In this document, a critical review of the film ‘Tetsuo: The Ironman” (1989) directed by Shiny Tsukamoto is done. The main objective of this paper is to determine the formal content, historical and political significance of the film. There is a prior focus on the issues of propaganda in cinema and stakes of political modernist art. Tetsuo is a Japanese film that is pictured on the mainstream of Japanese cinema that become dead at the end of 1980s. Japanese cinema has undergone numerous of phases. However, this document emphasizes on the creative crisis that was faced by Japanese cinema has undergone. In different scenarios of the film, the revolution of modernist art has evolved which can be identified from the actions and scenarios of the movie. The film Tetsuo depicts a complex erotic metal fetishism, which unfolds the fears developed in the modern era related to technology and male anxiety and different political scenarios in which the social reforms of the 1980s are intertwined. The document presents a brief discussion analyzing the film content relating it to the historical and political significance of the modern era.
The film places a unique position in Japanese cinema. The film Tetsuo depicts the invasion of technology in the lives of individuals. The plot of the film is complex as it begins with a salary man who is metal fetishist. He inserts metal pieces in his body, which makes him transform to a metal induced human body, which feeds on metal. The man is feared of himself when he sees that the maggots on his wounds due to which he scream and hits the car. He hits the car in which the driver later realizes that the metal has struck and grows within him but he tries to remove it but he could not. There are constant shift in the film in which later the businessmen received calls from his girlfriend to have sex after dumping the body of metal fetish. The plot of the film is filled with the disturbing images as well as confusing, as there is a radical change when his girlfriend was also transformed to metal infected women. Later, there are radical changes in the film that emerges when the metal fetishist shows the iron man the vision of the future that is the New World in which the metal creatures are in the final battle.
The content of the film shows an intense experience of a human who has turned out to be a robot gradually. The main character is metal fetishist who interests pieces of metal in his body to gain bloody results. The experience of a human body, which is becoming a metal fetishist through the gradual change in the body is shared through different cinematic techniques. However, the film shares the scenarios using hyper and intense visuals content that makes the film not suitable for every age of the individual. The visual content of the film is intense, brutal and stunning which induces imaginable cinematic techniques to create the atmosphere related to sequences of images and photographs that create a disturbing image in the mind of the viewer.
The film shares information related to the main fears that were developed in the times when the technology was emerging. However, it also shares information related to the use of the technology in the contemporary times that would influence lives of people. The film gains important place because it has been scored among German pioneer bands that have made use of the experimental music. The film is considered to be a cult movie in which the cyberpunks scenes are considered as a part of the noir art, not just the film. The background music of the film is unique as it has a consistent variation of the music that is made of metal hitting, scratching and synthesize to create the different background music that is one of the important aspects of this film. The music of the film is still being listened to contemporary times, which make it one of the most thematic and attractive.
It has also evolved the development of gradual metamorphosis through different phases, which are portrayed in different scenarios of the film. Mainly the film emphasizes on the theme that is fear of the technology that would create obstacles in human life from which they would find difficult to get over with. The similar images and huge metal machines are pictures in the film in different scenarios in which the people living with machines have been well described. However, the film demonstrates one of the main aspects of contemporary times that have emerged with the use of technology.
McRoy shares his opinion that the film Tetsuo is made on the conception of North American Apache that has adopted the metal and technology that was used against Japanese authority (McRoy 08). Though, the film shows the empowerment gained through technology and metal in contemporary times to gain the attention of young Japanese attention. However, the visual content of the film shows sexual content to relate with the technological development to gain success, which is evident from the main character Tetsuo’s metal power. Walter argues that the film Tetsuo depicts ontological truth that is exhibited with the transitional genres of Japanese cyberpunks and American Avant-pop ideologies of the late 1980s (Walter 2). In the file, the movement that was prevailing in Japan and American has been demonstrated through different scenes. For the instant, the emergence of the Japanoid is one of the technologies that have been shown in the film. Assessing the visual content and overall theme related to Japanoid in the film it can be identified that the features of the technology are fused with the American and Japanese post-war identity. It can be further related to the Japanese post-war identity that was driven and understood by the manifestation of Donna Haraway’s socio-political cyborg (McRoy 12).
