As in much of Shinya Tsukamoto's work, mutilation, male rage, and latent homosexuality are at the heart of this brutally violent, strangely hilarious, wildly over-the-top film. Tsukamoto draws from Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), both in showing Hizuru's evolution into something not quite human and in including the city as a central character. The director cleverly juxtaposes the static violence of Tokyo's ultra-modern architecture with the literal violence of Tsuda's pulpy face and bleeding wounds. By the end of the film, Tsukamoto hints that Hizuru's search for her own identity is the key to escaping this cycle of male aggression and brutality.