Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009) Reviews

• More of the same, but it's still pretty damn awesome

  zetes2011-04-03

  Shinya Tsukamoto's original Tetsuo: The Ironman is most certainly one of my formative cinematic experiences. I remember watching it for the first time one night with a friend in his parents' basement the summer after my freshman year at college. His dad had to get out of bed and yell at us to stop shouting. The film was just blowing us away, and we were very loud about how awesome and freaky it was. Tsukamoto had won a fan for life in me, and, indeed, I have very much liked every single piece of work he's produced that I've had the pleasure to see. The third Tetsuo movie is no exception. It's very much in the same style as the previous two films. Half-Japanese, half-white Eric Bossick plays the title character here. He's a mild-mannered office worker, until, that is, his eight-year old son is viciously run down by a car. When Bossick gets upset, he becomes a metallic, murderous monster. The story is pretty silly (Bossick has "android DNA" because his dad made it with a robot version of his mom), but it's all about the images, the violence, and the Lovecraftian horror. There is one major aspect that will detract from the film's value for some: it's in English. I'm guessing that Tsukamoto felt that this would give the film wider appeal, not only because it could be released in English speaking countries unsubtitled, but in other countries, too, where a good amount of people can understand English. That's a bad plan, though, as most fans of this type of stuff, especially in the United States, where the film still hasn't opened except for perhaps at some film festivals, much prefer the Japanese films they watch to be in Japanese. It's about authenticity. Or perhaps it's about the fact that most of the actors just aren't very good, which makes their dialogue come off rather poorly, or even laughably. And other actors, most notably Shinya Tsukamoto himself, who co-stars as the villain, has a sometimes incomprehensible accent. As for myself, it didn't bother me much at all. It comes off somewhat like the English dialogue in Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Django Western, kind of weird and almost hypnotic.

• "Welcome to the newest chapter in the history of iron!"

  Al_The_Strange2013-07-25

  Tetsuo: The Iron Man - A film so manic, hyper, weird, and stylish, it represented the epitome of an experimental film. David Lynch would have gouged his eyes out. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer - A sequel so intense and crazy, it took the strange visions of the first film and spat them out at the viewer in a refreshing barrage of insanity. The third Tetsuo film, The Bullet Man, is pretty much more of the same. You can certainly expect the film to break out in hyperactive bombardments of flashing rapid-fire images. You can certainly expect the main character to mutate into a metal monster and wreak some havoc (and this time, he spits bullets!). You can certainly expect this to be weird and crazy. However, this Tetsuo film is notably different, and not in a way that's refreshing or necessarily good. In between the manic freak-out scenes, the film slows down drastically, trying its best to weave in some semblance of an actual story with actual characters and actual reasons behind the madness. With the terrible dialogue, short runtime, and overall freakiness of the film, I really don't think this story works as well as it wants to. The film really wants to give a compelling vengeance story (the exact same type that went into the last two films), it really wants to give us emotional characters, and it wants to give us some kind of background to the "Tetsuo Project" and its connection to the characters. In the end though, it comes off as being too short and underdeveloped for its own good. The experience of the film overall is pretty agitating. Granted, the other Tetsuo films are agitating as hell, but The Bullet Man seems to be a grade worse. Nearly every scene is shot with a camera that never sits still. Given the other issues listed above, I was rather apathetic about the film overall. I actually value the other two films for their remarkable styles and visions, even though they are pretty hyperactive in their own right, but this third film never felt like it brought anything new to the table. In addition to being really hyper and annoying, the film is rather drab-looking, with lots of dark lighting and gray settings. Photography is among the worst I have ever seen, and the editing is crazy. I was personally appalled by the acting and writing; most of the dialogue is terrible, with very stupid lines and absurd delivery. On the plus side, the sets, props, and costumes are pretty decent, and it's especially cool to see that the filmmakers preferred to use practical effects rather than cheap CGI. Music consists of lots of airy noises and metallic banging, further adding to the annoying experience. As much as I value the first two Tetsuo movies, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy The Bullet Man as much as I wanted to. I halfway wonder if Shin'ya Tsukamoto is purposefully trying to make the most annoying movie possible. Established Tetsuo fans will probably enjoy The Bullet Man, but casual viewers will probably want to keep their distance. I personally recommend the first film, if at all interested. 2/5 (Experience: Annoying | Story: Very Poor | Film: Marginal)

