Trivia / Tetsuo: The Iron Man

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• Ashcan Copy: Arguably, The Phantom in Regular Size.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Greece: Steel Man
• Colbert Bump: A video by oddheader in 2020 investigated an unknown easter egg someone found in a PlayStation 2 demo disc that contained an unlisted trailer of Tetsuo when they were young and encountered others who saw the same thing. This has caused his audience to be curious enough to watch the movie.^note The truth of the incident was that the DVD editor in charge previously worked for Manga Entertainment, which had the rights to Tetsuo, mistakenly added the trailer originally meant as a feature for a Gamera DVD
• The Danza: Tomoo in Body Hammer.
• Descended Creator:
  • Shinya Tsukamoto himself plays the metal fetishist in all three movies.
  • The first movie's co-cinematographer Kei Fujiwara also had a supporting role as the salary man's lover.
• Hostility on the Set: Most of the filming happened at Kei Fujiwara's apartment where they decided to sleep there to save on travel costs. Tomorowo Taguchi felt that the staff would experience cabin fever if they lived in the tiny apartment over a long period of time and decided to keep his distance to protect his relationship with Tsukamoto. As he predicted, the staff started to become hostile and quit until only the actors remain. Fujiwara and Tsukamoto also got into heated arguments over creative differences and as a result, they never collaborated again after The Iron Man.
• The Foreign Subtitle: The original title being Tetsuo...
  • English: Tetsuo: The Iron Man
  • Portugal: Tetsuo: The Man of Steel
• Troubled Production: The difficulties of making the film (as seen above) were so intense that Tsukamoto was tempted to destroy the finished product out of sheer frustration.
• Method Acting: In order to show physical damage in the movie, they have to actually damage the apartment it was filmed in. There weren't any smoke and mirrors involved, they actually drilled a hole in Fujiwara's door to get that scene.
• No Budget: The first film was shot without color and used TV parts taped to the actor's bodies as prosthetics due to its $17,000 budget. Early international screenings also lacked subtitles as Tsukamoto couldn't afford a translation at the time.
• Sequel Gap: There is a 17 year gap between the release of Body Hammer and Bullet Man.
• What Could Have Been: Bullet Man was a remnant of an idea Quentin Tarantino offered to Tsukamoto about writing and filming an Americanized version of Tetsuo. It was scrapped and eventually became the final product because Tsukamoto believed the concept couldn't work in a place like America.

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