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
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.
Blancanieves Blancanieves
Drama 2011 105 mins Director: Pablo Berger
Pablo Berger’s imaginative black-and-white ‘silent’ movie relocates the story of Snow White to 1920s Spain – complete with bullfighting dwarfs
Delicatessen Delicatessen
Comedy 1990 100 mins Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jeunet and Caro's endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis.
BFI London Film Festival
The Goob The Goob
Drama 2014 84 mins Director: Guy Myhill
A teen seeks meaning as an East Anglian summer and a violent outsider threaten to overwhelm.
Couple in a Hole Couple in a Hole
Drama 2015 105 mins Director: Tom Geens
One of the most original British features in recent years follows a Scottish couple’s bizarre underground existence in a French forest.
Blancanieves Blancanieves
Drama 2011 105 mins Director: Pablo Berger
Pablo Berger’s imaginative black-and-white ‘silent’ movie relocates the story of Snow White to 1920s Spain – complete with bullfighting dwarfs
How I Ended This Summer How I Ended This Summer
Drama 2010 124 mins Director: Alexei Popogrebsky
Alexei Popogrebski's taut psychological drama depicts two Arctic meteorologists (a veteran and a novice); secrets, lies and isolation take their toll
Innocence of Memories Innocence of Memories
Documentary 2015 97 mins Director: Grant Gee
A multi-layered melding of fiction and fact, about Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk and his Istanbul Museum of Innocence.
The Nine Muses The Nine Muses
Documentary 2010 92 mins Director: John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah mixes archive material, literary and musical quotations and newly shot silent footage in a wry, rapt meditation on memory and migration.
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
Pulse Pulse
Horror 2001 119 mins Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's dark and apocalyptic J-Horror foretells how technology serves to isolate us as it grows more important to our lives.
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
Science Fiction 1988 91 mins Director: Vincent Ward
A group of medieval English villagers find themselves transported to '80s New Zealand, in Vincent Ward's startling fusion of period fantasy and time-travel science fiction.
Back to Berlin Back to Berlin
Documentary 2018 76 mins Director: Catherine Lurie
Riding on their steel steeds, eleven bikers expose their family pasts, as they power through eight countries from Tel Aviv to the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympic stadium, in this compelling and cathartic documentary.
The Addiction The Addiction
Horror 1994 82 mins Director: Abel Ferrara
Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken star in Abel Ferrara's raw, intense and intelligent take on the vampire myth - selected for the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll by The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw.
Mysterious Skin Mysterious Skin
Drama 2004 105 mins Director: Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki's provocative story of two boys haunted by disturbing events one summer when they were eight years old, adapted from Scott Heim's cult indie novel.
Obsession Obsession
Romance 1976 98 mins Director: Brian De Palma
High melodrama, creeping insanity and barely contained delirium abound in this dizzying tribute to the high tension thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock from director Brian De Palma.