehicle.

The car is driven by an unnamed Businessman (Tomoro Taguchi), who may be called Tetsuo. But he doesn’t have to be. The film title is actually a play on words, as the Japanese male first name is literally made up of the characters for iron (鉄) and man (男).

After the collision, the fleeing driver’s body begins to change. Wire sprouts from his face like stubble, exhaust pipes form on his feet, his penis mutates into a deadly electric drill that horribly tears his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara) apart. At the same time, the metal fetishist who was hit finds more and more of a liking for the nascent iron man and haunts him in various forms. Love is not dead, it has just taken on a new form.

Iron man and metal fetishist: symphony of symbiosis

Tetsuo can be Kafkaesque metal metamorphosis with numerous interpretation options. Is the film a Japanese commentary on the human relationship to technology? A critique of the commodification of bodies? Or perhaps a queer awakening metaphor in which a man must become a monster in order to grow into his identity? Since the fetishist is a Fusion of both men in the shared rust paradise and also a gigantic, symbolic metal phallus comes into play in a prominent place, not the most far-fetched reading.

Metal resonates as a tinny motif throughout the entire film. From the mechanical stop-motion tangle of wires, cables and aluminum to the black and white look of the film, whose sharp contrast could cut you. And not to forget the driving soundtrack by Chu Ishikawa, whose percussive industrial sounds set a merciless paceas if they had been stamped in a factory. It roars and bangs and clatters and rings. Artistic, loud and in need of attention like a 90s music video.

Who’s your cyber daddy?

For director Tsukamoto, Tetsuo was the first feature film based on his own short film. But that was not the end of the Cyber ​​Saga: His brilliant sequel Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer is less of a sequel and more of a colorful reimagining. With the same main actor, but a more conventional plot and a bigger budget. Also well worth seeing. How successful his 2009 film Tetsuo: The Bullet Man was, however, is a more controversial topic.

However, nothing comes close to the unbridled energy of the original film, which has much of the auteur film enthusiasm of an Eraserhead. Tsukamoto named the cyberpunk classics Videodrome and Blade Runner. No wonder: Both films had a major influence on Japanese science fiction in the 80s, and not just in the anime genre.

Many years later, the queer, trans-coded body horror of Titane feels particularly related to Tetsuo. Here, too, Roles questioned and body conventions brokenIn the spirit of philosopher Donna Haraway, who wrote in her Cyborg Manifesto in 1985: “Cyborgs are creatures of a post-gender world.” It’s all the more fitting that Tetsuo always reminds us of the creation of a metal “New World”. It seems a little spooky and new, totally perverse, but obviously brilliant and awesome. Sign me up.

Watch the Tetsuo trailer here:

How to get Tetsuo: The Iron Man on screen?

Unfortunately, the physical horror of Tetsuo is completely beyond the digital streaming world. But it is perhaps appropriate that the film is only available as a chrome-like, shimmering DVD from Rapid Eye Movies or Koch Media. For a Blu-ray, you have to turn to the UK label Third Window Films, who even offer Tetsuo and Tetsuo 2 as a double pack.

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