Tetsuo II: Body Hammer

Starring:Tomoo Asada, Iwata, Nobu Kanaoka, Sujin Kim, Tomorowo Taguchi, Hideaki Tezuka, Keinosuke Tomioka, Torauemon Utazawa
Studio: Manga Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Two years after leaving the grungy cyberpunk calling card Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto reenters the world of flesh and metal metamorphoses with 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 recognizable world of the thriller, where a young middle-class couples 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 color), 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

Customer Reviews:

Delirious sequel to Tetsuo.......2006-05-27

I don't understand people saying Tetsuo II is a letdown after the original. The original is great, a masterwork to be sure, but I think the sequel is nearly on par with it. Clearly, Tsukamoto started working in a different direction with the sequel. It's not even really a sequel in the traditional sense so much as it vaguely echoes certain themes of the original (edification and deliverance through body modification, liberation through pain - all the stuff Tsukamoto loves).

I think people may feel it doesn't match up to the original because it has such a strong emphasis on flashy editing techniques, as opposed to the flesh/steel zoomorphic collision, something Tsukamoto sometimes gets a little carried away with ("Bullet Ballet" being the extreme example of this) however, there isn't anyone who manipulates film in the same way. This guy is a true genius of the cinema. A total original. No one works in the same general ballpark as him.

The basic plot is fairly thin and vague (another recurring Tsukamoto issue), it involves a mother and father whose son is kidnapped by a bunch of grotesque bodybuilding skinheads. The plot is incidental. With Tsukamoto you simply put the movie in and hold on, letting it wash over you. Not everything makes sense logically, but emotionally it rings true.

Anyway, I loved this as I love all of this guy's films. He is one of the greats and (selfish as I am) I hope he is never DISCOVERED by all the little fanboys, as Takashi Miike was. When directors get discovered their work seems to spin off and become diluted (not that Miike has become totally diluted, but you know what I mean)

Not As Inventive As The First Film, Still Very Fun.......2006-04-23

Ok, you've heard right, this sequel is not as totally insane as what you will find in the original film. However that doesn't mean that Body Hammer is a total waste of time. It's actually fun, energetic, wacky, subversive like the first but now we have more of a storyline to go along with the visual bravada. I was laughing out loud at some of the action scenes as they were filmed with a truly demented sense of humor.

Perhaps the director recycles too much of the original Tetsuo but this sequel might seem more palatable to a person who is not likely to respond to the avant-garde style of filmmaking exhibited in the first movie. Not to worry though as Body Hammer is in many ways just as crazy and bizzare.

The director, Tsukamoto, here uses color as opposed to black and white in the original and even though this adds it's own twisted element to the work, the color is too faded and the film looks quite grainy to be truly effective.

Body Hammer reminds you even more of a pumped-up anime than the first film which looked more like an underground film project. Regardless, if you're a Tetsuo fan, you simply have to see Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer, the metal mania just wouldn't be complete without it!

Not The Ironman, but worth seeing anyway........2004-11-12

Tetsuo II: Bodyhammer (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1992)

After the weirdness that is Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tsukamoto returned four years later with its followup, Bodyhammer. But looking at it as a sequel makes no sense, and it's not really a remake. What it really is is left up to you to decide, because I have no idea.

Manga Entertainment's website says Tetuso II is Tsukamoto's answer to Bladerunner and Aliens, but it looks more to me like Tsukamoto's answer to Videodrome (this won't surprise anyone who's seen the original film, or Akira, the end of which these films are a loose continuance). While the original film had no plot whatsoever, this one does. Taniguchi (Tomorowo Taguchi, reprising his role as the Iron Man) and his girlfriend/wife/whatever Kana (Nobu Kanaoka, the woman who "turned" the Iron Man in the original's unforgettable chase scene) have a son, Minori (Keinosuke Tomioka). Minori is, for no reason we can discern at the beginning, kidnapped by a gang of skinheads. He's not really the kind to go in, blow stuff up, and get his kid back; he's really your basic 98-pound weakling. That is, until he discovers new meanings of the term "body modification."

While Bodyhammer is a live action flick, it does seem to have more in common with Akira than did its predecessor, especially during Taniguchi's change scenes; it's as if Tsukamoto spent the four years between films studying Akira so he could frame the shots better. There's also an extremely odd soundtrack, much of which sounds lifted from Tsukamoto's short "Drumstruck" and overlaid with a videogame theme song. (Why this was never turned into videogame is beyond me; you'd think Konami would jump at the idea.) Tsukamoto's direction, editing, and cinematography here is more professional than it is in The Iron Man, but it's still got that feel of being shot with a Super 8 by a couple of high school students. (I rush to say this is not a bad thing.)

There really is no basis of comparison between the two Tetsuo films. Each is equally warped, in its own way, and both are compelling viewing for the discerning gorehound. See both, if you can. *** ½

The NEW FLESH!.......2004-04-27

Pretentious film aficionados as well as Film junkies, snotty film students, lovers of blood, guts, and exploding cybernetic human hybrids will find this amazing. As well as social/cultural analysts. The film is too good for Hollywood's studio paid critics (i.e. Ebert and Un-Siskel). This film crosses into the post-modern ideology that suggests a possibility of humanity's acceptance of technology into their own bodies and flesh.

With current society relying on plastic surgery and physical augmentation this is a wake up to the broadcasted cable zombies of today!

TV is watching you, more than you watch it!

divowr@excite.com

honestly speaking........2004-01-08

Honestly, this has got to be one of the worst films I've ever seen. The storyline is garbage, picture is dark blue(so you really can't see it well), and it's just absolutely booooring. I was watching the whole time thinking "when will this crap end." I do not recommend this film to anyone except someone I hated. Some guy put this as #2 on his list of most disturbing movies. It's not shocking or scary at all. I wasted about an hour and a half of my life watching it. I really don't see how anyone could like this garbage.

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