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(More customer reviews)I think nearly every horror movie fan is aware of the notorious "Guinea Pig" series by now. If you like horror films or gory curiosities and aren't aware of this explosive series of Japanese movies, you ought to rush out right now and see a few of them. Made throughout the 1980s and 1990s, "Guinea Pig" pushes envelopes few people in this country would ever conceive possible. After viewing one of these repugnant films, a natural impulse is one of extreme revulsion. Why would anyone create such soul shattering images? It's important to remember that Japanese audiences possess a different attitude about horror films. As far as I can tell, in Japanese cinema anything and everything is fair game. A typical jaunt through the wilderness of Asian horror cinema (in which Japan plays a significant role) typically reveals graphic scenes of dismemberment, torture, and other no-no nasty behavior that rarely, if ever, appears in American films. Some films containing such stomach churning themes do occasionally rear their heads on this side of the pond, but these films rarely play to a wide audience. In Japan, the "Guinea Pig" franchise was a spectacular hit.
I haven't seen all of the films in this series, but out of the two installments I have watched, "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" easily wins the prize for outright sleaze and nastiness. It's difficult to imagine any film approaching (or descending to) the levels seen in this mind blasting forty-minute movie. Even Pier Paolo Pasolini's sickening homage to the evils of fascism, "Salo," fails to invoke the visceral sensations that "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" wallows in. This movie is a sledgehammer blow to the head and stomach with its unrelenting scenes of carnage and depravity. They ought to sell copies of this wrapped in a barf bag.
Manga artist Hideshi Hino directed this nightmarish look into the activities of a sadistic serial killer. That we know this guy is a serial killer and that he likes to stalk his prey before committing a brutal murder constitutes the plot in its entirety. There simply isn't much more here than a short stalking scene at the beginning of the story followed by a thirty-minute dismemberment filmed in nauseatingly sadistic detail. That's right, folks: "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" exists to show the viewer what it might be like to watch a snuff film.
Forget about character development. Two characters exist in this movie: the poor young woman picked up by the killer, and the killer himself. At least they made the murderer look like a complete psycho, as the guy wears a samurai helmet, a full body leather apron, and some sort of black caps on several of his teeth. This gentleman does not fit the bill of a role model in any way, shape, or form. He's a degenerate who likes to wax philosophic between removing arms and legs, blurting out weird lines about how his next activity will imitate blooming flowers and the like. At the end of the movie, he sings a melancholy song about sending people to the underworld. He also shines a different colored light on his victim at various times, although why he does this makes little sense. The majority of the film takes place in some seedy basement splashed with blood and filled with numerous tools of pain. Then you watch this guy commit his atrocities and that's it. There is nothing more to "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" than close up shots of bloody mayhem.
The DVD contains many interesting extras. There are several trailers from the other installments in the "Guinea Pig" series, one for the zombie film "Junk," several text interviews with director Hideshi Hino, an overview of the controversy involving Charlie Sheen (who supposedly saw this film and believed it was a real snuff film), a behind the scenes look at the special effects involved in the series, and a reproduction of a manga comic book with loose ties to the film written and illustrated by Hino. The documentary on the special effects provides some comfort after watching the gruesome movie, showing that it is all nothing more than a well made horror film. Still, I'm uncomfortable with the knowledge that "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" made such a big splash with Japanese audiences. Remember, this is the same country that committed the atrocities in Manchuria during the late 1930s, and there are still people living in Japan today who were intimately involved in mass murder and mass torture throughout Asia during World War II.
I think this entry in the "Guinea Pig" series ultimately fails to deliver the goods. As a gorehound, I appreciated the awesome special effects displayed in the movie, but the movie never rises to the occasion in terms of character development and plot. I watched the other Hino directed entry in the series, "Mermaid in a Manhole," a few years ago and I thought it well developed and interesting. In that film, which contained numerous graphic scenes, Hino developed a plot heavy on human suffering that showed emotional pain as a real tragedy. In "The Flower of Flesh and Blood," he indulges in sadism for the mere sake of sensationalism. If you really want to see this movie, just steel yourself for the depths of degradation. If you have kids in the house, don't even think about buying this film if there is any chance your children might find it. This is not acceptable viewing for youngsters, and it probably isn't acceptable viewing for most people. Beware, oh beware! "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" is upon you!
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