Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Japanese Horror
•
1h 7m
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto • 1989 • Japan
Starring Tomorowo Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka
An ordinary Japanese salaryman undergoes a shocking metamorphosis in Shinya Tsukamoto’s legendary fusion of body horror and cyberpunk expressionism. A strange man known only as the “metal fetishist” (played by the director)—who is driven by an insane compulsion to pierce his body with scrap metal—is hit and possibly killed by an office worker (Tomoro Taguchi) out for a drive with his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). Soon, the salaryman realizes that he is being 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 his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.
Up Next in Japanese Horror
-
Ring
Directed by Hideo Nakata • 1998 • Japan
Starring Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Miki NakataniThe film that launched the craze for J-horror in the West, director Hideo Nakata’s international sensation melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of techn...
-
Audition
Directed by Takashi Miike • 1999 • Japan
Starring Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Miyuki MatsudaIn one of the most notorious horror films ever made, recent widower Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) sets out to find a new wife by staging an “audition.” Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu becomes encha...
-
Dark Water
Directed by Hideo Nakata • 2002 • Japan
Starring Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Asami MizukawaAfter terrifying audiences worldwide with the J-Horror classic RING and its sequel, director Hideo Nakata returned to the genre for this atmospheric tale of the supernatural. Based on a short story by RING ...
