Since his early films, such as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) and "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" (1992), pioneered the cyberpunk genre with a crazed energy and invention, Shinya Tsukamoto has had a reputation as Japanese cinema's outlaw. While doing the occasional work for hire, he has stayed outside the industry mainstream, following his own creative impulses rather than box-office trends.
As an actor in both his own films and those of others, he typically plays characters in extreme situations, from the insurance salesman turned blood-soaked boxer in "Tokyo Fist" (1995) to the World War II soldier dying of illness and starvation in "Fires on the Plain" (2014).
In person, however, Tsukamoto is nothing like some of his more frenzied heroes: He's always the soul of politeness, if with a spirit of steel behind the gentle smile.