Tetsuo II - Body Hammer

In the city of Tokyo sterile skyscrapers steeped in blue tones puncture the sky; their steel structure hangs over the population. Windows reflect the faces of a million people - members of a middle class hi-tech society. Living in one of these high-rise apartment buildings is the humble businessman Tomoo Taniguchi, his wife, Kana and young son Minori. Tomoo’s daily existence is unremarkable but his sleep is plagued by dreams that conceal memories of his early childhood. Suffering from amnesia these small fragments of suppressed memories preoccupy his mind, threatening the peaceful existence of his family. He walks to the office in a daze standing still in the middle of hectic commuters who rush by him, seemingly lost in his own thoughts and at odds with his surroundings and his fellow city dwellers. Tomoo is not at home in this city – he does not belong here.

On the edge of the metropolis in a derelict industrial landscape, we see a cult of ferocious punks lead by the crazed criminal Yatsu. They strain their athletic bodies with intense physical training sessions using components of machinery, screaming manically. In contrast to the cold clinical city, the punks live in the fire and heat of a steal foundry; their terrain is filmed in vivid warm colours. Yatsu is one of society’s outcasts; he is fuelled by the sadistic gratification he experiences in destruction and slaughter. Worshiped by his men, they believe he is capable of transforming them all into Gods: into mirror images of himself. Yatsu possesses astounding powers. He can mutate his body at will, converting his right arm into a formidable gun-like weapon.

With the aid of a scientist Yatsu has attempted to develop a drug, which will allow him to reproduce his gun mutation in his followers. He sends two of his men into the city to choose a random victim to be part of his experiments. Their victim is Tomoo, they inject him with the drug, kidnap his son (twice) and eventually cause the death of the young child on the roof of a skyscraper.

After believing he has witnessed his son’s death Tomoo’s traumatised mind unleashes uncontrollable rage that triggers his temporary conversion into the Iron Man. Machine guns burst from his torso, his body now predominantly metal, with robotic organs and iron muscles.

Tomoo is drugged, kidnapped and taken to Yatsu’s hideout. He is tortured, his mind probed for traumatic experiences, which when replayed to him increase his volatile emotional state and subsequently accelerating the mutations of his flesh. A huge penis-like metal gun tears through his chest, firing at anyone in its way. (This is one of many instances of homoerotic imagery; there are also sexual connotations in the relationship between Yatsu and his men, and the strong male physique is a reoccurring feature of this film.)

Yatsu now believes he has accomplished what he has been trying to achieve with his drug and proceeds to inject some of his men with the chemical. His celebrations are short lived when he realises against huge odds that the unwilling tester of his drug is Tomoo, his long lost brother. We see that Tomoo shares Yatsu’s power of auto-mutation by willpower but this ability has been suppressed for many years into his subconscious. Tomoo’s dormant powers have now been awoken and he makes good is escape.

Yatsu takes Tomoo’s wife, Kana, to lure Tomoo to his death. Tomoo chases the kidnappers on a bicycle morphing into a mass of artillery, consumed with hatred. His clenched jaw and piercing eyes the only two human features left. Finally Yatsu and Tomoo stalk each other in the underground, they fight aggressively. Tomoo wins, however Yatsu fixes a fleshy tube (like an umbilical cord) to his head feeding him pictures of their childhood together.

Filmed in sepia we see Tomoo and Yatsu as little boys (flashback) living in a modest house in the Japanese countryside, their father is a sadistic man, teaching them how to mutate and kill so that he can gain recognition for creating the first human killing machine. The flashbacks move on, the boys are peeking through their parents bedroom screens, they watch in horror as their father forces himself on their mother pushing a gun into her mouth for his own sexual gratification, as their father reaches his climax, the gun is fired – almost killing their mother.

The eight-year-old Tomoo unleashes an unprecedented rage. He kills his father and mother, shattering the room and his parent’s bodies to shreds. Blood splatters the walls. The explosion of flesh and debris is shown in slow motion with soft music and the flying pieces of glass and wood appear to move with grace. This is a terrible act of savagery, of uncontrolled rage, yet we watch as Tomoo’s young face smiles, admiring the devastation pouring from his own body.

After recalling his past Tomoo’s body performs its final metamorphosis, mutating into a huge human tank, propelled by anger. He murders Yatsu and then begs his wife Kana to end his life. She refuses and stands by his tank-like body protectively. Yatsu’s gang surround the two of them staring at Tomoo-tank in awe. They all take to the streets of Tokyo as one huge multi-human tank and demolish the metropolis.

Soon afterwards Tomoo, his wife Kana and their resurrected son Minori stand and stare at the remains of the city. Kana comments on the peacefulness of this new world.

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The frailty of memory and the effects of psychological trauma in the formative years are two themes of the story. Tomoo’s personality is incomplete without the memories of his terrible childhood years.

Rage is the force for creating a human killing machine. Characters seized by rage kill the innocent as well as the guilty because rage is primal; it is not controlled or focused and even when the cause of the rage is a natural reaction to terrible events the rage only adds to the destruction and death. We see this in Tomoo’s killing of his son and his parents. We hear a further reference to Tomoo’s violence when Yatsu talks of their time together at school. Tomoo fought school bullies who stole some gladioli bulbs from him. In the fight the bulbs were crushed. This emphasises the destructives of ‘justified’ rage. Tomoo’s rage is in sharp contrast to his usual mild mannered nature – a reference to the danger of repressed emotions.

As in cronenberg's film ‘The Brood’ whatever is felt mentally by the main protagonist is transferred to the physical body, the difference is that here we are dealing with metal. The manifestation of feelings of rage is seen in the form of guns erupting and erecting from within the body. In 'The Brood' rage is the impetus for the physical abnormalites of the main protagoinists..

As Yatsuo injects each of his men with the prototype drug we see an image of the city; the drug is a metaphor for the technology, rage and power of the city. In the amazing bicycle chase Tomoo relies on obsolete technology (an old bike), yet he still manages to catch up to the car – a piece of modern technology. This shows the triumph of sheer determination over modern technology.

Tomoo and his family were disconnected from fast harsh city life; they were gentler people and by destroying the city, harmony is restored (paradoxically) between Tomoo and his environment. The city’s destruction frees the mind and body from the incarceration of societies strict rules and hierarchies and technology’s omnipotence. This final message that rage and destruction lead to liberation may appear to be a flat contradiction of the harm of uncontrolled rage shown earlier in the film. The difference is that Tomoo now understands what he is and has come to terms with is past and his suppressed emotions enabling him to focus his rage.

This is Tsukamoto at his creative peak, an innovative and masterful sci-fi horror film, overflowing with astounding imagery and Manga style effects, disturbingly original; it’s the most manic exploration of rage and suppress emotion.

© 2004 Roseanna.Lawrence@Minadream.com