The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (1987) User Reviews

A very, very weird film from the master of the weird.

[Kojiro Abe · 6/10 · 11 July 2002]

Here's an early Super 8 film that Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist), made after Phantom of Regular Size and before Tetsuo. It actually quite elaborate for something done in 8mm, in fact nearly as elaborate as Tetsuo and it's nearly as long as well, clocking in about 50 minutes. It's also done in color, like Phantom of Regular Size, is in color, so it kind of looks more like Tetsuo II than the Tetsuo. I saw the film in raw Japanese, so the plot made no sense whatsoever, but I'm pretty sure that even if I perfectly understood Japanese I wouldn't get the plot. It does has far more dialogue than Tetsuo, however, so maybe there's something I'm not getting. It involves a boy with a weird electric pole sticking out of his back. He's constantly being bulled by other kids and he only has one friend. And to make things worse, he's then whisked off to an alternate dimension world where these weird vampires rule the planet (Tommoro Taguchi and the director himself both play vampires). Then the plot gets really weird, as the kid teams up with this lady with a book on her head to fight them. Then there's lots of sick blood draining, nudity, blood curdling screams, transformations, and the kid learns to use his electric pole to light bulbs and meets another electric rod man like himself.

As I said, this movie is very, very weird, but it has that wonderful independent film spirit that most of Tsukamoto's films have and it's very interesting to watch someone's early movies. A better quality, subtitled version would be nice someday and maybe I'd be able to understand this plot just a bit better.

Pre-Tetsuo Apocalyptic Madness

[ginkoale · 7/10 · 15 May 2006]

This film is very low budget. However, Tsukamoto's creativity and imagination totally make up for it. "Denchu Kozo no Boken" is a fantastic story about time travel, vampires, and a nerdy kid with a metal pole growing out of his back. 25 years in the future, the skies become blackened and the world is terrorized by a gang of cyborg vampires...

"Tetsuo" plus "Versus" meets "Back to the Future"! There is a lot of imagery in this film that is revisited in Tetsuo, as well as a really cool soundtrack.

One of Japan's 1980's super 8mm gems.

A very fun, weird film. I like it.

[Food · 5 September 1999]

I saw an untranslated copy of this film, so I'm certainly missing something of the story. But I really like it anyway. It seems to be about a young boy who has a lumpy metal pole that is growing out of his back. He finds some kind of apparatus that transports him to an ominous nether-world where he and a fierce woman with a book attached to her head fight some scary motorized vampire-thugs. Eventually he meets a heroic older guy who also has a pole growing out of his back--I think this guy might be sort of an idealized version of himself. Then he is transported back to his own world. This film has all the visual kicks of the first Tetsuo, but it's much more raw, and in color. It seems to have been produced on 16mm. It has a weird, fun, dorky innocence that the later Tetsuo films only vestigally had. It is very punk rock. I loved it... I wish I could see it shown on actual film, with English subtitles.

More info regarding plot for those who don't understand it.

[marshottentot · 8/10 · 31 December 2004]

Okay, this movie is a lot of fun and, even though it has some gruesome moments, it is easily Tsukamoto's most light toned film. I guess you could say it's kind of like a 'Wizard of Oz' for cyberpunks. The fact that it was filmed in Super 8 doesn't detract from its appeal as the settings and visual effects are all very, VERY well done.

SPOILERS! If you like your movies fresh, stop reading NOW.

The story line, as told elsewhere in these comments, deals with the Electric Rod Boy and Momo versus a group of Vampire thugs in a future hell scenario (where he also meets a future version of himself). Now, IIRC (it's been about five years since I saw it), the Vampire Gang have a giant machine that they are using to slowly obscure the sun so, when it is fully blacked out, they can rule Earth. In order for the machine to work it needs a virgin (which they get) as a battery!!! Unfortunately for the Vampire Gang one of the higher ups can't control himself and sucks her blood thereby poisoning their doomsday machine! Just thought I'd add those little plot points to what's already been written.

YEEEEAAAH! What a crazy movie!

One of the best

[andrerichardsousa · 9/10 · 4 February 2016]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As a early Shinya Tsukamoto movie, this is amazing. The best of his films together with Tetsou and one of the best of the sub-genre Japanese Cyberpunk, Visual effects here do not lose anything to the other movies of the director.

