964 Pinocchio

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghaaaaaahhhhhaaaaaatttttaaaaaaaabbbbaaannnaaaa - Weird - Aaaaaafffffaaaaaaaggggaaaahhaaaggaaaggggggggaaaaaaaaafffffaaaggg - Vomit - Aaaaaagggaaaafffffaaahhhhhaayyyaaaaabbbaaaabbbbbnnnnaaaahhhaaq - Japan - Aaaaaggggaahhhaahhhajjajjajajaaaahhhhhhhhhaaagggggggggggggggggg - Cyberpunk - Aaaaaaggggaahhhaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttaaaaaaagggggaaaafffffaaa - Crazy Japan -

This is one of my favorite films. It seems to deal with a society in which people have been made into commodities, and it focuses on principal characters who have become discarded.

Rather than take a heavy handed or moralistic stance, Shozin Fukui brings a strangely restrained humor and an extreme, hysterical weirdness to the story. Along with Shinya Tsukamoto's 'Tetsuo' it is one of the classics of Japanese mutation film. (It is said that Fukui actually worked on 'Tetsuo.')

The cinematography is amazing, ranging from ponderous and Tarkovsky-like to accelerated stop-motion.

The performers are wonderful and likeable. Hage Suzuki is like a spastic butoh performer having a constant seizure. Onn-Chan's amazing face seems to have been genetically grown for the specific purpose of being viewed by wide-angle lenses. (Where did these people come from and why is it hard to find any information on them?!)

As an added bonus, this film has what has been touted as the most prolonged vomiting sequence in cinema history.

Wow this was one weird movie. I have never in my life seen anything like this. This is not the Disney Pinocchio we all grew up watching. This movie is so messed up you won't believe it. Pinocchio is a lobotomized cyborg sex slave, and is thrown out onto the street by his owners. Pinocchio meets up with this homeless girl named Himiko. Then Pinocchio's creator sends out his men to get rid of Pinocchio. This is one really strange movie though. It's pretty low budget, but in a good way. I liked all the weird camera angles too. I think the best part was when Pinocchio ran down the streets screaming. That was just weird and freaky! I bet all those people were freaked out when they saw this thing running. Did I mention the ending is also weird as heck. If you're looking for a weird movie to watch, then you'll enjoy Pinocchio 964. There's nothing out there quite like this. 9/10 from me.

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.

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.