PopGap #30: Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)

By dorrk, July 29th 2017

Your future is Metal!

As someone who does not in the least part share the metal fetish at the core of this shocking assault on the senses — which is a nearly plotless 67 minutes of screaming post-punk body horror — I still respect its invention and energy. The underground aesthetic of Tetsuo, the Iron Man is practically perfect, for what it is, and there's no doubting that it's a bracing exploration of self-mutilation, aggresive sexual dysfunction, and a fear/desire of mechanical consummation and consumption. I assume that someone who is really into this type of material — the characters in David Cronenberg's Crash might consider it for a dinner-and-a-movie date night — won't find its relatively short runtime as monotonous as I sometimes did, but the punctuation marks in Tetsuo, the Iron Man are vivid, unique and unforgettable, whether I like it or not.

Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989) was brought to my Potluck Film Fest by Alan Ryman. Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989) ranked on my Flickchart at #1766 (54%).

Notes on Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)

I watched metal fetish underground horror opus #TetsuoTheIronMan (1989) by #ShinyaTsukamoto for my #PotLuckFilmFest https://t.co/VfpQfrW0yH https://t.co/7PM4NfHFGa
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 09:49:21 +0000 2017

#TetsuoTheIronMan is not really my kind of thing, but it's unique & bracing & short enough to work. https://t.co/zbWXvjbC92 #PotLuckFilmFest https://t.co/OFBnxJX3zD
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 09:51:24 +0000 2017

#TetsuoTheIronMan is 67mins of screaming perverse industrial #bodyhorror; great fx, little plot or dialog. #PotLuckFilmFest #ShinyaTsukamoto https://t.co/UAKCf8P58K
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 09:54:05 +0000 2017

W/o sharing its fetish #TetsuoTheIronMan is a little long, but has impressive gore, nightmarish vision & freak integrity. #PotLuckFilmFest https://t.co/8WQdvt36Ou
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 09:57:23 +0000 2017

Over at @JunkFoodDinner Parker called #TetsuoTheIronMan '#Eraserhead directed by #MichaelBay.' https://t.co/RkCTu3XLeM #PotLuckFilmFest https://t.co/LbFQjcXiaR
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 10:01:02 +0000 2017

#TetsuoTheIronMan was brought to my #PotLuckFilmFest by Alan Ryman. Thanks for the disturbing images, Al. I won't be forgetting them soon. https://t.co/1WV1ci7lfD
— MediaLifeCrisis (@PopGap) Fri Jul 28 10:03:29 +0000 2017