User reviews

Tetsuo II: The body hammer has a really cool title and after seeing the first one, I was very excited to watch it. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. Tetsuo II like many other reviewers have noted, spends a lot more time developing a plot.

What is the plot? Tetsuo's son and eventually himself and his wife get captured by some guys who are keen on cyber implants. While captured they hook up a helmet to Tetsuo's head that let's them choose what memories he thinks of. They decide to kill tetsuo but tetsuo gets angry and kills them instead. Other stuff happens too.

What does this movie have to do with the original? Absolutely nothing! The original was a stunning visual story about a man transforming into metal. It was so abstract, the plot was up to interpretation, but most importantly it was fast paced and constantly challenging the viewer with fucked up imagery. In the second film Tetsuo apparently didn't go on a killing spree with his friend (as they mutually decided to at the end of the first film) In fact Tetsuo is now a family man with a wife and kid, and his enemy/friend from the first film (like everything else from the first film) doesn't even get mentioned.

The biggest problem with Tetsuo II is that the fast pace of the first film was abbandoned. Now scenes last a long time and there is hardly any cool imagery. Remember all the amazing stop motion from the first film that looked as though it would have taken a lot of effort to accomplish? Apparently the director got sick of all the time and effort of stop motion, because this film, although it obviously has a higher budget than the first, has about a third of the stop motion.

I believe Tetsuo I was such a sucess because even though the director didn't have a clear idea of the plot, the outstanding and inventive visuals carried the loose plot to interesting places. Tetsuo II on the other hand focused on a conventional plot without developing an interesting story first, resulting in a crappy incredable hulk rip off.

If you saw the first Tetsuo you might as well see this, but don't expect much.

two stars out of four

I just have finished watching the movie. It is visceral and crazy as I expected but is not like the first one. Tetsuo: The Iron Man was an experimental movie. This one is less experimental with a more traditional storytelling. It is visible the movement to give a clear plot, which seems not reasonable because this style of movie is just for cult followers, anime fans or people interested in Japanese underground cinema. The same ones who would watch it with or without a clear plot.

Summarizing: The first movie was shocking and disturbing. This one is just eccentric when compared with its predecessor. Not recommended for normal audiences, maybe for anime fans. Think this movie as an anime. It is easier to enjoy it.

The original Tetsuo: the Iron Man was a pretty unforgettable film. Shot in intense black and white and very pure in its intentions, it was an avant-garde sci-fi horror movie. An immediate cult film. With the follow up, director Shin'ya Tsukamoto has made a film which is more a remake than a true sequel. In this one, he shoots in colour and tries to incorporate a story of sorts. Although, this is a relative statement, as this is still a very weird film and it hardly adheres to cinematic storytelling norms. In essence it is once again about a man turning into a cyborg.

Like the first it's visually very striking indeed. It seems to have influenced an awful lot of industrial bands from the 90's, seeing as many of their videos mimic the imagery found in this one. It's soundtrack I guess adds to this seeing as it is full on rock a lot of the time. As a piece of visual art Tetsuo II is a success. However, I do not think it reaches the same level as the original movie, which for my money was such an original piece of work it is hard to outdo. I think the introduction of more story here is also to the film's detriment. The story gets in the way, something you could never accuse the original film of. Still, this remains a pretty intense experience.

A brilliant re-imagining of Shinya Tsukamoto's 1989 cult classic now with more story, more special effect and a bigger budget. Body Hammer is my favorite movie in the tetsuo series because it's expanded more with the story while keeping the storyline same and doing something new.

The effects are unique and uniquely unreal, as they were in the original. This is one filmmaker's nightmares rendered real. These two films, along with Lynch's Eraserhead, are the real deal. The cutting is fast so as to cause many (already extreme) shots to register on the subconscious more than the seeing eye. It will haunt you.

This is truly a worthy sequel that is a worth to watch.

I will rate this movie: highly watch this movie out of 10.

The bad things here: repetitive music, shaky cam, most of the action takes place in scenes where the light is obscured a lot. There is only one sound for the protagonist.

The good stuff: manic overacting, great VFX, Shinya Tsukamoto as the main villain, insane sweaty buff monks. Lots of body horror albeit a bit light.

The first movie, "Tetsuo", was mostly a visual experience, while this sequel is also attempting to throw in some more story this time. It makes this movie a bit less artistic and a bit more mainstream than its predecessor but only just a bit though.

"Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" is for most part being still one psychedelic ride. There are lots of odd images and events, that just don't make sense in the real world but help to make this still a good and intriguing watch. The movie has a more of a manga vibe and feeling to it than anything else really. Fans of manga will therefore also most likely to appreciate this movie better than the average person.

It's obvious that Shinya Tsukamoto has progressed more as a director when watching this movie and compare it to its predecessor. It's also obvious that they had far more money to spend this time, though its still being a low-budget production.

This movie doesn't makes much sense as a sequel but then again, the movie just doesn't make much sense in general. It's for most part simply a movie you have to experience, though I admit that it all got a bit tiresome to watch after a while. It also seemed as if the film-makers stopped caring toward the end and dropped the story and all logic. This is when the movie becomes a quite distant and bland one, that only solely relies on its images to keep its viewers interested. This might had all worked for an hour long movie but this movie is about 30 minutes too long for that. This is the foremost reason why the first movie is still the better one, despite the fact that this movie makes more 'sense' and is also a better made one, with better production values and all.

Pehaps only truly interesting to watch this movie as a live-action manga.

6/10

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Don't really know why everybody hates this movie and calls it so poor compared to the almighty 1988 original. Is it because this sequel is more coherent and easier to understand, maybe? People tend to refer to a movie as a 'masterpiece' much quicker when they don't understand one iota of it, of course. As far as I'm concerned, "Tetsuo II" is more or less as powerful (or as weak, if you wish) as the original, naturally with some aspects that are worse but also some aspects that are better! The story is pretty much a reworking of the first, only it's more accessible and – on a personal matter – it gave me a lot less headaches (which I liked!). Once again, the story handles about a man who strangely and disturbingly fuses into a piece of metal equipment, yet now you know more about his background so you can sympathize with him at least a little. His painful transformation is mainly caused by rage (his son was kidnapped) and 'medical' experiments performed by a group of skinheads. "Tetsuo II" contains just as much weirdness and psychedelic imagery as the original, but I admit it all doesn't look so nightmarish here. Partly because it's in color and partly because the characters are given depth, this sequel feels less like a genuine cult gem.

This movie is highly recommended for the fans of its predecessor, although it's not in black and white, doesn't have as good of a soundtrack or have as much surrealism as the first film, but it remains to be a bit more action-packed and (let's not forget) makes a bit more sense. This time, the salary man (the protagonist from the first film) lives a normal life with his family until one day his son gets kidnapped and the salary man is forced to be experimented on by a large a gang of skinheads which speeds up the mutating process of becoming a part-metal weapon and part-human being. It's not really a sequel but it surely is one of the greatest underrated films of-all-time and is about as good as the first film (TETSUO), if not, better.

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is the second entry in the Tetsuo series and arguably an improvement over the first film. It has a more coherent plot, better special effects, and a better flow. Of the two, it was the more accessible film.

Body Hammer follows the struggle of a seemingly meek man after his son is kidnapped by a ruthless gang / cult. The cult is run by a mad scientist who seeks to combine man and machine. When the father is subjected to one of these experiments, all hell breaks loose.

Although surreal, Tetsuo II is a distinctly more conventional film than its predecessor, which came across as a grotesque student film. The sequel has a more typical sci-fi action plot even as it uses the bizarre animation and concepts that made the original a cult classic. This is actually a good thing, as it makes it easier to discern what the director is trying to get across.

The film also benefits from improved special effects and costumes. While the original relied on rather clunky stop motion animation, the effects in Body Hammer are far more convincing.

There are some issues with the film's plot, not the least of which being why the gang would grant super powers to someone whose son they had just kidnapped. Nevertheless, it is definitely a worthy follow-up to the original.

I was rather disappointed. The first Tetsuo made me an INSTANT Tsukamoto fan, from the first 5 mins of the film. It was fresh, innovative, and just.....different. I rather enjoy having a movie be in your face and push all those "make you squirm" buttons. Tetsuo did just that where for me, few movies can.

For those of us who enjoy getting a breath of fresh air, those that appreciate those offbeat styles used that make indie films so worthwhile, Testuo II will likely be a disspointment. If your looking for that visceral "HYPER-KINETIC" feel of the first movie, skip this one, as thats all been stripped away. Tetsuo II is for some odd reason, just a typical Hollywood style action flick. I was rather confused. However, it's still worthwhile in my opinion for any die-hard Tsukamoto fan.

