Shozin Fuki's completes his Pinocchio trilogy with "S-94"

by Chris MaGee

Well, seeing that Shinya Tsukamoto has returned to his career defining Tetsuo character with the upcoming 'Tetsuo the Bulletman" I guess that means that director Shozin Fukui has to come out with a third film to round out his Pinocchio trilogy. If you think about it it makes sense. Both Fukui's 1991 film "Pinocchio 964" and 1996's "Rubber's Lover" both borrowed heavily from Tsukamoto's 8 and 16mm low budget aesthetic, employing quick edits and copious amounts of stage blood to tell cyberpunk stories about the physical, psychological and even psychic transformations of their characters. Maybe call Fukui's films Tetsuo-Lite, or even more accurately, Tetsuo with a lot more gratuitous violence (just read my review of "Rubber's Lover" to see what I mean).

That being said Nippon Cinema has just posted the trailer for Fukui's half-hour finale to his loosely related thematic Pinocchio trilogy. Titled simply "S-94" the film is set far, far into the future... 2010 to be precise... after a horrific pandemic that has basically made humanity extinct. Two women have survived, one named Miu (Nozomi Hatsuki), who has no other wish but to live, and Ice (Yuko Tatsushima) who wants nothing but to die. If that's not a loaded enough situation they encounter one surviving male, Shuma (Yuya Ishikawa), and the two women start fighting over him, and when I mean fighting I mean all out gore and dismemberment fighting. Way to save humanity, Girls!

For gore fans this will be a treat. For the rest of us, well.... Just head over to Nippon Cinema here to see the bloody Tetsuo-Lite that I talked about. and for more info on "S-94" click here.