Japan Synopsis
鉄男
A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
Audience Engagement
493 audience reviews — more than 93% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (93th percentile) outruns trending popularity (69th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Horror + Science Fiction in Japan
93 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Horror and Science Fiction genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Tetsuo: The Iron Man itself).
The 1988–1990 Japan Window
Tetsuo: The Iron Man holds position #45 of 110 Japan films in the 1988–1990 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1980s Japan Landscape
1989 was the decade’s peak output year for Japan — 44 titles released, including Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Bars below show how the 1980s stacked up year by year (280 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 43 other Japan films in 1989.
The 788th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Tetsuo: The Iron Man, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- fetishism · 3
- transformation · 16
- gore · 51
- cyberpunk · 48
- dystopia · 45
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,300 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (50th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Japan Horror productions specifically: #53 of 391 (top 14%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | K2 Spirit, Kaijyu Theater, Japan Home Video |
| Runtime | 1h 7m |
| Release Date | July 1, 1989 |
| IMDb | tt0096251 |
| Official Site | tsukamotoshinya.net |