Culture Blues

Culture Blues vs Tribeca: Tetsuo: The Bullet Man

Tetsuo wants to kill you.

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, director Shinya Tsukamoto’s third (and supposedly final) Tetsuo film, is not for the faint of heart. Literally. It should come with a warning like rollercoasters and adult haunted houses. If you're worried about cardiac arrest or anxiety attacks, I'd stay away. This has nothing, or at least very little, to do with content. It's in the method.

Frequently, with no warning, a metal-faced maniac will pop up on screen accompanied by an ocean of screeching metal. It's terrifying and at times physically painful. I think Village East Cinema may have had the speakers cranked too loud last night, and it's my fault for sitting to the side of the theater right where the speakers are, but I don’t think I was the only one bothered by it. More than a few people walked out early on, I imagine because they refused to pay $20 to have their senses assaulted as if they were being interrogated at Gitmo. I couldn't blame them.

But the discomfort and confrontation is the point. Bullet Man is a nightmare. It has nothing to do with reality. It's the kind of movie where the main character could say a thing like "It's been twenty years since Mom died, Dad. You need to get back into bio-tech research." This story of Anthony, a grieving father who becomes a walking arsenal while exacting revenge on the man responsible for his son’s death, is all about atmosphere and emotions. The atmosphere is one of panic, terror and rampant violence. And veteran director Tsukamoto doesn't rely solely on jarring sights and sounds to accomplish this. He's craftier than that. There's Anthony's audible metallic breathing. There’s all the shaky camerawork. There's the extremely limited palette (anything other than black, white and grey is damn near nonexistent). The atmosphere is pervasive, perhaps oppressively so.

The story is sparse and poignant (sort of), although I feel a little silly talking about the story. Some of the characters’ most important motivations remain a mystery to me, and the climax is pretty incomprehensible except for the broad strokes. Plot machinations aside, this is a movie about desperation, revenge and anger. The whole “man becoming machine” bit is much less about technology and more about human nature. We are machines, God's perfect machines, and when Anthony starts growing pistons and firing bullets from his appendages, he's not becoming a machine, he's becoming a monster.

Bullet Man, like the original Tetsuo, is the violent collision of Kafka, Cronenberg and Reznor (Reznor even contributes a song to the end credits of Bullet Man, a collaboration 20 years in the making). The Tetsuo films are interesting and worthy of comparisons to those respected names, but Bullet Man is also marred by some odd decisions. There is no dialogue recorded on set. It's all ADR. It shows (especially in scenes where Anthony’s face is not covered by a giant metal helmet), and contrary to what Tsukamoto apparently believes, it does not make the film better. The action is filmed in tight shots and often happens completely off screen. This is good for the feeling of claustrophobia that Tsukamoto was going for (and for budget concerns), but not for clarity and cohesion.

In the post screening Q&A, Tsukamoto revealed that he chose to make this his first English language film because the seed was planted way back when Hollywood came calling in the 90s after the release of Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (the most badass name in a trilogy of badass names). Tsukamoto stayed true to his convictions and waited to make the movie he wanted. I wish he'd taken Hollywood up on their offer. As it stands, the Tetsuo world is interesting and exciting, but a bit difficult to enjoy.

VERDICT: SKIP. This is a tough one. I'm happy that I've seen Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, but I can't really recommend anyone else do the same. It's a decision you have to come to on your own.