In addition to starring in almost all his films, Tsukamoto has also appeared as an actor in films by other directors, including Martin Scorsese , Takashi Miike and Hideaki Anno. Tsukamoto began making films at age 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which soon included Kei Fujiwara , Nobu Kanaoka and Tomorowo Taguchi , all of whom would continue to work with Tsukamoto up through the filming of Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
At the end of production, Tsukamoto did not want to waste all the effort they had put into building the set, so he decided to shoot a film version. Tsukamoto has stated he has a love-hate relationship with Tokyo, and in the end the characters Tsukamoto and Taguchi set out to destroy it. Tetsuo is considered one of the prime examples of Japanese cyberpunk. Tsukamoto's next film, Hiruko the Goblin , was a more conventional horror film , about demons being unleashed from the gates of hell.
He then created a follow-up to Tetsuo , Tetsuo II: Body Hammer , which revisited many of the same themes as the first but with a bigger budget and shot in colour on 35 mm film.
As a result, the film is often interpreted more as a companion piece than a true sequel. Tokyo Fist again dealt with the idea of rage as a transformative force similar to David Cronenberg 's The Brood [].
The salesman then enters into a rigorous and self-destructive boxing training program to get even. In Bullet Ballet , a man Tsukamoto discovers that his longtime girlfriend committed suicide with a gun, and becomes obsessed with getting a gun just like that one. His single minded behaviour causes him to run afoul of a gang of thugs, especially when he shows interest in the young girl who is one of their compatriots.
