After two decades of moving further and further away cyberpunk and into a much more contemplative style, a return to his earlier themes and style – and in English! - struck me as a rather mercenary move by Tsukamoto when I first heard about it, and as the first film is so important to me (being what opened my eyes to cinema beyond Hollywood, and remaining in my all time top 20 to this day) I approached this with slight trepidation. Fortunately, this is very much a Tetsuo movie through and through, largely uncompromised by commercial thoughts, and as frenetic, fast paced and blistering as ever. The basic plot – a man mutates into metal after a traumatic incident – remains, but the movie still throws up fresh and unexpected ideas throughout. The decision to have it in English does lead to the occasional stilted feeling in the dialogue, but this is a minor point. Overall, while nowhere near the heights of the first film, it's comfortably about equal to Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, which is far more than I expected.
Review of Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
