Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17406 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-22
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Two years after leaving the grungy cyberpunk calling card of the original Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto re-enters the world of flesh and metal metamorphoses with Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer, 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 recognisable world of the thriller, where a young middle-class couple 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 colour), 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

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:
Star and Director filmographies.
Scene Selection.
Original trailers.
Promotional gallery.
Justin Bowyer film notes.
Asia Extreme trailer reel.

Synopsis
A slick revisioning of the 'mechanization of man' themes introduced by Tsukamoto in the more meditative 'TETSUO - THE IRON MAN'. Here, the Iron Man is a well-heeled, sedate Japanese businessman whose literal transition into metal, precipitated by the abduction of his son by punks, finds him taking the form of a human weapon--complete with a collapsible chest cannon and an assault rifle for an arm. As with its predecessor, most of the storytelling is done with grotesque, surreal imagery rather than with conventional narrative.

Customer Reviews

A visually arresting retread and re-imagining of the ideas and themes established in Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is director Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel/re-make/companion piece to his cult, low-budget 1988 art-house shocker Tetsuo: The Iron Man; a striking piece of hyper-kinetic visual filmmaking, in which an anonymous Japanese business man finds his body inexplicably mutating into a mass of metal, wire and steal. This version of the story cleans up and clarifies some of the more indistinct and visually abstract points established in the original film, but also adds to it a greater psychological subtext and a broader dramatic scale.

The film begins in a more recognisable world than Tsukamoto's original, with the use of colour (albeit, heavily tinted to shades of blue, amber and grey) creating a more recognisable Tokyo that will later be juxtaposed against the hellish underworld depicted in the second half of the story. There's also more believable characterisation, a loose plot and some vague explanations for what is actually happening. Some fans of the original film consider this to be Body Hammer's major failing; with the clarification and characterisation detracting from the weird "wow-factor" of the original Iron Man film; which, as a work of great science-fiction cinema, really existed in its own world devoid of conservative narrative and cinematic convention. I like to appreciate the film from another perspective, however; with Tsukamoto simply fleshing out the themes of the original film a little further, in the same way that a song-writer might often perform a number of different songs about the same subject, but most often, with a different style and arrangement. Tsukamoto has always been more of an artist than a traditional filmmaker, which is why you can see the same themes resurfacing again and again in a different context throughout his work.

Tsukamoto's principal preoccupations as a filmmaker are often with alienation, claustrophobia, technology, and most importantly, the human body. Throughout his work, Tsukamoto has looked at the self-inflicted destruction of the body, via films such as Iron Man, Body Hammer and Tokyo Fist; through to the more traditional notions of natural decay and internal destruction with films like A Snake of June, Bullet Ballet and Vital. All of these characteristics are present here, with the film showing us how easily tragedy can strike (and go un-noticed) in a built up city, and how striving to become the ultimate human often involves a melding of man with machine (the natural with the synthetic).

The great thing about Tsukamoto's work is that it can often be enjoyed on a number of levels, so, with Body Hammer, we have something that could be viewed as a straight science-fiction film with elements of cyber-punk derived body horror, or instead we could look at some of the deeper, metaphorical interpretations pertaining to the loss of a child, parenthood, childhood trauma, guilt, and perhaps even notions more unsavoury than that! Without wanting to give away too much, there's an element of the plot here that involves the central character's infant son being kidnapped. What follows is quite shocking and heavily symbolic, but I personally like to think that this moment is actually the real impetuous for Body Hammer's plot. So, we have the idea of a character spiralling into a pit of despair, consumed by guilt and losing his mind and the trust of his wife in light of this tragic chain of events! Now, I'm not pretending I know all the answers here, but I like to theorise. Someone else might view the film and take from it an entirely different interpretation but could still find it enjoyable and entertaining. The fact remains that despite the layers of personal interpretation the one thing that will always stand out - regardless of whether or not you liked the film - is the unbridled imagination and visual flair that Tsukamoto brings to the project as it's writer, director, editor, art director, cinematographer, designer and supporting actor.

It certainly won't be to all tastes, as even committed admirers of the first Tetsuo film often write this one off as an interesting failure, but for me, this film offers an entirely new perspective on the territory of Iron Man and the usual preoccupations of Tsukamoto's later films, such as Tokyo Fist, A Snake of June and Vital. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review at the time, "Tetsuo II' doesn't rise (or stoop) to the level of conventional action or suspense; it's a design concept, a director's attempt to take some of the ideas in Blade Runner and some of the Arnold Schwarzenegger films and the Japanese animated films like Akira and extend them into grotesquery". It's perhaps not on a par with some of Tsukamoto's other works, chiefly Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, Gemini and A Snake of June, but regardless, remains a unique viewing experience for those who are genuinely into through-provoking, visually arresting art-house shock cinema.

On a final note, I would perhaps suggest starting here and then progressing onto the first Tetsuo film, as this one is a little less challenging and easier to get through and thus acts as a nice little gateway into this particular filmmaker's warped and wonderful world.

Live-Action Industrial Anime
Tetsuo 2 - Body Hammer is an interesting if daunting watch. part Lars Von Trier [think Element of Crime] live-action film, part Jan Svankmajer [Alice and Conspirators of Pleasure] stop-motion animation, Tetsuo 2 tells the story of a man who is overcome by both rage and technology when his son is kidnapped.

The film is bathed in bright colors, loud noises, plastic tubes and cheap gore. This is not to suggest it is bad, merely an wild ride that over stimulates the senses while the story limps wounded behind the style.

Tetsuo 2 - Body Hammer is best watched with friends with a love of sci-fi and horror. With so much to see in every scene they'll be plenty to talk, laugh, and squeal about.

strange
"Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" is a very strange film. The basic plot is about a man who can create guns with his body, and a gang led by his brother (with similar powers) who murder his son and kidnap his wife.
You can pretty much ignore this though as the gore, special effects, odd camera angles and spinning, psychedelic, imagery take hold.
This is a very very strange film. Don't think about it too much and don't take it as seriously as the creators did, and you might enjoy it.
This is perhaps quite similar to "Casshern", which is also insane but a nice ride while you watch it. I prefer "Casshern" though, as it is on a much larger scale, the plot is slightly clearer, and it has a meaning to it.
Sit back and enjoy the imagery.