A boy who time travel to a dystopia future, where he finds and fight a bunch of vampires from the darkness, is a simple story of one man that have to save the world, the girl, and himself; (and become the Messiah?

I watched him with the name (The Great Analog World) and with less than 50 minutes projection joins my list of the best films I've seen in my life.

Highly entertaining and fabulously well made; a low-budget, indie gem!

[I_Ailurophile · 9/10 · 1 October 2023]

There's something oddly comforting about the fact that Shinya Tsukamoto has always had such a penchant for the strange and fantastical. Some horror, some sci-fi, sped-up footage, the fusion of flesh and metal and machine, and of course a production that's largely his baby from top to bottom: even on Super-8 film stock, there can hardly be confusing 'The adventure of Denchu-Kozo' as anyone else's work. Homemade, indie, and very low-budget, still we see the imaginative costume design and art direction, effects, editing, and cinematography - not to mention stop-motion animation - that in short order would build his fame with 'Tetsuo: The iron man' two years later. I don't think there's much arguing that the viewing experience here is a little bit of a rough one just owing to the frenetic action and rapid sequencing of some moments, and especially with a slight comedic edge on top, this is outrageous even by the standards we assume of the man. Even at that, however, it's indisputably wild and creative, and highly entertaining from the very start.

After all: why wouldn't one toss together time travel, dystopian futures, vampires, and doomsday devices, and make the protagonist a boy with an electric pole growing out of his back? Tsukamoto was clearly still refining his techniques and style, but the skill, intelligence, and cleverness are unmistakable; however cheeky and ridiculous this may be in no small measure, the effort is completely earnest, and the results speak for themselves. Everything here is genuinely well done and admirable: the smart, compelling, weird, fanciful story; the appreciable and sincere acting, and the filmmaker's wholehearted, committed acting; even the lighting, to say nothing of those facets that are part and parcel of the flair that made Tsukamoto famous. While heavily laying on the science fiction, some bits really are funny; elsewhere, the horror facet is strong and meaningful. It's a very odd swirl of flavors here, but I'd simply be lying if I said it wasn't terrific, and maybe downright brilliant.

It's extraordinarily peculiar, and it definitely won't appeal to everyone. Yet 'The adventure of Denchu-Kozo' is surprisingly, honestly great, reflecting unfettered vision and originality, and it looks and sounds marvelous in every capacity, down to the excellent, flavorful music that lends to the mood of key select moments. It succeeds with regards to all its constituent genres, and as an unsung classic of indie cinema; it's a landmark early in the career of an icon of Japanese cinema, and an exemplar of what can be achieved on a very modest budget with nothing more than a keen mind and unwavering determination. By all reason an amalgamation this preposterous shouldn't work, but in the hands of a shrewd, talented director like Tsukamoto - even at so humble a level of operation - the end result is tremendously entertaining, and far more worthwhile than the concept may seem to portend. Simply put, this is an underappreciated delight that deserves much more recognition. As far as I'm concerned 'The adventure of Denchu-Kozo' is well worth seeking out, and I'm happy to give it my very high and enthusiastic recommendation!

aka:Adventures Of The Electric Rod Boy.

[andyzen · 20 July 2002]

This short movie is one of the early works of the TETSUO's director; also Tsukamoto is the principal character of this "amatorial" Super-8 film that talks about two friends: a boy(DENCHU KOZO), with an electric rod driven in his back, and a girl(MOMO)who, in the first part,helps the boy from a beating.Then Denchu Kozo, with a strange invention, docks in an horrible dark future(twenty-five years far) where a group of vampires want to obscure the world doing explose atomic bombs. Here the boy meets Momo, now a soldier-woman, who fights against the monsters bloodsuckers. At the end the boy, with the help of his electric rod's light, will save the world and be back to his time where he'll tell Momo his(their) adventure. In this short we can find some elements that the visionary director will developed in his following works: the human mutation, the rappresentation of cyberpunk apocalyptic worlds, the hypercinetic editing with a lot of cuts.

In a few words: YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TO UNDERSTAND TETSUO.