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.

This heavy scifi/action sequel was just insane! After a family man receives some sort of injection from a mysterious pair of fellows, he finds himself with the strange reflex/ability to grow chunks of metal out of his body, sometimes going as far as to make small canons! I think the added coherency to the plot made this sequel more enjoyable than the original, while still maintaining a healthy level of chaos. It's filled with all kinds of bizarre happenings and filmed with a unique variety of styles (stop-motion, dissolving montages, hyper editing, etc…). I also found the music to be quite effective in this one, almost like it was pumping up the viewer as much as the metal was pumping up Yatsu! The movie just had a driving, hectic feel that worked for me.

I found this movie slightly better than the first "Tetsuo" (which I HATED), mainly because it appears at first to be willing to tell a more coherent (if still unique) story. Soon, however, the story disappears into a farrago of violence, mayhem and senselessness; by the time the completely baffling ending arrives, you've already given up trying to make sense out of what's happening. However, there are some ingenious special effects and a breakneck chase scene that's worth seeing. (**)

The original 'Tetsuo' knocked me out with its inventiveness and disturbing originality. This sequel/remake/cash-in (whatever you want to call it) bored me witless. The budget is obviously increased, the ideas and confrontation decreased. 'Tetsuo' is a much more difficult movie to watch/understand but it is worth it. 'Tetsuo II' is way to conventional, with a "plot" and "characters", and loses the unique vision and mystery of the original. What you end up with is a dumb ass action movie - the complete antithesis of 'Tetsuo'. Avoid this, watch the first movie instead.

A very "industrial" film. Flesh and metal are one. Steel and concrete are everywhere. Not blood, but corrosion is being drawn.

A lot of people say that this film had a higher budget that the first one (which I haven't seen yet). It didn't really feel that way to me. The movie looked very, very low quality and felt very "small". Could've used a heavy metal soundtrack lol. The plot was hard to follow. Whereas a lot of other films are very high on dialogue, this one didn't really had enough dialogue to really be able to follow the story. It was very loose.

This movie is being tagged as sci-fi/drama/horror. Sci-fi and drama are about right, but if you're looking for a horror film, meh. Not really.

I loved the shots of the skyscrapers. It really added to the industrial feel of this movie.

It was alright. Nothing I would really re-watch. I'll check out the first one very soon. I heard there's a part 3 too, so that should be interesting! 6*

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is Tsukamoto's Evil Dead II, a sequel that reworks the original with more technical polish on a larger budget. There's a big thematic shift from the erotic to the militaristic, with a greater focus on biogenetic weaponry, one that's far less frantic, instead focusing on developing its characters and providing them with a narrative to inhabit. The production values are much higher than that of its predecessor with Tsukamoto's head-spinning experimentation still on full display, the move away from monochrome allowing him to add strong colour filtration to a heady visual brew of crazy editing and bizarre cinematography. Shinya Tsukamoto is a man who knows what he's doing at this point. Ultimately while Tetsuo II: Body Hammer may lack the more disturbing elements of the original, the eccentricities are still here; filled with some excellent sequences and something to say about industrialisation while incorporating some top-notch effects work, leaving it as a very solid piece of filmmaking and a prime example of confrontational underground Japanese Cyperpunk cinema.

First off, TETSUO 2 is far superior to the original. Although I still liked them both, I have to say I was far more impressed with this one than THE IRONMAN. Why? Well the story & plot for one, it seemed to make a lot more sense this time around with a short glimpse into both men's past. All questions asked after viewing the original, I think were answered in this one. The only problem I have with this one is that I think he should of kept it in Black & White.

All comparisons aside, basically to explain this movie in any logical sense is absurd. But what the heck; If you took a boiling pot of water, threw in an episode of the INCREDIBLE HULK, added a tablespoon of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and mix it with generous portions of THE TERMINATOR, you would have TETSUO 2: BODY HAMMER. A hyper-kinetic, yeah that's the word, stylish sci-fi movie done in the tradition of Japanimation, only its real-life.

Shinya Tsukamoto's 1989 film 'Tetsuo: The Iron Man' is a creepy, disturbing classic of body horror. In my opinion the third film, 2010's 'Bullet Man,' is a godawful wreck of little value, bordering on self-parody. It seemed only fair to watch 'Body hammer' and see where it lands between those two ends of the spectrum. For my part - while it's not all bad, I'm sorry to say that I'm simply not impressed.

