964 Pinocchio

1991 Directed by Shozin Fukui

Halloween Marathon 2024 Day 30 Film 59

A male sexdoll (labelled Pinocchio) is disposed of after he can't maintain an erection.. Somewhere on the Tokyo streets a homeless girl takes him in and tries to fix him, eventually leading to a sequence of bonkers situations and corporate nightmare-scapes.

The story has essences of the replicants from Blade Runner, but for the visual style I'm reminded by Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The world of Tokyo has become this industrial space for dronelike citizens. Fish-eye lenses distort the field of vision and memories are wiped. Through some inexplicable manner the girl and Pinocchio find themselves bound together and he tries to become more real.

She develops some insanity and tries to sell him back to the corporation that made him? Or something? Honestly it becomes a zany fest of gross and wacky. The camera shifts in and out of spaces with frenetic speed- highlighting some Evil Dead inspired montages that discomfort and confuse. In one scene a weird fetishy secretary oozes spit across cherries for the executive's delight... abstracted absurdity.

The strength is in the imagery of the chained Pinocchio going full anime powered up through the streets of dumbfounded onlookers. The non-reaction is funny in itself. It's nonsense, but totally aware of itself- not pretending to be anything but exploitation B-movie with campy performances. By the time it ends on some Tetsuo "we will be one" type of a story it's already become a trope. Some of the scenes drag along, and certainly thematic ideas are shown and dropped, but worth watching for all of the gonzo splatter weirdness.