• For Die-Hard fans only

  TheEnigmaticRonin2010-12-04

  Similar to the first two movies, Bullet Man is an alternate retelling of the same story. (avoiding spoilers) The protagonist is alienated in the big city, and "something" triggers a mechanical mutation which results into a physical transformation. Plotwise its what you'd expect in a Tetsuo-film. Bullet Man is certainly among Tsukamoto's most experimental films, but in a completely different way, due to its casting decisions, and the bold choice of shooting the dialog entirely in English(with few exceptions), unlike Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django, the dialog in this movie is in fact comprehensible. Its very obvious that Tsukamoto was aiming for a broader audience, but it didn't work quite as well. I must admit that I was skeptical to Bossick in the lead role, but he is actually very well casted, his character is different from Taguchi, but still similar, he is a bit more stable, but furious at the same time. Akiko Monou as Bossick's wife on the other hand doesn't work that well, its a dull performance mostly because of her dialog being in English. The chemistry between the two leads isn't present either, but this gets better as the film progresses, and then there is good old Shinya Tsukamoto as " The Guy " you'd be disappointed that he doesn't reprise his role as the metal fetishist, but he still play a pretty bad-ass character, and its a great performance. The digital look of the film is not working in its favor at all, yet there are lots of trademark shots from the previous films, like the close ups of machinery etc, and Chu Ishikawa's industrial theme, are all present, and its shot in the same frenetic manner, but the gritty, and raw 16mm look is absent. The Bullet Man, seems more like an American remake of the first film, it has this mainstream feel to it, and doesn't rely that much on symbolism and metaphors, like the first two films. Another big letdown is, this time there is no mutated counterpart for protagonist to fight, instead we have a bunch of army guys. I would still recommend this to all Tsukamoto fans. It's different, and not among his best, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its bad. Check it out. 6/10

• not as good as the first

  bragaz2009-09-13

  If you know Tsukamoto's other films and you have already seen Tetsuo 1, at the vision of this one you will be unsatisfied. You will not recognize the original Tsukamoto storytelling, where you must evince everything about the story only by images, and not from an actor that speak and explain what happened since that scene of the movie. The good thing you can find in the first one or in the other movies by this author are that you must concentrate on the movie, on the images to be able to understand, and the images make you stay on your sit with your eyes open and your mind full operative. But this chapter of the Tetsuo saga is not that kind of film. It's more similar to an American movie than a Tsukamoto movie. I don't understand if it's Tsukamoto changing or it's only because this was an American co-production. Maybe someone who don't know Tsukamoto will appreciate it for it's fine director's style or for the incomparable music, but it's better if you make a comparison with the first one, that will remain an absolute masterpiece, 20 years before, a lot of money less. Still,this is a remake, with a lot of changes in the story, but not in the message the author wants to tell us!

• Ruined mostly by the shaky camera

  Bento_de_Espinosa2013-10-11

  Unfortunately there is almost nothing good to say about this film. The camera is so shaky that it's hard to recognize things in the picture. If watched on a big cinema screen, it would have made me vomit. Dialogs are mostly pathetic and acting is very poor, many times over the top. At times it's even difficult to understand what they are saying, because of the strong (bad) accent. Many scenes are tediously long, dark and the "music" is too loud. I really tried to like this film, but I couldn't. I think it's good, when directors try to be daring, but some seem to forget that they are not making a film for themselves, but they want it to be viewed by others. If so, maybe it's not wrong to try to make a film watchable (visually pleasant) as well.