Unearthed Films: Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Unearthed Films

In 1989, the Japanese film world got a near-lethal injected dose of cyberpunk science-fiction psychological surrealist industrial body horror with Shinya Tsukamoto’s impenetrable black-and-white masterwork Tetsuo: The Iron Man.  A seminal do-it-yourself cross between David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi all fully realized onscreen by leading actor/writer/director Shinya Tsukamoto, it was a radioactive lightning rod of extraordinary hyperkinetic pure cinema which continues to avoid lending itself to any kind of coherent interpretation.  Once you think you’re onto what it might be really about, it shifts gears and upends what we thought we were settling into.  Running a mere hour but brimming with enough ideas for several science fiction pictures, it was a game changer that set the bar for which all other Japanese filmmakers were striving to catch up to. 
 
Circa 1992, moving the world into color photography while changing up the storyline involving a child kidnapping, Tsukamoto and leading actor Tomorowo Taguchi returned for the sequel film Tetsuo II: Body Hammer which did away with much of the homoerotic psychosexuality of its predecessor instead focusing on further world building within the Tetsuo universe.  While that film was considerably more violent and overtly viscerally shocking than the first, it didn’t transcend Tetsuo: The Iron Man so much as it built on the promise established by its implications.  It also, in some ways, could be read as a further extension of Tsukamoto’s black-and-white photography as much of the aesthete tends towards the monochromatic.  Above all it remained true to the spirit of Tsukamoto from top to bottom and didn’t feel like it conceded to expectations of the genre picture.

 
Which unfortunately brings us to one of the few disappointments in Tsukamoto’s filmography, the third and long awaited 2009 sequel and concluding chapter Tetsuo: The Bullet Man which again changes up the rules and regulations of the Tetsuo verse but makes the fatal creative flaw of having all the actors, English and Japanese, speak their dialogue in phonetically recorded English.  A digitally rendered production running a mere 71 minutes which for all of the bullets flying and explosiveness bursting about the largely colorless screen, it reiterates much of the imagery of the first Tetsuo while more or less doing away with the surrealism in favor of more grounded Cronenbergian body horror.  Whereas the first two films remain interpretive and challenge the narrative form of storytelling itself, The Bullet Man despite owning an original Nine Inch Nails track closing the picture feels less like Tetsuo and more like The Terminator.

 
Anthony (Eric Bossick), the son of an American-Japanese marriage, is still reeling from the untimely death of his son seemingly intentionally killed in a car accident driven by a mysterious man named Yatsu (Shinya Tsukamoto).  From here, his rage starts affecting his physiology and nervous system and following a fight with his wife vowing revenge for their son’s death, Anthony begins experiencing bizarre changes to his body become more metallic-like and industrial including the newfound ability to fire bullets and rockets from his chest.  Soon he is led towards the Tetsuo Project, a top secret biomechanical Cold War era experiment where human bodies can transform into supercharged war machines.  With Anthony’s rage growing and his inability to end his own life and stop the monstrosity he is developing into, the stage is set for an all out battle between Yatsu and Anthony comprised of explosions, gasoline, bullets and a bomb which threatens to annihilate all of Tokyo.

 
Though viscerally stunning, split up between three cinematographers including Tsukamoto himself with the usual hyperkinetic rapid-fire editing by Tsukamoto co-opted by Yuji Ambe and a dependably industrial score by longtime collaborator Chu Ishikawa, something is amiss right away with Tetsuo: The Bullet Man and it begins with everyone including Tsukamoto speaking broken English.  For a film set in Japan preceded by two distinctly Japanese masterworks of pure cinema, it comes as a shock hearing the Engrish so poorly hastily rendered.  Reminding somewhat of Takashi Miike’s mixed Masters of Horror episode Imprint and Billy Drago’s terrible performance, the choice here is a baffling if not frustrating one which works against the immersion and distinct Japanese qualities.  It also, in terms of the mythology of the Tetsuo universe which could be read as an internal or external struggle, offers up logical explanations for the strange phenomena and in some ways takes away the pure fascination of interpreting the events however you will. 

 
Sound wise it will give your home a workout with Chu Ishikawa’s pulsating score and the aforementioned NIN track but visually speaking Tetsuo: The Bullet Man aims for a desaturated near black-and-white look with some measure of color still half alive onscreen.  The digital photography and camera movement gives it a DV feel not unlike Takashi Shimizu’s quickie lo-fi horror Marebito also starring Tsukamoto.  The action set pieces with the bodily transformation and the, at times, grotesque body horror, all work well together.  It’s just the logical explanation behind this story and the English dialogue stops Tsukamoto’s piece from transcending into heights reached by his earlier, more daringly transgressive works.  Newcomers to Tsukamoto unfamiliar with the previous iterations will probably have an easier time with it compared to those seasoned with his more mysterious provocations.

 
Previously dumped on DVD in the United States by MPI Media Group alongside an $80 Japanese Blu-ray edition, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man formerly out of print now rereleased as a deluxe Unearthed Classics release comes with a surprising amount of extras all things considered.  Featuring a commentary with lead actor Eric Bossick and Midnight Eye critic Tom Mes and a promotional gallery replete with a Japanese and US trailer, the most striking additional feature comes in the form of Tetsuo: The Bullet Man – Multi Material Version.  Akin to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: Work in Progress version which alternated throughout between storyboards, stencils and finished shots, this version utilizes the film soundtrack but otherwise shows behind-the-scenes footage, conceptual drawings and more.  While the film itself might not be everyone’s cup of tea, this is an extraordinary extra feature which puts it above other Unearthed Classics titles.

 
Though I was never the biggest fan of this one and still am not, it is nevertheless through and through a Shinya Tsukamoto film for good or for ill warts and all.  Something of a continuation, conclusion and quasi-career summation for its wunderkind writer-director-star, it mostly works as a standard cyberpunk actioner rather than a boundary pushing erotic horror shocker.  As a sensory experience it was fun to watch albeit with softened edges and closer to something like The Matrix than Eraserhead.  Its when you start sinking your teeth into the piece you find aspects about it don’t taste very good.  Shinya Tsukamoto is unquestionably one of the modern masters of Japanese provocative surrealist cinema whose films continue to fascinate, repulse and wow audiences around the world over and absolutely a hero of mine.  Maybe that’s why this felt like a step down creatively as a movie but the disc won’t disappoint with its plentiful extras and US Blu-ray disc premiere of this still divisive third and final chapter in the otherwise great director’s filmography.  Let us hope his forthcoming English language film Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? fares far better.

--Andrew Kotwicki