Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)

Sequel to "Tetsuo" this time has the Iron Man transforming into cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son. When the skinheads capture him, they begin to experiment on... See full summary »

Director:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Writer:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Stars:

Tomorô Taguchi, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Nobu Kanaoka

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tomorô Taguchi	...	Taniguchi Tomoo
Shin'ya Tsukamoto	...	Yatsu (The Guy)
Nobu Kanaoka	...	Kana
Sujin Kim	...	Taniguchi's Father
Hideaki Tezuka	...	Big Skinhead
Tomoo Asada	...	Young Skinhead
Iwata	...	Taniguchi's Mother
Keinosuke Tomioka	...	Minori
Torauemon Utazawa	...	Mad Scientist
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Min Tanaka

Storyline

Sequel to "Tetsuo" this time has the Iron Man transforming into cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son. When the skinheads capture him, they begin to experiment on him...speeding up the mutative process!

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Plot Keywords:

sequel | aquarium | rooftop | telephone conversation | experimental film | 

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bizarre violent images throughout

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 August 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tetsuo - Vasember 2.

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,550, 22 June 1997, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,550, 22 June 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kaijyu Theater, Toshiba EMI

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America (2011)

User Reviews

I'm almost afraid to say I loved it...

What a movie. You don't stumble onto a film like Tetsuo II: Body Hammer every day, and that's probably a good thing. The jerkier-than-Blair Witch cinematography, the wild & crazy stop motion special effects, and the bucketloads of gore are fairly sufficient to ensure that some viewers won't like this movie. Since you're actually reading this, though, you're probably a pretty jaded and open-minded film fan, which is exactly the audience that would end up liking Body Hammer. It's one of the craziest and most extreme movies I've ever seen, particularly in the brutal, nearly unwatchable flashback sequence which occurs in the last twenty minutes. It's one of those scenes that you never, ever, ever forget. But aside from the brutal and bizarre violence, there is great artistry here; the scenes between Taniguchi and his family strike a real chord of tragedy, and the special effects somehow succeed precisely because they DON'T look real at all. And Tsukamoto's vision of Tokyo is terrifying-- he makes the city look like a nearly uninhabited frozen hell of silent glass towers and crumbling steel factories. If any of this sounds appealing, you might just like this movie as much as I do. Tsukamoto's style can be incredibly jarring, but you'll end up running out to find everything else he's directed (to my knowledge, his only other films available in the US are the original Tetsuo and his horrific boxing film Tokyo Fist). Shinya Tsukamoto is one of the most inventive directors alive-- you never know what abomination he's going to create next. And Tetsuo: Body Hammer might just be his best film.