Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
A man is experiencing problems with metal showing up and protruding from his body. Apparently he got a piece of metal in his head when he was hit by a car (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Written By: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Starring: Renji Ishibashi, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Tomorowo Taguchi, Naomasa Musaka, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka
Genres: Sci-fi, Action, Horror
Franchise: Tetsuo: The Iron Man
AKAs: The Iron Man, Tetsuo
Country: Japan
Where to Stream
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Tetsuo: The Iron Man belongs to 44 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 233 stars)
2. Mindfuck (collaborative: moderated by Mockus - 86 stars)
3. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
4. Surreal (collaborative - 47 stars)
5. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 46 stars)
6. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
7. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
8. Post-1960s black & white photography (collaborative: moderated by djross - 21 stars)
9. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 20 stars)
10. The 100 Greatest Sci-Fi Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 19 stars)
11. Kinema Junpo 200 Greatest Japanese films (2009 list) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 17 stars)
12. Intellectual Sci-Fi (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 17 stars)
13. B-Movie (collaborative - 15 stars)
14. 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by von krogh - 15 stars)
15. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
16. Sex and Sadism (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 9 stars)
17. Wierd / Mindfuck / Surreal (collaborative: moderated by neurophate - 9 stars)
18. Fantastic and surreal (public: juandr - 9 stars)
19. Body horror (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 8 stars)
20. Asian Horror (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 6 stars)
21. THE WORLDWIDE CELLULOID MASSACRE: Recommended (collaborative: moderated by edkrak - 6 stars)
22. Arthouse Horror (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 6 stars)
23. Cyberpunk (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika - 4 stars)
24. 501 Movie Directors (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 3 stars)
25. Japanese director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)
26. Body deformities / the grotesque (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 2 stars)
27. Biopunk (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 2 stars)
28. onderhond.com top 200 movies (collaborative: moderated by Bullt - 2 stars)
29. High contrast black and white cinematography (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 2 stars)
30. cyberpunk and tech-noir (collaborative: moderated by xmoffx - 2 stars)
31. /r/Cyberpunk/wiki/movies (collaborative - 2 stars)
32. Cinemag's Best Sci-fi Films (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 1 star)
33. Horrific transformation (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 1 star)
34. Ultra-high contrast black and white (collaborative: moderated by juandr)
35. Metamorphosis (collaborative: moderated by juandr)
36. Castration (collaborative: moderated by chronoos)
37. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)
38. Mr. Hallenbeck's Blu-Ray Collection (public: MrHallenbeck)
39. Djross Japanese feature films I've seen (public: djross)
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41. Sci-Fi to See (public: CinematicESP)
42. The Films (public: dhewett02)
43. Blu-ray Collection (public: TripEuphoric)
44. Halloween Month 2022 (public: Alan_Laidlaw)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 8 |  |
BillyShears | 80 77th |
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Some Big think piece about industrialization taking away the beauty of Japan wrapped around that part where a guy has a drill penis. This is a disgusting pile of nonsense - but that great kind.
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| 7 |  |
terrymac | 75 72nd |
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Bizarre, unsettling, surreal, gruesome, kinetically shot in suitably grimy monochrome. Looks, sounds and feels like Eraserhead and The Fly mashed with Akira in a Nine Inch Nails/Aphex Twin music video. There's even a wee bit of jet black humour amidst the body horror. It's not easy to watch, but it is engrossing, and rather entertaining. This is going to give me nightmares.
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| 6 |  |
Stain | 40 23rd |
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Kind of like eating aluminum foil; definitely different, but I don't recommend it
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| 5 |  |
Barthalen | 75 68th |
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Weird, unsettling and crazy as hell. A good entry in the 'two main characters merge together into a rocket-powered world-destroying robo-penis' genre.
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| 4 |  |
Paxton | 72 71st |
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This movie made me feel so icky that afterwards I needed an oil change.
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| 4 |  |
TimeCapsule | 59 49th |
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Under the banner of a "Japanese cyberpunk" marathon I was introduced to this dark, surreal, visceral viewing experience. My brain constantly struggled to make sense of the chaotic metal mayhem yet was compelled to keep watching. Although I was enthralled by parts of the film's strange journey, large chunks left my eyebrows furled so hard I started actually not caring what I was looking at, and simply just started to get bored. However, it still felt like something worth seeing at least once.
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| 3 |  |
Moribunny | 75 84th |
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Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one giant "what the fuck". There's very little dialogue and a lot of stop-motion and time-lapse antics involving scrap metal junk for a skin disease. It has Cronenberg's technophobic undertones and his "venereal horror", but with more goofy insanity than symbolism, it's just as reminiscent of Troma's trash classic "Toxic Avenger" or Japan's own loony "Hausu", but actually Tetsuo is an original and seminal work. I'm really glad this is out there.
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| 3 |  |
FrederikA | 55 42nd |
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A difficult movie to love but impressively uncompromising, industrial and nasty. Biggest problem is it drags on and feels boring.
