Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Year Released: 1988
Rating: 3.5
Extraordinarily bizarre cult film without much of a plot - plot being besides the point - about a man whose body melds with machinery to become a gigantic cyborg capable of immense power. Seems inspired by J.G. Ballard's Crash and the films of David Cronenberg and Jan Svankmajer, but I also think Otomo's Akira, hentai, video games (notice the "Game Over" screen at the very end) and a lot of avant-garde films had an influence as well, not to mention Tsukamoto's own fascination with sexual fetishism (a robotic phallus that looks like a tentacle and a penis-drill - that disembowels a woman - both make graphic appearances). Has some camp appeal (and a number of people might find the camera tricks and exaggerated acting to be too much to take), but I found it to be quite creepy and visually ingenious, thanks to the super high-contrast - and often hard to make out - 16mm imagery.
