I’m a sucker for sfi and japanease movies so let’s start this blog with a Bang. I’ve been trying to convince myself to watch Tetsuo and Electric Dragon 80000V for a long time. Both seem like crazy cool ideas that could wind up my long time favorites.
Let’s start with the cult movie Tetsuo – the iron man. I was first recommended this movie by a friend who had it on a lecture about sexuality in cinema but as always I wasn’t listening so the moment I got really interested in it was when I’ve heard there is a drill penis in it (yes, a real life metal driller, killer penis). The movie centers around the character of a man with a metal fetish. He compulsively puts metal inside his body and instead of injuring him self he becomes the title iron man. At the same time he seems to suffer from strange visions and apparently with the changes with his body his metal state is also altered to the point where he often loses control over himself. It’s really hard to review this movie as there is very little plot and it is rather a dreamlike stream of consciousness with strange camerawork and harsh, often unpleasant music. Still I believe Tetsuo succeeds in creating the fear of technology and the ever going merge of man and technology, the film is never boring and somehow even it is a bizarre movie you get caught up in the events. I seriously recommend it as it gives you a fresh view on many later Japanese films, especially the new crop of over the top gory sfi rip offs that borrow heavily on the aesthetic of the 1988 cult classic.
One of such flicks is Electric Dragon 80000V – a movie about a man who as a boy was jolted with electricity as he was climbing a high voltage pylon. The event changes him, makes him overly aggressive, fond for reptiles and in the coming years able to produce extremely high voltage. The movie tries to gimmick the strange black and white camera direction and non linear plot from Tetsuo but it is confusing and it’s much harder to get and understanding for the main character. You get the feeling it was trying to get a badass rocker style (main character is a guitar player and is played by Tadanobu Asano who played in many hyped Japanese movies), mix it with a trashy over the top performances and than completely fails by trying to combine it with a mediocre 1988 cult classic emulation. It makes a boring and disjointed view and I’m really sure it’d work much better as a typical Japanese exploitation movie like newer Wild Zero or Machine Girl or even better as an anime where the director would have even more creative freedom (a good example here is a personal favorite FLCL – also a very loose plot and disjointed feel but anime is somehow a medium where strange and cool merges easier). If you are curious and have not seen other similar movies you can see it as it’s relatively short but don’t get your hopes too high.
