Tetsuo: the Bullet Man Blu-ray Review

Unearthed Films

Blu-ray Release: July 21, 2026

Video: 1:78:1/1080p/Color

Audio: English/Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles: English for Japanese, English SDH, English

Run Time: 71:14

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Anthony is a bland and cautious American office worker living in Tokyo with nothing exceptional about him. Or so he thinks. When his young son is killed, Anthony begins a violent and bizarre metamorphosis, his flesh transforming into metal, his body expressing his repressed rage and lust for revenge. Anthony is becoming the weapon that will destroy the man who killed his son and, if his rage cannot be contained, the entire city in the process. (From Unearthed Films’ official synopsis)

In 1989, underground filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto wrote, directed, produced, edited, and co-starred in Tetsuo: The Iron Man. It became astoundingly influential in the cult, cyberpunk, and pop art scenes of the era, leading to surprising mainstream penetration in the form of movies (Darren Aronofsky’s Pi [1998], for example, would not exist without Tetsuo’s success), music videos (Portishead’s “Machine Gun”), and advertising (Tsukamoto teamed with Trent Reznor for an MTV promo that was also used as ad bumpers).

Tsukamoto followed up Tetsuo: The Iron Man with Hiruko the Goblin (Japanese: Yōkai Hantā: Hiruko, 1991), a rare director-for-hire gig that nonetheless fits his filmography, and then made Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992), which garnered similarly excited responses from fans and critics. Initially, a third Tetsuo film was conceived as a medium-budget Hollywood picture, produced by Quentin Tarantino, co-written with Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) partner Roger Avery, and possibly starring Tim Roth. The project eventually fizzled, though, and Tsukamoto made Tokyo Fist (1995), which put a sort of cap on this early and most prominent part of his career.

After that, his work broadened in terms of style and genre, including the black & white drama Bullet Ballet (Japanese: Baretto barē, 1998), gothic Edogawa Rampo adaptation Gemini (Japanese: Sôseiji, 1999), gritty erotic thriller A Snake of June (Japanese: Rokugatsu no hebi, 2002), and a supernatural horror duology in Nightmare Detective (Japanese: Akumu Tantei, 2006) and Nightmare Detective 2 (Japanese: Akumu Tantei 2, 2008). He also repeatedly hooked up with other Japanese cult filmmakers (Takashi Miike, Teruo Ishii, Takashi Shimizu, Hideaki Anno…) in an acting capacity throughout this period.

Shortly after the release of Nightmare Detective 2, Tsukamoto was finally ready to make a third and, as of this writing, final Tetsuo film. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009) forgoes the escalation in scale from Iron Man to Body Hammer, cinching up the scope and drawing thematic focus. The plot mixes familiar elements, such as car accidents and imperiled children being inciting events, the lead character is another meek, salaryman type, and the director himself once again plays the antagonist. It’s generally more rational than previous entries, offering explanations, however strange, whereas Iron Man, in particular, refused. 

Arguably, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is also less transgressive than its predecessors. Tsukamoto doesn’t reimagine the concept as mainstream or family-friendly, but his interest in sex and violence had apparently evolved over the decades, as did his sense of nihilism, which steadily decreases throughout the three films. Reportedly, he even referred to Bullet Man as a ‘mature’ take on the concept in some interviews. No need for long-time fans to worry, though – all of this ‘logic’ and ‘empathy’ is still being filtered through Tsukamoto’s anarchic id, turning it, at times, into a sort of surrealistic, hyperviolent tokusatsu show.

Visually, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man splits the difference between Iron Man’s steely monochrome and Body Hammer’s saturation, presenting a largely desaturated, yet not entirely black & white palette that is occasionally flecked with isolated colors. Some fans have lamented Tsukamoto’s use of digital photography. Indeed, the super-sharp quality of digital cameras can’t always match the original film’s grainy 16mm filmstock and DIY aesthetic. Thankfully, this is mostly a case of something looking different, rather than worse, and Tsukamoto uses digital compositing and animation sparingly in order to augment his frantic montages and collages.

Bibliography

• Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto by Tom Mes (2006, FAB Press)

Video

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man had a small US theatrical release and was available via a mediocre, barebones DVD from MPI. Its larger US premiere was on digital streaming (I believe Hulu first, then Amazon Prime). German company Koch released a three-disc collection that included the first Blu-ray version of Bullet Man and an extended cut of the original film, Tetsuo: The First Cut, on DVD. I assume that Unearthed Films’ stateside Blu-ray utilizes the same transfer seen from streaming versions. I can’t find exact specs, but my guess is that Bullet Man was shot in 2K/1080p, not 4K digital. The overall look is clean and high contrast with a lot of tight, shifting focus. White levels are constantly, purposefully blown out and blacks are super-deep, outside of the occasionally flat and warmer shot. Like I said, the palette is nearly monochrome, but not quite, with some sequences appearing blue-ish and others orangish-brown.  

Audio

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is presented in its original mixed English and Japanese 5.1 and uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio. Aside from some awkward ADR, the sound design is a nice, post-digital update of the original film’s cacophonic noisescape. The stereo and surround channels give the bursts of sound and grinding metallic effects a wide arena and the discrete LFE gives longtime Tsukamoto collaborator Chu Ishikawa’s industrial score a fabulous bass throb. The appropriately titled final credit song, “The Theme for Tetsuo: the Bullet Man,” was written by Trent Reznor, who had already paired once with Tsukamoto for the aforementioned MTV promo, and performed by Nine Inch Nails.

Extras

• Commentary with Eric Bossick and Tom Mes – The lead actor (Bossick) and preeminent Tsukamoto expert (Mes) combine to explore the making of the film, Bossick’s perspective on his character and performance, Tsukamoto’s career and directing style, locations, themes, enduring prosthetic effects, traditional Japanese performance (kabuki, butoh), and the film’s release.

• Tetsuo: The Bullet Man: Multi Material Version (70:31, HD) – An experimental reedit that mixes the audio from Tetsuo: The Bullet Man with behind-the-scenes footage, stills, original storyboards, and clips from San Diego Comic Con. It’s sort of like a feature-length making-of documentary mixed with a rough cut and a proof-of-concept reel. 

• Promotional gallery

• Japanese and US trailers

The images on this page are taken from the BD and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.