Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

After killing a pedestrian with his car and then dumping the remains, a Tokyo salaryman (Tomorowo Taguchi) falls ill with mysterious symptoms: cold sweats, delirium, a metal spike protruding from his cheek that prevents him from shaving. More patches of metal appear until steadily, limb by limb, he is transformed into Iron Man -- a man-machine hybrid driven by an insatiable appetite for destruction. Thus begins Shinya Tsukamoto’s cryptic, hallucinatory, formally daring Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Produced on a shoestring budget and released to little fanfare, the film has since become an object of cult worship, inviting comparisons to the works of David Lynch and David Cronenberg and influencing generations of anime artists. Equal parts Freudian allegory, cyberpunk social commentary and body horror fever dream, it shows modern man in extremis, destroyed from within by a merciless techno-capitalist social order -- or perhaps, simply, his own desire. (67 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.