OK it seems that Shinya Tsukamoto decided to update his series even more to modern times and also put himself in the movie again. I guess you could say this was a revamp of the first, but a different story. But here is the thing. When he made a classic, he was limited to what he could use making him use his brain. Using todays technology could sometimes screws up a great thing. I am not saying this is a bad film though. Some good things about it was the nice grim colors to give it a creepier feel and the story was not confusing. But becoming the bullet man in this film was way over the top and it got to the point where it was really crazy; then calm. Yes it ended calm which was strange. Eric Bossick was a pretty decent actor and the only one I really cared about. He would make an excellent superhero. In fact this was not so much horror as it was action. A couple bad things. The story was a bit over the top and the voices were really hard to understand at points. Other than that, it was a decent film.

Perhaps Tsukamoto's simply grown weary of his own patented brand of hyperkinetic cinema verite; or maybe the idea well's simply run dry; whatever the reason, TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN is a far cry from the two films that preceded it in this trilogy. "Destroy all of our lazy peaceful dreams," Tsukamoto himself urges the Bullet Man, and it's his own filmmaking philosophy he's espousing. But, while we once again have the pounding of hammers on anvils, the fingernails screeching down chalkboards, and the man metamorphosizing into a heavy metal monstrosity, there's something definitely LACKING this time around. The TETSUO trilogy has lapsed into Formula. Like PROJECT ARMS or THE GUYVER or any one of a dozen other manga or anime man-into-machine tales, TETSUO has grown stale. Everything, from having a character brand himself with the heated barrel of a handgun to the white-out ending, he's used before. It's time to move on, storywise.

Anthony, a half-American/half-Japanese technological businessman in Tokyo, discovers after the cold-blooded murder of his son, when his anger towards the man responsible fuels a reaction he couldn't possibly have prepared for, that he has "android DNA" causing his body to slowly metamorphose into a machine. Director Shinya Tsukamoto also stars as the villain who runs over Anthony's son Tom with a car—what's his motivation? More story here—as Anthony learns a startling secret about his mother, attempts to console his grieving wife who wants revenge for the death of her child, and tries to keep from continuing to evolve into a metal monster—than one might expect from a Tetsuo film. Too bad Tsukamoto's camera work and editing is so chaotic and epileptic you can't see a damn thing, hoping to actually decipher what is essentially incomprehensible on screen. Lack of budget perhaps? Whatever the case, I found this to be a frustrating experience. Strong story on the power of love and family, however, did surprise me, I must say. Anthony reads of a scientific project on creating human androids, found in the notes of his father's underground office, which is where he learns the horrifying truth of what he actually is. Erick Bossick is Anthony, Akiko Monô is Anthony's wife, Yuriko, with Stephen Sarrazin as Anthony's father, Ride. Included in the film is a group assigned to eradicate Anthony and Yuriko so that the dangers of an android killing machine rampaging through the streets, a potential threat which might bring blame to those behind Ride's project, would be silenced. Too bad their mission doesn't succeed; in fact, it fails miserably. It seems that Tsukomoto's mysterious predator wants to encourage the anger of Anthony so that he will continue to lose control, ending in a climax possibly threatening global catastrophe. A loud industrial rock soundtrack accompanies the maddening presentation.

If you know Tsukamoto's other films and you have already seen Tetsuo 1, at the vision of this one you will be unsatisfied. You will not recognize the original Tsukamoto storytelling, where you must evince everything about the story only by images, and not from an actor that speak and explain what happened since that scene of the movie. The good thing you can find in the first one or in the other movies by this author are that you must concentrate on the movie, on the images to be able to understand, and the images make you stay on your sit with your eyes open and your mind full operative. But this chapter of the Tetsuo saga is not that kind of film. It's more similar to an American movie than a Tsukamoto movie. I don't understand if it's Tsukamoto changing or it's only because this was an American co-production. Maybe someone who don't know Tsukamoto will appreciate it for it's fine director's style or for the incomparable music, but it's better if you make a comparison with the first one, that will remain an absolute masterpiece, 20 years before, a lot of money less. Still,this is a remake, with a lot of changes in the story, but not in the message the author wants to tell us!