Shinya Tsukamoto has long labored on the fringes of the Japanese film industry, not always by choice. The original cyberpunk bad boy of Japanese movies, Tsukamoto burst onto the scene in 1989 with "Tetsuo," a film so extreme in its violence, sex and general insanity, including an interlude with a whirling penis drill, that it made most local attempts at transgression look tame. Written, directed, filmed and edited by Tsukamoto, with a score by Chu Ishikawa that was like a buzz saw ripping through a live, screaming skull, the film's vision of man (and woman) merging with machine had a crude vitality reminiscent of punk rock at its brief peak and a startling originality that suggested genius and madness -- or both.
Few would have been surprised if Tsukamoto, like so many of his punk progenitors, had flamed out after his initial brush with notoriety. Instead he persevered like one of his all-but-unkillable on-screen heroes, making films that were either uncompromisingly Tsukamoto ("Tetsuo 2," "Tokyo Fist") or nominally commercial ("Hiruko the Goblin," "Gemini"). The latter did bad to indifferent business, while Tsukamoto's widely reported plans to make a Hollywood film with fan Quentin Tarantino went nowhere, reinforcing the local industry consensus that he was too sui generis (or out of his gourd) to produce box-office winners.
His latest film, "Akumu Tantei (Nightmare Detective)," is his latest attempt to refute such perceptions. Screened at this year's American Film Market in Los Angeles, as well as at the Pusan and Rome film festivals, this shocker about a detective who can enter dreams prompted a bidding war that was won by the Weinstein Company, which plans to release the film in North America and other territories. It is also getting a wide release in Japan, promoted by network TV ads -- the infallible sign of Tsukamoto's elevation to the mainstream.