Stars: Kei Fujiwara, Tomoro Taguchi

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Summary: Shinya Tsukamoto's 'Tetsuo II - Body Hammer' continues the story of Taniguchi Tomoo who, when his young son is kidnapped from a Tokyo department store, is transformed into a human cyber-gun. Japanese dialogue with English subtitles.

A slick revisioning of the 'mechanization of man' themes introduced by Tsukamoto in the more meditative 'TETSUO - THE IRON MAN'. Here, the Iron Man is a well-heeled, sedate Japanese businessman whose literal transition into metal, precipitated by the abduction of his son by punks, finds him taking the form of a human weapon--complete with a collapsible chest cannon and an assault rifle for an arm. As with its predecessor, most of the storytelling is done with grotesque, surreal imagery rather than with conventional narrative.

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Two years after leaving the grungy cyberpunk calling card of the original Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto re-enters the world of flesh and metal metamorphoses with Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer, a more narratively ambitious film that is neither sequel nor remake, but a rethinking of the ideas on a bigger scale with more impressive effects.

The film begins in the recognisable world of the thriller, where a young middle-class couple see their son kidnapped by mysterious hoodlums, and then takes an abrupt turn into an underworld of cybermen led by a mad scientist performing twisted experiments. The father (Tomoroh Taguchi, returning from the first film), filled with rage and shame at his powerlessness, suddenly transforms into a robotic warrior and becomes overwhelmed by the power, simultaneously terrified and ecstatic. Unlike in the original, Tsukamoto offers an explanation, for what it's worth, but the power lies not in the story but the nightmarish imagery and the themes of the marriage of flesh and technology, metal and magic.

With an ample budget at his disposal (not to mention colour), Tsukamoto ups the conflict to a battle of biblical proportions while maintaining the brooding, terrifying, nightmarish quality. Tsukamoto's gory, violent vision of technology run amok is not for everyone, but fans of David Lynch and David Cronenberg will find his dangerous visions just as creatively disturbing.--Sean Axmaker

Main Language:	Japanese
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer, 2. Asia Extreme Trailer Reel, Filmographies, Stills Gallery, Justin Bowyer Film Notes
Year:	1991
Release Date:	April 22, 2002
Runtime:	79 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	T V D 3397
Label:	Asia Extreme
Keywords:	Subtitled, Body, General, Hammer, Japanese, Horror, Tetsuo, Occult, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Horror/Occult