The plot is distinctly ham-handed from start to finish, unconvincingly combining elements of 80s gang movies, super soldier action flicks, abduction thrillers, and the body horror Tsukamoto has previously demonstrated he can do so well. This is as true of individual scenes as it is of the narrative as a whole. That tawdry over the top slant is emphasized with dubious overlaid graphics and inserts, laughable training sequences, and below average, unremarkable music that feels like the result of bare minimal effort to capture basic moods. Occasionally an actor will demonstrate welcome nuance and poise, but mostly the cast is directed to chew all available scenery; that goes most of all for Tomoro Taguchi as the protagonist, but certainly others as well.

The frenetic editing and stop-motion animation that characterizes Tsukamoto's work is employed here as well. In this instance they come across as less gaudy than in 'Bullet Man' - but also much more kitschy than in 'Iron Man.' So it is with lighting, and effects generally, seemingly trying to mirror the horror stylings of Sam Raimi a la 'The Evil Dead,' but to less success. Set design and decoration is pretty great, but even makeup and costume design is questionable in my mind. Dialogue and the execution of most scenes join the screenwriting in being decidedly overdone.

There are some good ideas here, including a welcome suggestion of emotional weight, and a few scenes are actually done well. But what value 'Body hammer' possesses is gravely undercut by a preponderance of schlock. To whatever extent it's entertaining, it's mostly in the same way that mindlessly channel-surfing on a TV can be, and the passing worth is pushed aside and forgotten.

I want to like this more than I do, but its flaws do too much to hold it back. The great concept Tsukamoto developed into 'Iron Man' is expanded, to its detriment, incorporating influences that bog it down while also just trying too hard. Sometimes less is more, and the converse absolutely applies here. It's not all bad, but unless one is an utmost devotee of the filmmaker, I see no particular reason to watch it, or recommend it. 'Tetsuo II: Body hammer' is an instance of an idea taken too far, illustrating the risk of oneupmanship.

This is truly a worthy sequel. A brilliant re-imagining with increased budget and, yes, something approaching a story. But don't be surprised if you lose the plot yourself, just sit back and be amazed by this work of live manga brilliance. Be perversely moved too, as I was, by the family story at the heart of the work. The effects are unique and uniquely unreal, as they were in the original. This is one filmaker's nightmares rendered real. These two films, along with Lynch's Eraserhead, are the real deal. The cutting is fast so as to cause many (already extreme) shots to register on the subconscious more than the seeing eye. It will haunt you. Very highly recommended indeed.

I was reading in a Stuff Magazine about some of the goriest, bloodiest films that Asia had to offer and I immediately jumped to Netflix to quench my thirst. Boy what a mistake I made. This movie is one of the worst films I have seen. First and foremost no plot, what I expected to be the plot (see: "Revenge") turned into a series of events just happening in a effort to spend their special effects budget of $14.89 and waste studio time. They should have kept their money and not wasted their time nor yours.

When a major plot twist occurs, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is given a new identity and I wasn't buying it. A flashback is given that should answer our questions, but seemed to me like I turned on Showtime at 3:47 am and dropped ACID. The movie continues and spirals out of control with cheesy graphics and special (olympic) effects.

Do I seem bitter about this film? Yes. Did I see Iron Man? No. Was there a plot? No. Was it so symbolic that I didn't understand? NO. Was there a Body Hammer? Beats the Hell out of ME. So take my advice and STAY away!!!!!!

(I must admit though I have had so much fun writing this and laughing to myself about this film that if you want to laugh, WATCH IT!!!)

Well one thing i must say... i liked the cover.. the rest .. do you people know what good cinema is? This movie is so lame, do your self a favor .. go and watch the sound of music for the 100th time and you'll be better with it.. The plot is awfull , there's no sense.. the movie made me laugh for it's stupidity, bad acting, and bad story, and bad taste (the blowing baby scene), does putting your nightmares and phsycotic idees into movie means good cinema.. I DON'T THINK SO...

Tetsuo 2 body hammer is a soft reboot to Tetsuo following a similar plot of a salary man turning into a machine. However as the first Tetsuo felt like an anxiety attack the second one is a adrenaline rush full of training montages and kick ass chase scenes and a head banging soundtrack. Its absolutely off the wall in a good way if your looking for one very entertaining movie this is it.