Hi there! Sorry I've been away for about a month but now I'll get back on track. "Android Of Notre Dame" is the 5th film in the "Guinea Pig" series. It was made in 1989 and was directed by Kazuhito Kuramoto.
The series started out with no real purpose but to sicken with it's graphic violence and it was quite successful at doing so. Then the series went into gross out comedy territory and then fantastical fairy tale horror. This 5th installment goes into the realms of violent science fiction.
Like the last two films, this title also has a bizarre story. A midget scientist called Karazawa has a sister who is dying. He is experimenting on animals to see if it is possible to revive her when she inevitably dies The experimentation with animals is unsuccessful and he feels that to get the proper results, he must use a fresh cadaver.
Out of the blue, he receives a phone call from a man called Kato (Tomorowo Taguchi of "Tetsuo I & II" amongst other great films), who offers him the body of a 21 year old female for the bargain price of ten million yen.
Karazawa accepts the offer and before he knows it, he has the body in his laboratory. He is a bit unhappy at the freshness of the corpse (5 days old), but he proceeds with his experiments. They don't go to plan and he basically fries the cadaver with electricity! Frustrated he stabs away at the body. He comes to the conclusion that he needs something fresher.
Later on, Kato arrives unexpectedly at Karazawa's door. He says he has the final answer to successfully finish the experiments. Also he blackmails Karazawa by saying if he doesn't accept his offer, he will put a virus into his computer. Kato asks to see the secret laboratory, and when Karazawa leads him to it, he chops off Kato's legs with a random buzz saw blade he throws at him, then he kills him.
Kato is now the latest guinea pig for Karazawa's experiments, though he turns out looking like Pinhead's long lost cousin. He is basically a reanimated severed head with a robotic arm from this point on. Kato is then programmed to call his partner. She comes over to the laboratory and is then killed by Kato and his robot hand. Karazawa then takes the woman's heart and gives it to his dead sister, who then says, "Why did you bring me back to life? Finally I found peace." Then dies again. Bizarre.
As with the rest of the films in the series this film is quite short, running at just over 50mins. The film is played quite seriously, but the acting is terrible. The over the top violence which is the main trait of the series, is almost non existent in this film. Also whatever special effects are in the film are done quite badly compared to the other films. This is definitely when the series went into decline (some would say the series was in decline from the beginning), and the wooden acting and sub par special effects ruin the film. Though the film has an interesting premise and some pretty cool imagery it is largely forgettable. The only reason it is probably remembered is because the "Guinea Pig" name has been tacked on. Definitely a curiosity though! I couldn't find the trailer, so I've posted the whole film below.
Also if you're wondering where Notre Dame comes into all of this, Karazawa mentions at some point in the film that Quasimodo was an android!?
Thanks for reading. The next post will be on the final film of the series, "Devil Woman Doctor".
The fourth entry in the "Guinea Pig" series, "Mermaid In A Manhole" (1988) is the second film in the series (after "Flower Of Flesh And Blood") to be directed by manga artist Hideshi Hino.
Based on a manga made by the director, "Mermaid In A Manhole" is like a sick fairy tale. The film is about a painter whose wife has left him. He spends most of his time going into the sewers to paint the things he finds there. "This is my secret place. All my lost treasures are here. All the beautiful things I have ever lost, they are here. All the time I have lost is here. Everything is hidden in the darkness."
While in the sewer, he stumbles across a mermaid. He recognises the mermaid from when he played in the area as a child, and the sewer used to be a river. He realises that he always came down into the sewer to paint because he hoped to see the mermaid again. From now on, he will only paint her.
While painting in the sewer, he notices the mermaid has a bad infection. He takes her to his home to try and heal her and to continue to paint. The mermaid's condition rapidly deteriorates, until her full chest is covered in cysts, yet she insists on being painted. The painter struggles to find the right paint to properly depict the infection on canvas, so the mermaid asks him to slice the cysts on her chest and collect the pus to use as paint.
As the infection progresses, it takes over much of her body. In one truly disgusting scene, her boils burst and worms and other insects come out of the wounds along with pus and blood. In the end, when the painting is done and the mermaid is dying, she asks the painter to finally kill her. The painter then dismembers the body.
While all this has been happening throughout the film, his neighbours have been wondering what he is up to. When the painter kills the mermaid, the blood seeps into the neighbours flat. When they go over to see what's happening, they find the painter chopping up the body. The police are called, and come to the conclusion that he killed his ex wife, believing she was a mermaid.
Out of all the "Guinea Pig" films, I found "Mermaid In A Manhole" the toughest to watch. It was quite sad to see this beautiful mermaid dying in the most horrible fashion. The scenes where she is in pain from infection, with sores spraying blood and pus is truly disgusting, especially the scenes with worms coming out of the wounds and coming out the mermaids mouth. But I really like the story, which is quite profound.
Out of all of the "Guinea Pig" films, Hideshi Hino's contributions stand out the most. The mood of his films are the darkest, and really do have the power to affect you. He definitely put the "Guinea Pig" films on the radar and is really the man to blame for the controversy surrounding the series. I would've loved for him to continue a career in film as I think he would have made his mark in Asian cinema. I would say that this is my favourite from the whole series. I'll need to seek out some of his manga to read!
As always, I'd love for you to leave a comment. It helps me know people are reading! Also like my Facebook page or Twitter (links are on the right hand side of the page), as I'malways ranting on either one of them!
