BAM Presents A Retrospective of the Films of Shinya Tsukamoto, October 28- November 3

From Oct 28 through Nov 3 BAM presents Metamorphosis: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto. An underground filmmaker who got his start in Japan's punk super-8 scene in the 80s, Tsukamoto embraces the maggots, memory loss, and severed heads of genre filmmaking with formally striking works that range from the bloody to the bizarre while grappling with the frailty of the human body under the stress of technofuturism and late capitalism.

From his widely adored cyberpunk breakout Tetsuo: The Iron Man to later works and rarely screened gems, this retrospective invites audiences into a singular cinematic universe.

Film Descriptions:

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Tomorowo Taguchi, Shinya Tsukamoto, Kei Fujiwara. This massively influential cyberpunk body horror masterpiece features a "metal festishist" driven mad by maggots, the unwilling transformation of human flesh into iron, and an exceptionally phallic power-drill. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Fri, Oct 28 at 7pm; Mon, Oct 31 at 7pm & Thu, Nov 3 at 5pm

Bullet Ballet (1998) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Shinya Tsukamoto, Kirina Mano, Tatsuya Nakamura. A punk-noir tale of one man's descent into the Tokyo underworld in search of a gun, captured with Tsukamoto's signature striking black and white visuals, frantic camera work, and aggressive music. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Fri, Oct 28 at 8:45pm & Sun, Oct 30 at 6pm

Vital (2004) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto. A visually stunning and unsettling story of a man who becomes obsessed with examining a dead body in order to recover his memory. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Sat, Oct 29 at 2pm & Mon, Oct 31 at 5pm

Hiruko the Goblin (1991) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Ueno Megum, Kudou Masaki, Sawada Kenji. Tsukamoto lets loose with an explosion of style and gore in his second feature, the story of a possessed schoolgirl who wreaks havoc on her classmates. In Japanese with English subtitles. Sat, Oct 29 at 4pm

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Tomorowo Taguchi, Shinya Tsukamoto, Nobu Kanaoka. Tsukamoto expands his body horror manifesto in this cyberpunk thriller about a grotesque machine-monster out for revenge against a gang of skinhead cyborgs. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Sat, Oct 29 at 6pm; Mon, Oct 31 at 8:45pm & Thu, Nov 3 at 9pm

Tokyo Fist (1995) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Shinya Tsukamoto, Kahori Fuji, Kôji Tsukamoto. Tsukamoto brings his exploration of physical and psychic metamorphosis into the boxing ring with this visceral, high-octane bloodbath about an archetypal salaryman emasculated by his brother. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Sat, Oct 29 at 8pm & Tue, Nov 1 at 9pm

A Snake of June (2002) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Asuka Kurosawa, Yuji Kotari, Shinya Tsukamoto. Enter a blue-tinted world of lush sensuality and quiet desperation in this erotic thriller that follows a platonic marriage disrupted by an anonymous voyeur. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Sun, Oct 30 at 2pm & Tue, Nov 1 at 5pm

Gemini (1999) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Masahiro Motoki, Ryô, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Shiho Fujimura. A well-to-do doctor faces off against a disreputable doppelganger in this hyper-stylized tale of class divisions and doubling. In Japanese with English subtitles. 35mm. Sun, Oct 30 at 4pm

Killing (2018) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Sosuke Ikematsu, Yû Aoi, Shinya Tsukamoto. Tsukamoto brings his iconic uninhibited style to the classic samurai film in this intimate period piece-a mixture of violence, lust, and existential quandary. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Sun, Oct 30 at 8:15pm & Wed, Nov 2 at 5 & 9:15pm

Kotoko (2011) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Cocco, Yûko Nakamura, Shinya Tsukamoto. Tsukamoto's camera takes on the perspective of a young single mother who sees doubles of everyone-one good, one evil-in this hallucinogenic work of psychological horror. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Tue, Nov 1 at 7pm

The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (1987) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. Shinya Tsukamoto's flair for cyberpunk aesthetics and DIY creativity is on full display in this underground horror mini-epic. Shot on 8mm, it follows a kid with an electric pole permanently attached to his back who invents a time machine and travels to the future. Once there, he must battle a swarm of punk vampires in an atomic nightmare world. Screening with Haze. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Wed, Nov 2 at 7pm

Haze (2005) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. In one of Shinya Tsukamoto's most terrifying films, a man awakes to find himself trapped in a dirty, confined crawl space with barely enough room to move. He has no memory of why he's there or why he's bleeding from a stomach wound, and potentially no way out. Screening with The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Wed, Nov 2 at 7pm

Fire on the Plain (2014) Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto. With Lily Franky, Shinya Tsukamoto, Tatsuya Nakamura. A claustrophobic portrait of one man navigating the horror and insanity of war during the Japanese retreat from the Philippines. In Japanese with English subtitles. Thu, Nov 3 at 7pm

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