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Phantom Tetsuo

Two years before filming his breakthrough cult film Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto filmed a rough short version of the same story, and called it Futsu saizu no kaijin (AKA The Phantom of Regular Size).

All four characters were played by the same actors, and many scenes were almost identical. The plot was expanded in Tetsuo, there were many new sequences, everything was shot much higher quality (16mm instead of Super-8), and the costumes were better. One major change is the shift from color to black & white, and an inclusion of silent-era aesthetics in Tetsuo.

Some other minor differences: the sequence of eating food with harsh metallic sound effects appeared twice in Phantom - once with the girlfriend while the salaryman looks on, and then later as the metal fetishist feeds the salaryman. The final merging of the salaryman and the metal fetishist is shown as a abstract split-screen sequence in Phantom, instead of a fight. The final merged form is human-sized in Phantom, but tank-sized in Tetsuo.

The Phantom of Regular Size Tetsuo