TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1989)
One day I hope to enjoy life with even a small amount of the insane energy found in the 16mm films of Shinya Tsukamoto. This same kind of passion can be found in his early festival shorts, The Phantom of Regular Size, and The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy. The former is more or less a rough test run for his feature length debut, and it contains some of the infamous effects scenes but little narrative. The latter meanwhile is a surprisingly light story about an outcast boy who finds himself in a distant future ruled by vampires. Both movies contain the DNA of what would follow, including the actors, the frenetic camera angles, and the stop motion racing effects. But neither will prepare you for the fully realised nightmare of Tetsuo.