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| 3 |  |
Cinema_Asia | 65 42nd |
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Utterly repulsive film but it manages to tweak your senses and mind fuck you just enough that you're never actually bored. I wouldn't say this is pleasant to watch because it plays with human anatomy and the material world in ways that you don't want to consider. Overall it's interesting but nothing that's particularly memorable and if there is any deeper message it easily gets lost in the shock abstract grotesqueness.
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| 3 |  |
NothingsGood | 65 64th |
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Tetsuo: The Iron Man is the J-Horror embodiment of Cronenberg, sufficiently bizarre and visceral. The film ranges from laughable to disturbing to sickening miliseconds at a time, but every frame offers something unique and brainracking. Definitely worth checking out at least once, if only to learn you absolutely hate it.
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| 2 |  |
TheDenizen | 70 63rd |
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Short, sharp and powerful, like a punch in the throat. Tsukamoto's frightening combination of man and metal is like a twisted fever dream that chips away at your sanity.
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| 2 |  |
Alex Watkins | 5 91st |
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Like the hyperactive love child of Eraserhead and Videodrome-era David Cronenberg, with cinematography/sound design to match the former and the sheer explicit weirdness to surpass either. It's utterly manic and bizarre and scarcely pauses to catch its breath. I was captivated every second.
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| 2 |  |
Nathan S | 4 74th |
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One could assemble a laundry list of this film's influences and contemporaries - Eraserhead, Cronenberg, Akira, music video - and it wouldn't amount to how utterly unique this monstrosity is. I appreciate its commitment to being fast, hard, but brief; it's so excessive that anything more might be too much.
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| 2 |  |
Iconoclast | 85 93rd |
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1 hour of raw industrial madness. Wicked atmosphere and soundtrack.
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| 2 |  |
Sweekoden | 70 64th |
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Unique. I'm not sure whether I liked it or not, which might actually be a positive. It looks amazing--the visual side of things I did adore--and I dug the industrial soundtrack a lot. As for the actual content of the film: some of it made me laugh; the dream sequence with the strap-on sodomy was way more graphic than what was necessary, especially since it looked so stupid; and I had little interest in the "final battle", although the stop-motion stuff was cool. Certainly an experience.
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| 2 |  |
RubAndDug | 58 33rd |
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Weird way to start my day. Well, any day... Imagine, if you will, Eraserhead spliced with 80's music videos and the yuck-factor of Saw, watched through superimpositions of Cronenberg's horror, while chewing on aluminum foil and masturbating with two forks - constantly thinking; "Don't do that!"... I had no idea what the fuck was going on, but it was all very sexy and dreamlike! (The music and effects were especially impressive). Strange days...
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| 2 |  |
hsncrspywl | 76 57th |
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Great exercise in aesthetic quality overpowering the message of a movie. Interesting and disturbing stuff occurs in this movie just beneath the surface - although the symbolism is so vague it could be suggested to mean one of hundreds of themes, easily. The special effects are fantastic both in execution and design. The editing is also brilliant - scattershot and hyper-fast. The score really adds to the tone of the movie, leading to a visceral experience that won't make sense on first viewing.
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| 2 |  |
MittsPicks | 5 8th |
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This was not the Robert Downey, Jr. movie.
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| 2 |  |
backwardsuit | 79 77th |
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"A man is experiencing problems with metal showing up and protruding from his body." (imdb) That's certainly one way of putting it. Doesn't quite do it justice though.
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| 1 |  |
TheDiceman | 40 19th |
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Wierd Japanese horror film with terrible industrial techno soundtrack.
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 70 26th |
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I don't know what the hell this was. It wasn't bad and certainly unique but I didn't particularly enjoy it.
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| 1 |  |
nilkynarfy | 45 29th |
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Giant metal cock! Sure, I didn't get it even after the 5th viewing, but giant metal cock!
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| 1 |  |
Mentaculus | 71 55th |
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Easily one of the most difficult and grotesque experiences I've ever had watching a movie. Not to say that's a bad thing.
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| 1 |  |
Shmendrek | 3 61st |
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I prefer to read this as a critique of unfettered industrial capitalist accumulation and alienation. Also, there is a drill penis in it.
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| 1 |  |
muutanet | 71 66th |
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I saw this movie in 90's and did not get it much, though I loved it a lot. Now viewing it again, the story is more clearer. There is a hit and run. The black painted figure is a materialized guilt which turns our protagonist to the ironman. Story is strongly sexual, but there's not much explanation why. Good experimental effects. Most of the characters are successful, some brilliant. Looking forewards to see the sequel, which I cannot remember did I saw it before.
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| 1 | sellis | 17 4th |
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Chafes away at your senses and your will to watch another movie ever again. Just no.
