964 Pinocchio

964 Pinocchio (Japanese: ピノキオ√964, Hepburn: Pinokio√964; lit. 'Pinocchio√964'), released in the United Kingdom as Screams of Blasphemy, is a 1991 Japanese cyberpunk-horror film directed by Shozin Fukui.

964 Pinocchio
Japanese theatrical release poster
Kanji	ピノキオ√964
Directed by	Shozin Fukui
Screenplay by	Shozin Fukui Makoto Hamaguchi Naoshi Gôda
Story by	Shozin Fukui
Starring	Haji Suzuki Onn-chan
Cinematography	Kazunori Hirasawa
Edited by	Shozin Fukui
Music by	Hiroyuki Nagashima
Production company	Honekoubou
Release date	14 September 1991 (1991-09-14) (Japan)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

It deals with themes such as autonomy, memory, love between outsiders, brain-modified sex-slaves as well as mental breakdowns in a hallucinogenic thrill-ride.

It is widely considered as one of the best examples of the underground Japanese Cyberpunk genre.

Plot

964 Pinocchio is a memory-wiped sex-slave cyborg who is disposed of by his owners for failure to maintain an erection. It is unclear in what ways he has been modified beyond having no memory and being unable to communicate.

He is discovered by Himiko, a homeless girl, while wandering aimlessly through the city. Himiko has also been memory-wiped, possibly by the same company that "produced" Pinocchio, but she is fully functional. Himiko spends her days drawing maps of the city, to aid other memory-wiped people.

Himiko takes Pinocchio home and tries to teach him to speak. After much effort, he has a breakthrough and finally becomes aware of his situation. Himiko and Pinocchio kiss and become physically intimate, triggering something in both of them. Pinocchio's body erupts in an inexplicable metamorphosis and it becomes clear that his modifications were much more involved and esoteric than simple memory loss. Lots of blood, pus, vomit ensues from both and Himiko's memories eventually return. Meanwhile, Pinocchio’s head director, companied with his female secretary who spits out cherries into a bowl which he eats from, plots to kill him.

Himiko pretends to help Pinocchio post-metamorphosis, but betrays Pinocchio after struggling to feed him noodles. Instead, she forcefeeds him trash before shackling him to a pyramidal concrete block where she tortures him back at her place, companied with a partner (who was tasked by the head director to find Pinocchio). Pinocchio’s memories eventually return and he escapes, running through the streets at high-speed as crowds of horrified onlookers watch on.

Meanwhile, Himiko teams up with Pinocchio's developers in attempt to put an end on his destructive reign. However, Pinocchio reaches to the factory outside, confronts his developers after the head director shouts at him to die, charging at the three at high speed before killing him by disembowelment and running off, leaving his horrified secretary and partner behind where she starts convulsing afterwards. Later, Pinocchio finds Himiko who she demands Pinocchio's death, commanding him to "tear off your face", but she tears off her face instead, revealing a large stone-ish head. In a blind rage, Pinocchio attacks her, ripping her head off from her shoulders and placing it over his own. The film concludes as Pinocchio is free from his prolonged agony and the two are hybridized into one.

Cast

• Haji Suzuki as Pinocchio, a memory wiped cyborg who was thrown out due to him having an erectile dysfunction. He later gets a metamorphosis before setting off in a rampage.
• Onn-chan^[1] as Himiko, A homeless girl who takes care of Pinocchio and draws maps of the city to aid other memory-wiped people. She later experiences a metamorphosis, causing her to envision a past version of herself stabbing something. After this, she betrays Pinocchio.

• Mitsuji Otsubo as Narishima, a mercenary tasked with capturing Pinocchio under the orders of the head director.

• Kyoko Hara as the Secretary, an assistant to the head director, known for her unsettling and surreal demeanor.
• San’yutei Rakumaro as the Captain, a member of the team pursuing Pinocchio.
• Hisashi Goda as the Hungry Ghost, a mysterious figure contributing to the film's hallucinatory tone.
• Kita Koji as the Magic Man (guest appearance),

Production

964 Pinocchio was created on a low-budget using guerrilla-filmmaking techniques, with scenes in filmed in Tokyo utilizing reactions from real crowds of people.^[2] The team had to get permits for most of the scenes filmed on the streets. The famous scene of Pinocchio parting a crowd of people while running through Tokyo was shot in Shinjuku in a pedestrianised area. According to Fukui, it was one of the few scenes filmed in the city without a permit due to the crew being legally bound to shoot off the road.

After working on Tetsuo the Iron Man as an assistant director, Sogo Ishii insisted that Shozin would make a direct feature in-which after experiencing special effects to editing while working on Ishii's 1989 short film,The Master of Shiatsu, Shozin would finally have an idea for a story which would later become known to be 964 Pinocchio.^[3]

According to an interview on the 88 Films Blu-ray release with Shozin Fukui, the script was written while he was homeless.

The actress who played Himiko was initially just a crew member until she was cast a week before filming started. She is credited in the movie as Onn-chan, which was a pseudonym created for the film. 964 Pinocchio was the only movie she ever acted in.^[4] The actor who played Pinocchio, Haji Suzuki, had a personal life with his parents being farmers, he had returned to his hometown, got married, and has since taken over the farm.^[4] Due to the limited budget, some improvisations had to be made during filming. Director Shozin Fukui stated in a 2007 interview which was included as a bonus feature in the DVD release of the film that they used an old wheelchair as a makeshift dolly. Both filming and editing took place over the span of 6 months each.^[5] The smoke bombs used during film were quoted as "smelled very bad" and are difficult to control.^[3] Following the release of 964 Pinocchio, most of the actors quit all their involvement, indicating they felt that they had completed their performance.^[4]

To promote the film prior to its release, Fukui had flyers and posters put up at music venues, movie theatres, galleries, restaurants and event spaces, even spray-painting a car and drive it around the city.^[3]

Fukui has cited Blade Runner, Possession and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as big influences on his work.^[4]

Release

The film was shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival, which Shozin never went despite the programmer seeing the film and had played it there. Shozin was also even given a photo of the audience at the festival during the screening.^[4]

Unearthed Films released the film on DVD in the United States in 2007.^[6]

The film was released in a single edition DVD and in the Cyberpunk Collection alongside Fukui's Rubber's Lover.^[7]

964 Pinocchio was re-issued for the first time on Blu-Ray on February 7, 2023, by Media Blasters, and again for March 24, 2025 by 88 Films, including a booklet essay by Mark Player, Fukui's earlier short films, Gerorisuto and Caterpillar, along with both a filmed introduction from Stephen Thrower, a new interview with Fukui along with the aforementioned 2007 interview.^[8]

Reception

A ScreenAnarchy review stated, "964 Pinocchio is meticulously tailored to weigh on its audience. ... You're sure to be completely exhausted when the end credits finally grace the screen ... the constant presence of screaming, yelling, grunting and whining bears its own unique sense of torture", comparing it to films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Electric Dragon 80.000 V.^[9]

A 2022 retrospective article by Collider described it as "an uncommon and unparalleled riff on the timeless fairy-tale".^[2]