TETSUO / TETSUO II - BODY HAMMER
Blu-ray / DVD. Third Window Films

I still remember seeing Tetsuo for the first time – at a time when a UK release of the film seemed unlikely, it began to build a reputation on the bootleg circuit, with an Italian-subtitled version doing the rounds as more and more people became aware of this bizarre film. The shock impact of the movie cannot be overstated - this came as a complete bolt from the blue and was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. A couple of decades on, the film still seems as remarkable as ever.

Tetsuo is a minimally plotted collision of Eraserhead, David Cronenberg and cyberpunk, with an anonymous salaryman finding himself mutating into a weird human-machine hybrid. With a crunching, metallic soundtrack, sharp black and white photography, crudely effective stop motion and a twisted mix of dark sexuality and brutal body horror, it remains a challenging, but ultimately rewarding proposition that is entirely visceral in its impact. It’s still unlike pretty much anything else ever made.

The sequel, Tetsuo II – Body Hammer takes a similar idea, but welds it unconvincingly to a more conventional narrative. This time, a group of unidentified villains cause a mild-mannered character to mutate into a human-machine weapon, while threatening his family. The film is slicker than the original, and shot in colour – mostly an overriding wash of red. But in expanding the running time and creating a more coherent narrative structure, director Shinya Tsukamoto loses the essence of the concept. Body Hammer ultimately falls between two stools – too weird and incoherent to work as a conventional film, too normal to match Tetsuo. However, the film does seem to have spawned a considerable legacy. There’s no question that the current bout of demented Japanese gore movies like Machine Girl and Helldriver are the spawn of Tetsuo, with their obsessions with body modification, hyper-reality and ultra-intense visuals and editing.

This new Blu-ray release also comes with a notable extra – Tsukamoto’s super-8 short The Aventures of Electric Rod Boy, a wildly silly and entertaining tale of time travel and vampirism that certainly lays the groundwork for Tetsuo. It’s no masterpiece, but well worth checking out, and its inclusion here is very welcome.

DAVID FLINT

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