Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Shinya Tsukamoto's wild cyberpunk tale of a businessman's agonising transformation into a walking scrap heap is a jaggedly dehumanised vision of the future.
Fantasy 1988 67 mins
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Overview
Shot with a single 16mm camera on a shoestring budget, Shinya Tsukamoto's wild tale of a businessman's agonising transformation into a walking scrap heap after carelessly hitting an unhinged metal fetishist with his car single-handedly defined the Japanese cyberpunk sub-genre. With dialogue kept to a minimum, Tetuso's preoccupations are notably more physical than they are emotional, resulting in a jaggedly dehumanised vision of the future that is as visually inventive as it is wilfully grotesque.
Related
Fantasy
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Fantasy 2010 83 mins Director: Jalmari Helander
Part children's adventure, part macabre seasonal shocker, this darkly humorous concoction defies categorisation.
The Tenth Victim The Tenth Victim
Fantasy 1965 89 mins Director: Elio Petri
Long before The Hunger Games, Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress battled it out in a televised assassination game, in Elio Petri’s cult sci-fi.
The Saragossa Manuscript The Saragossa Manuscript
Fantasy 1965 183 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
During the Napoleonic wars, a soldier discovers a strange manuscript that reveals endless stories-within-stories. Wojciech Has' opus is a major cult film of the 60s, revered by Luis Buñuel, David Lynch and Jerry Garcia.
Wings of Desire Wings of Desire
Fantasy 1987 128 mins Director: Wim Wenders
In director Wim Wenders' (Paris, Texas) most metaphysical work, a guardian angel desires nothing more than to be human. Presented in a stunning new restoration.
The Seventh Seal The Seventh Seal
Fantasy 1957 96 mins Director: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman’s best-known film is a brilliant allegorical drama starring Max von Sydow as a knight trying to elude his own death.
Girls Lost Girls Lost
Fantasy 2015 106 mins Director: Alexandra-Therese Keining
Teenage friends get the chance to be boys for a while in this supernatural, gender fluid fantasy from the director of Kiss Me.
Sci-fi Classics
Scanners Scanners
Horror 1980 103 mins Director: David Cronenberg
From singularly talented Canadian director David Cronenberg comes this sci-fi/horror classic about people with powerfully violent telepathic powers.
The Brood The Brood
Horror 1979 92 mins Director: David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg’s highly disturbing horror about a woman who’s able to externalise her inner torment and manifest it into a brood of killer offspring.
Metropolis Metropolis
Science Fiction 1927 150 mins Silent Director: Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang’s expressionist, dystopian vision is one of the first science fiction feature films, and is arguably the most influential.
Fantastic Planet Fantastic Planet
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1973 72 mins Director: René Laloux
René Laloux and Roland Topor’s surreal, psychedelic sci-fi animation imagines a world in which humanoid creatures are kept as pets by a race of giants.
Evolution Evolution
Drama 2015 82 mins Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
The long-awaited second feature from Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence) is a gorgeously surreal coming-of-age tale laced with bizarre body-horror.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Science Fiction 1961 100 mins Director: Val Guest
The BFI’s new HD remaster of the British sci-fi classic. A journalist discovers that the Earth has been knocked off its axis and is moving ever closer to the sun. Is the Earth doomed?
Featuring Shinya Tsukamoto
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Horror 1991 81 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel has the Iron Man transforming into a cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son.
Featuring Tomoro Taguchi
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Horror 1991 81 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel has the Iron Man transforming into a cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son.
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Horror 1991 81 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel has the Iron Man transforming into a cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son.
New
Glassland Glassland
Drama 2014 93 mins Director: Gerard Barrett
Toni Collette’s visceral performance as an alcoholic, dependent on her devoted son (Jack Reynor), anchors this powerful Irish drama.
Bait Bait
Drama 2018 89 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.
Man on Wire Man on Wire
Documentary 2007 94 mins Director: James Marsh
James Marsh's excellent, Oscar®-winning documentary account of the 'artistic crime of the decade'.
Twilight's Last Gleaming Twilight's Last Gleaming
Thriller 1977 144 mins Director: Robert Aldrich
Burt Lancaster stars as the Air Force general who seizes control of a nuclear stockpile to force the US President (Charles Durning) to tell the truth about the Vietnam war, in Robert Aldrich's thunderous political thriller.
White God White God
Drama 2014 121 mins Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Winner of the 2014 Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, a bold and visceral tale of canine uprising.
The White Reindeer The White Reindeer
Horror 1953 68 mins Director: Erik Blomberg
The wife of a reindeer herder acquires a potion to makes her an irresistible object of desire, but at a terrible cost, in this extraordinary vampiric fairy-tale set amongst the starkly beautiful fells of Finnish Lapland.