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| 1 | aaaaaaarrggg | 71 73rd |
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Often looking like a live-action Anime as directed by David Lynch or David Cronenberg, the film mixes sex, gore, and technology into a highly disturbing brew that uses black-and-white photography with a creative texture rarely seen in American films today.
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| 1 |  |
KAH | 3 74th |
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Well, I've never seen anything like it, that's for sure.
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| 1 |  |
Henrik | 84 87th |
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The grandfather of cyberpunk, the ugly bastard child of Eraserhead and a weird distant relative to District 9. Confusing, strange, disgusting, scary, mind-boggling. Hence, pretty great.
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| 1 |  |
overrated | 88 95th |
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What if you did a lot of cocaine and watched Eraserhead and Videodrome on two screens next to each other, and uh, were Japanese?
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| 1 |  |
PierreTheron | 65 20th |
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Wonky, gross-out surrealism and some very clumsy directing all make Tetsuo difficult to watch, and not just because it's weird. Fans of Eraserhead or The Holy Mountain might find themselves disappointed by the film's lack of finesse, and while it's interesting to watch, it's just not a bright point of the genre. If you're looking for something that will tickle your taste buds for visual absurdness, it will do, but don't expect anything approaching a masterpiece, it barely brushes being "good".
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| 1 |  |
misterlizard | 60 61st |
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No idea what was going on in this movie. If anything it's more like an hour-long industrial music video. The excellent soundtrack combined with the jarring visuals make for an interesting experience, but it's not going to be one to sit around and enjoy with friends. Unless they like giant metal cocks.
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| 1 |  |
svnhf | 71 55th |
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Imagine a rabid monkey juggling a piece of pork, a rusted car and a handgun all the while watching Eraserhead. Then you sort of have an idea of how wacky this film is. Shinya Tsukamoto has created a visually disturbing yet very binding picture with his stop-motion live action animé. It is surreal, strange and weird and, sadly, it is easily disliked. However, it has an appeal for obscure film fans and I enjoyed watching it. It is an experience and something that should be watched.
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| 1 |  |
glumpy_99 | 70 35th |
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If POSSESSION and THE EVIL DEAD gave birth to the ERASERHEAD baby… if not the most comically grotesque hour of celluloid ever, it’s possibly the most exhausting; Tsukamoto bludgeons his audience into submission with a wild cavalcade of sounds, images and general mayhem that is so blatantly and deliriously over-the-top that it does almost achieve a kind of sublime poetry, but at the halfway mark with no other sustenance than dank ugliness, the fun drains away and a certain tedium sets in.
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| 1 | RandallODim | 85 77th |
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It's like a video nasty, an industrial music video, and the surreally funny parts of David Lynch's films merged into one giant blob of organic and technological components in the most homoerotic clash of machinery ever seen.
Also there's some critique of capitalist reification of the worker, maybe?
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| 1 |  |
KramYessev | 70 56th |
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Well this was fucking incredible/insane. Not much happens in the first 25 minutes of most films, but in Tetsuo, to quote Wikipedia, "his penis has mutated into a gargantuan power drill". I don't know what else to say...incredible practical effects, I guess.
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| 1 |  |
??? | 87 90th |
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Creative, tries to bury you in metal... Almost succeeds.
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| 1 |  |
Magmadiver | 83 65th |
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I don't really know what to make of this film anymore, but I'll always have a special place for it in my heart.
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| 1 |  |
cpreview | 10 95th |
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For another movie that taps out the weird shitometer scale, and the pinnacle of J cyberpunk flicks, Tetsuo is simply terrific! I must warn you that this movie is NOT for everyone. We get a bevy of disturbing images, including extreme body manipulation, anal rape of a guy by a mechanically "enhanced" female, rape in the reverse by a man with a literal "power tool," and truly the most bizarre set of images one can imagine. But in all this, there are some truly interesting messages that emerge.
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| 1 |  |
Goldbluming | 94 93rd |
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Wow. Disturbing and frightening. This movie is a masterpiece, a disgusting visual feast. The film blurs the divide between industrial/mechanical and biological in a way I've never seen (closest comparison is Cronenberg's Crash).
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| 1 |  |
Hawkins | 93 94th |
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Tsukamoto may have been indebted to obvious inspirations in conceiving this (everyone else already said Lynch/Cronenberg/Otomo, I'll throw in Giger) but I think the results paid that debt off. It's bursting with energy, strikes a good comedy/horror balance, and assaults the senses in the best kind of way. Disjointed sound design, high-contrast b&w look, sharp editing that accelerates into fantastic stop-motion, all in a mode of heightened technical artifice. Highly entertaining nightmare.
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| 1 | taurus1982 | 10 6th |
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So incredibly boring and pointless (with an obnoxious industrial-techno soundtrack too). Wildly overrated. Like most modern art, it's not about the art itself, it's about what it signifies about *you* when you like it. If you like gore and industrial kitsch, go for it.
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| Average Percentile 58.68% from 1077 Ratings |  |