Futsû saizu no kaijin

There's almost something of a Tetsuo the Iron Man Cinematic Universe (TIMCU), because first there was this short film, The Phantom of Regular Size, which then gave way to the slightly longer (but still short film) The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy (1987), and then finally, in 1988, there was the feature-length Tetsuo the Iron Man. Then, that film received two sequels, so anyone who wants to catch up on the whole series within a short period of time is going to absolutely melt their brain. It's all metallic body horror, dizzying editing, gross-out special effects, and loud clanging noises.

That 1988 film is still the best of the bunch, but watching the shorts as proof-of-concept movies for it can be interesting. This one, The Phantom of Regular Size, isn't as good as Adventures of Electric Rod Boy, and I wish I'd watched it first, but there's still a twisted charm to this extra-short short, and the music and sound effects are as good as ever.

Fans of Tetsuo:the Iron Man will find this film of interest: it is basically the same story, only as a short, and in color. All of the same elements are there: The salaryman played by Tomoro Toguchi; Shinya Tsukamoto playing a nemesis who remotely induces a robotic woman to attack Salaryman in the subway; the interlude with the drill-penis; the combination of both characters into a larger, metal-encrusted monster at the end of the film. The soundtrack has a great song by Chu Ishikawa. This is an exciting film because of it's youthfulness; The budget is low, the pixilation effects are cool and the director in his acting role looks barely in his early twenties. The viewer feels the fun of making the film.

This feels like a dress rehearsal for Tsukamoto Shinya's later more notorious and near full length film Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Most of the scenes in this film were reshot for that film, and the story is nearly identical, but with more details added and a better dramaturgy.

However, all the elements of Tsukamoto's style are here. The hyperkinetic editing, the animated sequences and the brilliant soundtrack. That latter which interestingly shows Tsukamoto's influences by including a track by Throbbing Gristle, and unless I am mistaken also SPK.

You can certainly say that this is one odd but very creative movie. It has a typical student-film type of look and tone all over it. It's the type of movie that looks like a bad trip and is one that you should never show to an epileptic patient, unless you want to deliberately give them a seizure.

It's hard to discover a story in any of this or try to make sense out of this movie. Nothing gets explained really and there also is no time for it, since this is a short. It's just a movie showing off some creative film-making skills, not only with its style but also its look. We can now say that this movie would serve as a study for the full length movie "Tetsuo", which got directed by the same director, Shinya Tsukamoto and is basically a full length remake of this movie.

Interesting to watch if you want to know where "Tetsuo" came from but otherwise it's just being an odd, unique, creative, visual experience, that in no way is a must-see for just everyone.

6/10

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