masercot This was not a bad movie. It didn't have the experimental look of the first Tetsuo flick; however, that's been done. This one was kinder and gentler than the first... although still rough and disturbing. It reminded me of a Nine Inch Nails music video (Closer)... only much longer and with a mostly Japanese cast...The movie is about a man who, due to a genetic experiment with his mother, sprouted metal parts and guns when angered. It was kind of like the Incredible Hulk if that movie had been directed by David Lynch. There is more self discovery than in the first Tetsuo... more dialog as well. The acting is mediocre, but the images are definitely powerful.If Francis Bacon made a movie with Rob Zombie, this is what it would look like...

poe426 Perhaps Tsukamoto's simply grown weary of his own patented brand of hyperkinetic cinema verite; or maybe the idea well's simply run dry; whatever the reason, TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN is a far cry from the two films that preceded it in this trilogy. "Destroy all of our lazy peaceful dreams," Tsukamoto himself urges the Bullet Man, and it's his own filmmaking philosophy he's espousing. But, while we once again have the pounding of hammers on anvils, the fingernails screeching down chalkboards, and the man metamorphosizing into a heavy metal monstrosity, there's something definitely LACKING this time around. The TETSUO trilogy has lapsed into Formula. Like PROJECT ARMS or THE GUYVER or any one of a dozen other manga or anime man-into-machine tales, TETSUO has grown stale. Everything, from having a character brand himself with the heated barrel of a handgun to the white-out ending, he's used before. It's time to move on, storywise.

Scarecrow-88 Anthony, a half-American/half-Japanese technological businessman in Tokyo, discovers after the cold-blooded murder of his son, when his anger towards the man responsible fuels a reaction he couldn't possibly have prepared for, that he has "android DNA" causing his body to slowly metamorphose into a machine. Director Shinya Tsukamoto also stars as the villain who runs over Anthony's son Tom with a car—what's his motivation? More story here—as Anthony learns a startling secret about his mother, attempts to console his grieving wife who wants revenge for the death of her child, and tries to keep from continuing to evolve into a metal monster—than one might expect from a Tetsuo film. Too bad Tsukamoto's camera work and editing is so chaotic and epileptic you can't see a damn thing, hoping to actually decipher what is essentially incomprehensible on screen. Lack of budget perhaps? Whatever the case, I found this to be a frustrating experience. Strong story on the power of love and family, however, did surprise me, I must say. Anthony reads of a scientific project on creating human androids, found in the notes of his father's underground office, which is where he learns the horrifying truth of what he actually is. Erick Bossick is Anthony, Akiko Monô is Anthony's wife, Yuriko, with Stephen Sarrazin as Anthony's father, Ride. Included in the film is a group assigned to eradicate Anthony and Yuriko so that the dangers of an android killing machine rampaging through the streets, a potential threat which might bring blame to those behind Ride's project, would be silenced. Too bad their mission doesn't succeed; in fact, it fails miserably. It seems that Tsukomoto's mysterious predator wants to encourage the anger of Anthony so that he will continue to lose control, ending in a climax possibly threatening global catastrophe. A loud industrial rock soundtrack accompanies the maddening presentation.

King-Grim After two decades of moving further and further away cyberpunk and into a much more contemplative style, a return to his earlier themes and style – and in English! - struck me as a rather mercenary move by Tsukamoto when I first heard about it, and as the first film is so important to me (being what opened my eyes to cinema beyond Hollywood, and remaining in my all time top 20 to this day) I approached this with slight trepidation. Fortunately, this is very much a Tetsuo movie through and through, largely uncompromised by commercial thoughts, and as frenetic, fast paced and blistering as ever. The basic plot – a man mutates into metal after a traumatic incident – remains, but the movie still throws up fresh and unexpected ideas throughout. The decision to have it in English does lead to the occasional stilted feeling in the dialogue, but this is a minor point. Overall, while nowhere near the heights of the first film, it's comfortably about equal to Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, which is far more than I expected.