964 Pinocchio

Having loved Rubber's Lover, I felt psyched to see this. It starts off strong with some stunning graphics and the same over-the-top performances I loved from Rubber's Lover. The respect I have for the actors' dedication and focus goes well beyond enormous. I loved the slow, lyrical pace of the first third where Himako finds Pinocchio. The chemistry and trust between the two actors brought it unexpected depth.

And then the vomiting started.

And went on pointlessly for at least five minutes.

I accept this in Hershel Gordon Lewis films since he needed to pad them out to a certain length and contained endless tracking shots of a woman walking or someone's band playing a cheesy song. But with a running time of 1:37 extended scenes of vomiting or running or just general strobe-lit screaming makes me cranky. All the camera work and editing in the world can't make me say "WOW! That's the best 10 minute running sequence I've ever seen!".

Given the gravitas it began with, I felt cheated at the end. I suffered thought the last 30min hoping for a redemption that never came. Given the choice between Places in the Heart or a Marvel franchise film, I'd choose this every time. But I wouldn't be happy about it.

Firstly, we must address that this film is an art film. It thrives on visuals to tell the story. The explicitness of the visual effects are well executed for the sake of uncomfortableness and serves as a catalyst to keep the viewer interested, although it does not necessarily rely completely on visuals. The story itself holds a certain theme which comments on humans being just commodities. Sexual slavery does exist, however, in this particular film, the idea of sexual slavery has been taken to the extreme. Secondly, some underlying philosophy that this film holds, is that in order to experience peace with oneself, one must go through unbearable physical change. In a way, Kafka had his hand in this, think Metamorphosis, except incredibly painful and agonizing. Being a Japanese, underground, cult film, it is not appreciated everywhere, and is not expected to be. Director Shojin Fukui should proud of himself to have done such a controversial yet appealing film.

Having watched "Death Powder" earlier in the day, I found this little ditty refreshingly straightforward.

I don't know if there's some kind of Japanese cultural touchstone for people contorting their faces in agony and screaming for extended periods, but there's a lot of that in this movie.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie despite all the screaming. I can't say I got a huge ton or artistic satisfaction out of it, but the visuals were pretty crazy to say the least.

I thought the idea was promising - a discarded sex cyborg who can't function anymore. It could lead any number of places. You could make ten movies from that idea. But the idea never really gains traction. It falls by the wayside for some strange thing wherein he fuses himself with his captor/rescuer.

Maybe it means something if you're Japanese or steeped in Japanese culture. It seems to me that I've seen anime with similar kinds of body horror elements. But to me it feels like it would have been more satisfying to actually explore the theme in a thoughtful way.

I hesitate to judge the movie too harshly given my suspicion that there's culture resonance that I'm not getting. I've seen Tetsuo the Iron Man, so I get that this is part of a distinct "school" of filmmaking. It was interesting eye candy (if you can call a five minute vomit sequence "candy") and I was entertained by the sheer lunacy of it, but ultimately, it's a big WTF for me.

Five stars for novelty and over-the-top-ness.

I feel like half the runtime of 964 Pinocchio is made up of people charging at the camera or screaming, often both at the same time. It's not an easy movie to rate out of 10, but it is a little easier to talk about in general.

To keep the synopsis as PG as possible, there's a "cyborg" on the loose that's malfunctioned for "reasons," but it wasn't properly gotten rid of. So when it's taken in by a strange young woman, it starts to learn how to function again, regaining something of what it seemed to have before. I guess that's broadly where the Pinocchio link comes into play (twisted/unusual journey of beoming a "real" being), but anyone expecting something with more similarities might be unpleasantly surprised by the directions 964 Pinocchio goes in.

It's a gross, dirty, repetitive movie. It has a certain beyond-grimy aesthetic and simply chooses to wallow in it for 97 minutes, and I admire it for that. Sometimes, I liked how dirty the film felt, to the point where maybe it was a mistake to pause it at one point and take a shower (something I genuinely did; not related to the movie necessarily). Sometimes, I felt worn down by it all, but that's perhaps more a feature than a bug.

I will say, at about the halfway point, 964 Pinocchio did become a bit boring, and I thought it had run out of steam after a fairly engaging first half. Thankfully, it saved a bunch of bonkers things for the last 20-ish minutes, so it ends on a high... or low, depending on your definition.

Probably don't watch this, if you're most people. Those wanting something different and gross should sign up, though.

It's not exactly an adaptation of Carlo Collodi's short story, but rather a dark movie that uses the character of Pinocchio as a model in terms of creating an artificial being that tries to be as similar as possible to a human being. The budget is clearly very limited, so this is a Z movie, but the concept leaves everything up to the viewer's imagination. Shozin Fukui's intention was to tell a terrifying Cyberpunk story about a world with androids so highly developed that they resemble human beings, but with a disturbing side. The film is full of very crazy and grotesque scenes that seek to disturb the viewer. Long planes and assembly that may be boring. Very exaggerated performances that make the actors look like cartoon characters, also adding crazy sequences. The editing, direction and editing are responsible for increasing the power of the images, making watching this film a bizarre hallucinogenic trip. Many moments in this movie are so crazy they can be pointless, especially when Himiko descends into madness. This is a hellish journey that comes to dislike those who see it and that makes it both a peculiar and disturbing piece of Japanese cinema. My final rating for this movie is 6/10.