A Disappointing Continuation

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Anthony, a half-American/half-Japanese technological businessman in Tokyo, discovers after the cold-blooded murder of his son, when his anger towards the man responsible fuels a reaction he couldn't possibly have prepared for, that he has "android DNA" causing his body to slowly metamorphose into a machine. Director Shinya Tsukamoto also stars as the villain who runs over Anthony's son Tom with a car—what's his motivation? More story here—as Anthony learns a startling secret about his mother, attempts to console his grieving wife who wants revenge for the death of her child, and tries to keep from continuing to evolve into a metal monster—than one might expect from a Tetsuo film. Too bad Tsukamoto's camera work and editing is so chaotic and epileptic you can't see a damn thing, hoping to actually decipher what is essentially incomprehensible on screen. Lack of budget perhaps? Whatever the case, I found this to be a frustrating experience. Strong story on the power of love and family, however, did surprise me, I must say. Anthony reads of a scientific project on creating human androids, found in the notes of his father's underground office, which is where he learns the horrifying truth of what he actually is. Erick Bossick is Anthony, Akiko Monô is Anthony's wife, Yuriko, with Stephen Sarrazin as Anthony's father, Ride. Included in the film is a group assigned to eradicate Anthony and Yuriko so that the dangers of an android killing machine rampaging through the streets, a potential threat which might bring blame to those behind Ride's project, would be silenced. Too bad their mission doesn't succeed; in fact, it fails miserably. It seems that Tsukomoto's mysterious predator wants to encourage the anger of Anthony so that he will continue to lose control, ending in a climax possibly threatening global catastrophe. A loud industrial rock soundtrack accompanies the maddening presentation.

Shinya Tsukamoto's original Tetsuo: The Ironman is most certainly one of my formative cinematic experiences. I remember watching it for the first time one night with a friend in his parents' basement the summer after my freshman year at college. His dad had to get out of bed and yell at us to stop shouting. The film was just blowing us away, and we were very loud about how awesome and freaky it was. Tsukamoto had won a fan for life in me, and, indeed, I have very much liked every single piece of work he's produced that I've had the pleasure to see. The third Tetsuo movie is no exception. It's very much in the same style as the previous two films. Half-Japanese, half-white Eric Bossick plays the title character here. He's a mild-mannered office worker, until, that is, his eight-year old son is viciously run down by a car. When Bossick gets upset, he becomes a metallic, murderous monster. The story is pretty silly (Bossick has "android DNA" because his dad made it with a robot version of his mom), but it's all about the images, the violence, and the Lovecraftian horror. There is one major aspect that will detract from the film's value for some: it's in English. I'm guessing that Tsukamoto felt that this would give the film wider appeal, not only because it could be released in English speaking countries unsubtitled, but in other countries, too, where a good amount of people can understand English. That's a bad plan, though, as most fans of this type of stuff, especially in the United States, where the film still hasn't opened except for perhaps at some film festivals, much prefer the Japanese films they watch to be in Japanese. It's about authenticity. Or perhaps it's about the fact that most of the actors just aren't very good, which makes their dialogue come off rather poorly, or even laughably. And other actors, most notably Shinya Tsukamoto himself, who co-stars as the villain, has a sometimes incomprehensible accent. As for myself, it didn't bother me much at all. It comes off somewhat like the English dialogue in Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Django Western, kind of weird and almost hypnotic.

Man, I don't ever try to understand these 'Tetsuo' movies anymore and simply go along for the ride. And this surely is one intense and very visually orientated ride, that I overall really enjoyed.Once more, the budget has significantly gone up, when you compare it to the previous 2 movies and of course the original first student film that got made by Shinya Tsukamoto, before he created his first full length movie of the series. And yes, I can definitely say that this is the best looking movie out of the series. It's still very dark but it's more stylized all. It's a movie with a great style and atmosphere over it.Yes, it's also definitely a weird movie, in which lots is happening and stuff is being left mostly to the imagination, or rather said; an actual story is hard to find. Though I must admit that out of all the movies out of the series, this one is probably making the most sense with its story but that's not saying much really. But then again, people won't watch this movie expecting a clever or provoking story. They'll expect a visual and intense experience most likely, just like I did. When you do, "Tetsuo: The Bullet Man" is a movie that won't disappoint you.And how awesome is it that the main character of this movie is the bullet man, who shoots dozens of bullets from his body, ever time he goes into Hulk-mode. It's truly something awesome, that got done quite well visually, with some nice effects and make-up.You can also really definitely say that Shinya Tsukamoto keeps on improving as a director, though it might be argued that this is also thanks to the higher budgets he's receiving to work with.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Similar to the first two movies, Bullet Man is an alternate retelling of the same story. (avoiding spoilers) The protagonist is alienated in the big city, and "something" triggers a mechanical mutation which results into a physical transformation. Plotwise its what you'd expect in a Tetsuo-film.Bullet Man is certainly among Tsukamoto's most experimental films, but in a completely different way, due to its casting decisions, and the bold choice of shooting the dialog entirely in English(with few exceptions), unlike Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django, the dialog in this movie is in fact comprehensible. Its very obvious that Tsukamoto was aiming for a broader audience, but it didn't work quite as well. I must admit that I was skeptical to Bossick in the lead role, but he is actually very well casted, his character is different from Taguchi, but still similar, he is a bit more stable, but furious at the same time. Akiko Monou as Bossick's wife on the other hand doesn't work that well, its a dull performance mostly because of her dialog being in English. The chemistry between the two leads isn't present either, but this gets better as the film progresses, and then there is good old Shinya Tsukamoto as " The Guy " you'd be disappointed that he doesn't reprise his role as the metal fetishist, but he still play a pretty bad-ass character, and its a great performance.The digital look of the film is not working in its favor at all, yet there are lots of trademark shots from the previous films, like the close ups of machinery etc, and Chu Ishikawa's industrial theme, are all present, and its shot in the same frenetic manner, but the gritty, and raw 16mm look is absent.The Bullet Man, seems more like an American remake of the first film, it has this mainstream feel to it, and doesn't rely that much on symbolism and metaphors, like the first two films. Another big letdown is, this time there is no mutated counterpart for protagonist to fight, instead we have a bunch of army guys. I would still recommend this to all Tsukamoto fans. It's different, and not among his best, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its bad. Check it out. 6/10