Just Screenshots: 2015-05-24

Tetsuo: the Iron Man (1989 Japan)

A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.

(IMDB Serdar Yegulalp)

hat is one strange Japanese movie and one of the biggest cyberpunk movies in reputation.

Running just over an hour long, it felt longer than that. A viewer rating of 7.0 on IMDB seems pretty high. Maybe that is because most people make the movie what they want it to be. If someone didn't like it, they are told "that is because you didn't understand it, it is a metaphor for blah blah blah. Interesting enough everyone seems to have a different metaphor that they think it was. I would think that technology or urban plight would be the most common straws to grasp but many people are rather inventive in what they claim the film maker had in mind. Obviously with the diversity of meanings, most of the metaphor people have to be mistaken.

One comment i like was "Ya know, I am at a complete and utter lack for words regarding the posts that I have read on this movie. I have watched it probably, I'd say, 16 times at least. I think most peoples posts are completely and utterly ridiculous. It is a great movie for what it is, yes. It was a great achievement. Especially for one man to do practically alone. But that does not change the fact that it is an absolutely horrible example of modern cinema. .... I have read everyone posts about "How wonderful" this movie is... ... Fun to watch, but cut the crap. It is not some great and philosophic metaphor for technology's influence on life. It is some freak psycho whacked out japanese metal fetishists gorified wet dream, done in a well defined, stylish manner. Nothing wrong with that at all." ~Arisenandawakened

It is wild and visually interesting and worth a viewing if you are in the mood for that type of thing.