Tetsuo's Apartment

Lore & Background

The apartment used for filming was the actual home of actress Kei Fujiwara, who played the salaryman's girlfriend. Tsukamoto shot large portions of the film there, utilizing the cramped, ordinary space to heighten the claustrophobic horror of the salaryman's transformation. It is within these walls that the salaryman sleeps next to his girlfriend and has a dream in which he is sodomized by organic metal machinery. Waking up, he discovers metal taking over his body. When he attempts to have sex with his girlfriend, his penis becomes a metallic drill, leading him to lock himself away. She approaches him saying she is not afraid, but he attacks her and tries to sexually assault her with his transformed penis. She stabs him in the neck, causing him to fall unconscious. The salaryman later regains consciousness to find his girlfriend has impaled herself on the drill, killing her. The apartment thus becomes the site of both his initial mutation and the tragic death of his girlfriend.

In Their Own Story

The salaryman sleeps next to his girlfriend in the apartment. He has a dream where he is sodomized by organic metal machinery. Waking up, he either imagines or discovers that metal is taking over his body. When he attempts to have sex with his girlfriend, his penis becomes a metallic drill. He locks himself away from her. She approaches him saying she is not afraid of him, but he attacks her and, when he tries to sexually assault her with his transformed penis, she stabs him in the neck causing him to fall into unconsciousness. The salaryman regains consciousness sometime later to find his girlfriend has impaled herself on the drill, killing her.

Reader's Guide

The apartment is a key location for the film's most intimate and disturbing scenes of bodily transformation. Unlike the open streets or the Kawaguchi iron factory, this space is confined and domestic, emphasizing the personal and invasive nature of the mutation. It is where the salaryman's relationship with his girlfriend unravels violently. The apartment was not a set but a real residence, adding to the raw, documentary-like feel of the horror. Its cramped layout forces the viewer into close proximity with the characters' suffering, making the surreal events feel uncomfortably real. The location disappears from the narrative after the girlfriend's death, as the salaryman flees into the city.

Did You Know?

• The apartment used for filming was the actual home of actress Kei Fujiwara, who played the salaryman's girlfriend.
• Tsukamoto shot a large portion of the film in Fujiwara's apartment, using it as the primary interior location.
• The salaryman's girlfriend kills herself by impaling herself on his transformed metallic drill penis inside this apartment.
• Exteriors for the film were shot at the Kawaguchi iron factory, north of Tokyo, contrasting with the domestic apartment interiors.