I figure that if I want to start this review blog, I should probably start with the films that are responsible for my love of horror and off-beat cinema. Sure I had seen my fair share of horror movies before this one, but seeing this movie for the first time was like a mystical experience. I had yet to gaze at the black and white images of Eraserhead, nor had I had the pleasure of seeing any of Jodorowsky's films. I was 14('97) when the American VHS was released, and I can remember as if it were yesterday the first time I saw it at my local rental store...
The reviews on the box threw words like "Brilliant", "Hyper-kinetic" and "Shockingly Hilarious" into my brain.. leaving me to look into the creepy gaze of the dude on the front cover. I remember thinking to myself.. "How the hell do you pronounce "Tsu-Ka-Moto"!? The other movie that I was debating over was strangely enough "Blood Diner"... not yet my precious, I'll get to "Blood Diner" in a two years as fate would have it.
So I take this baby home, and oh my goodness this is some fucked up shit. If you're not prepared, like me, then this movie can really get into your head. I knew what I was seeing was truly visionary, and I can remember thinking that I need to find more movies like this. This movie really started my love/fascination with extreme cinema. I sought out that feeling again and again, and let me tell you... it rarely gets as good as Tetsuo.
So, enough reminiscing, onward we march. The movie is a surrealist/cyber-punk take on the "Metamorphosis " story, except the main character is turning into a machine. The abandoned factories and iron scrapyards really reminded me of my local surroundings of a post-industrial city. Once I saw Eraserhead, it was as if I had already seen these factories before, as if in a dream. The director, Shinya Tsukamoto, never relents in his assault on the viewer. You never know what is going to happen... and after the drill scene, you don't want to know what will happen.
Everything about this movie is perfect to me. The actor Tomorowo Taguchi gives it his all with his performance of a man loosing control over his own body. The industrial music track by Chu Ishikawa adds palpable tension to some key scenes, such as the one in the subway. The photography by Kei Fujiwara is dark and very experimental, and her performance is amazing as well. She would later make her own films, which include "Organ", a particularly nasty experimental flick.
This movie freaked out my all my friends, who I felt obligated to show.. one at a time. "You're odd" was a common comment after our viewing excursion... touche'. For me, this film acted as the high-water mark for my future forays into the horror underbelly. As I watch this film over the years, and I've changed so much from when I first saw it, but the film still holds its raw power to me in the same way as it did in 1997. It's like a bad hallucination.
If you haven't seen Tetsuo by this point, what on earth are you waiting for? The Tartan Asia Extreme DVD is still readily available, get yours now.
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