There are different other historical concepts that are evident from the content of the film. It is related to the development of the Tetsuo’s homoerotic element that makes him powerful over others. Walter shares some of the dominant themes that have been demonstrated in the film. He explains that definition of identity in the film Tetsuo ignores the element of masculinity that is related to the patriarchal culture (Walter 02). These all features are similar and demonstrated through the character Tetsuo reflects post colonial reading. Whereas the definition of a female in the film is directly related with the femme fatale that depicts that the women acquire a queering position that would lead to problems and traditional heteronormative Japanese identify. In the film, it can be noted that the females have been demonstrated as a fear, which related to the prevailing perception regarding women in the late 80’s in America. In which it was considered that the women are a misogynistic fear. The salary man himself was indulged in developing a sexual relation with his girls and used it a way to kill them (Walter 01). The similar concepts regarding the role of women in the society are not very visible in the Japanese culture. It shows that the content that has been pictured in the film Tetsuo is influenced by the American culture (Walter 02). In the film coming across different scenes, it can be noted that the women have been shown as a pessimist characters that misuse men. In Tetsuo, similar views can be identified that reflect that the women are the tool that forces men to reconcile their inadequacies and sense of helplessness. These views for women depict the role of the women in the society, which is indirectly associated with the traditional, and modernity of the society.
In other words, it can be explained that it shares the horror of cinema in which the Japanese film is linking with the political and historical background. It shares different visions and postmodern era’s working and traditional avenging that has led to the groundbreaking development of the cinematic terror. The reconceptualization of the notion of culture and national boundaries are fundamental elements that are portrayed in the film through different visual context.
There are other aspects that are shown in the film that depicts an empowering role for young people. It was evident that the young Japanese salary man who was a metal fetishist. The main idea, which is the blending of flesh and iron, shows the metaphor for the post-WWII era in which he Japanese scrap iron “patches” that was the scavenging. In most of the cases, it is evident that the combination of metal and flesh has improved the human qualities. It can be determined when it can be salary man amalgam into iron and flesh, which transforms him to have supernatural powers. Also, further, it can be noted that the relationship with the metal and human has shown as a sexual and intimate relation improving sexual and reproductive. Assessing these transformations through metal induction in the human body extra ordinary person can be produced. The similar use of the technology is found in the modern art era. It is directed that this phase of infusion of metal and flesh is a metamorphosis. In the modern era, individual has been found lost in the oppressive industrialism in which the culture and artistic ability was influenced. The prophecy is evident from the film Iron Man. The symbolization of the character salary man who is man and machine is denoted with the Modern Art (Tsunoda 12). It depicts high-modernist sentiments that are related to the technology mutation and Men machine hybridist.
The other example that can be quoted regarding the Cyberpunks shows decent development through errant evolution, which is mainly derived with the idea of dehumanization during industrialization era. Similar art pieces are evident in the modern arts in which abstract and metal features depict worry and fear regarding the technology emergence. However, the idea presented in the film relates with the fetish critique that related to techno-erotic Japanese science fiction. The film shares experiences of the mad scientist. The dehumanization is the main fear that has emerged to be one of the main themes that are demonstrated in the film. The film shares the alienation experience of a human as well as improving their powers with the inducement of technology. However, the idea is conflicting with the ever-escalating technology combining with the fetishizing with the technology man.
In the modern era sexuality and money remains to be the dominant aspect, which is considered one of the most attractive feature (Walter 56). Avant-garde is one of the movements during the modern era. The influence of Aventa guard is profound in the film. The ideology and different concepts that are portrayed in the film are directly associated with the modern era. One of the aspects that we can assess from the film is integration metal in the human body. The erotic sexual aspects relating to the technology to develop men remains to be one of the similar aspects in the modern era. Post World War 2 scrap iron are persistently found in the different events shown in the picture (Tsunoda 9).
For example, in late 1980 the social landscape transformed from social reforms over the traditional stratification that leads to men anxiety. These factors activated male to fall in different anxiety relating to heteronormative issues, which were a loss of power, prestige and values. The similar scenario is evident from the film in which the character speaks fetish statement "how about turning the whole world into metal." There are also similar depression and anxiety that have been demonstrated with the main character of the film sorry man. Also, in different scenarios sexualize for the pleasure is evident. The salary man was able to follow fetishism that made him free from the all the social pressure and prestige in the society.
Works Cited
McRoy, J. Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema. London: Rodopi, 2008. Print.
Tsunoda, W. "The Influx of English in Japanese Language and Literature." World Literature Today 62.2 (1988): 425-430. Print.
Walter, N. "The Femme Fatale and the Exotic Queer within Shinya Tuskamoto Tetsuo: Gender as Narrative Tool within an Allegory for post WWII Japan's Industrialized Identity Crisis." Anthos 3.1 (2011): 1-12. Print.
