The horror flick as audio-visual overload gets a Japanese twist from director Shinya Tsukamoto. Tetsuo (1988) is the graphic, disturbing tale of a man (Tomoro Taguchi) who mutates into a machine. Filmed on a tiny budget in black and white, and making frantic use of blistering edits and bizarre close-ups, it recalls David Lynch's Eraserhead or early David Cronenberg. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) widens the canvas with a kidnapping plot, introduces colour and adds backstory to make the main character (Taguchi again) more sympathetic.
DVD Extras:
Promotional gallery, film notes, filmographies, trailers.Tetsuo explicitly (and brutally) explores the relationship between technology, fetishism, sex and violence. Tetsuo II, on the other hand, is a comic book brought to life and smothered in dark humour. Both are great. The discs, however, come with perfunctory extras.