Hello! As I'm not the most prolific of bloggers due to constantly being busy recently, I thought I'd ask some of my followers on Facebook if they would like to submit a post on the page for people to read.
James Bell sent me a post for the film "Dumpling" (2004) directed by Fruit Chan. Thanks James!
Here's what he has to say about this great film!
"In my later teenage years I started a love affair with oriental cuisine, and out-sourced foodtypes from different Asian regions to try and quench my hunger, even though I can't handle spice. I remember becoming mildly obsessed with dumplings, the dough or flour wrapped bundles that could contain meat, vegetables and in some cultures sweets. I loved the variety of flavours, and how you could boil them, fry them or steam them, to create a multitude of differing offerings. Around the same time I got into Tartan Asian cinema, and the 'Extreme' sub-genre of this, and came across a film aptly entitled 'Dumplings' (2004); later I found out there are two versions of this film, the full-cinematic release (which I prefer) to the smaller original short, part of the Three...Extremes (2002) compilation.
It follows the story of a middle-aged woman, who is in a loveless and (not by her doing) open marriage. Feeling isolated from her husband she turns to a local chef who – it is believed – can help restore beauty, and although what she offers works, the side-effects are not just physical, but also morally repugnant. What lines would you cross to get the image you desire, and what are you prepared to have to eat to get it? Apart from the lead storyline, a second, more human one, grounds you to the inhuman events unfolding elsewhere, and tie together nicely – but I tell you now, because of this film, I can now only bring myself to eat fried dumplings, at a push."
Thanks, James Bell for taking the time to submit this post! If you haven't seen this film you should definitely give it a shot. You'll never look at a dumpling the same way again!
I've talked about the worst two parts of the controversial "Guinea Pig" series, but that is pretty much where most of the controversy ends. "The Devil's Experiment" and "Flower Of Flesh And Blood" were pseudo-snuff movies with very little to no plot, and pretty much made to disgust the audience and leave a bad taste in their mouth.
"He Never Dies" (may as well use the short title) is a more silly and bizarre title. After the controversy of the first two films, made to feel real and were quite serious and mean spirited in nature, the series took a very surprising turn. It had a script, a full cast, opening and closing credits, and was made as a horror comedy!
"He Never Dies" is a 1986 film directed by Masayuki Kusumi, who doesn't seem to have directed anything since. The film is about a man who lives alone in a small apartment. He is experiencing problems with his life and with his work. Not only has he lost his girlfriend, but he is bored and always in trouble with his boss at work, who wants nothing to do with him. He attempts to cut his wrist at home, but the pain makes him reconsider his attempt at suicide.
Instead of suicide, he decides not to go back to work. After 4 days of sitting about bored, and with not a single phone call from anyone to see if he's OK, including his boss, he assumes he has just been forgotten. He finally gets the courage to cut his wrist and does it properly this time. He panics and sits on the floor, waiting for death, when he realises that the pain is gone and the blood has stopped.
He then stabs through his arm with a pen, which also does nothing to him. Frustrated, he chops his hand off which also doesn't have the desired effect of killing him! He comes to the conclusion that he can't die and even tries calling the emergency services to tell them this fact, but even they don't care. After some more attempts at killing himself to no avail, he decides to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend and a co-worker who is going out with her.
He calls his co-worker (who is also in the company of his ex-firlfriend) and asks him to come over under the pretence that he needs gardening utensils for some reason, and also a hatchet! When the co-worker comes to his house (also with the ex-girlfriend who waits in the car) he proceeds to terrify him by cutting open his stomach with a knife and throwing his internal organs over the co-worker.
The ex-girlfriend comes up to see what's taking so long with her boyfriend. When she goes into the apartment she finds her boyfriend unconscious on the floor and the man's severed head (which is still alive) on the table. Instead of being scared, she berates the man for making such a mess of his apartment, and starts to clean up all the blood.
All very bizarre. The end credits are of gory scenes from the movie played backwards and of an outtake of everyone goofing around and laughing. Also there's an American guy who presents the film at the start, and also closes the film saying there could be more immortal people in the world like the man in the film who don't realise it yet!
Besides the extreme violence, this is a very lighthearted and fun film. The main character is very likeable and quite funny, and at just over 40 minutes in length, it doesn't outstay it's welcome. It's also one of the strangest films in the "Guinea Pig" series, especially when placed beside the previous two films in the series. I bet no one was expecting a sequel like this after a film like "Flower Of Flesh And Blood". That's probably why I like it so much!
After the realism of the first two films and the way they were probably taken so seriously by the press at the time, I think this is the series way of telling people to lighten up a bit. You can tell they had a lot of fun making this film. As unsettling as "Flower And Flesh And Blood" was (which is a credit to the director Hideshi Hino for making an effective film), when you see the making of the film, all you see is the makers of the film and the actors having a good laugh and goofing around. It's weird to see the contrast between the making of a film, and the film itself!
I couldn't find a trailer for this film but I found a best of video. Enjoy!
Hey there! In the last post I talked about the first film in the controversial "Guinea Pig" series called "The Devil's Experiment", which is quite disturbing in it's own right. Now it's onto the 2nd film in the series "Flower Of Flesh And Blood", which is the most infamous, notorious, and extreme out of the collection.
It was made in 1985 (the same year as "The Devil's Experiment") by a Japanese manga artist called Hideshi Hino, with the story being based on one of his comic books.
The film opens with a brief description of what the film is about.
"It was in April 1985, the time of full cherry blossoms in Tokyo, bizarre cartoonist Hideshi Hino recieved one horrible parcel from an unidentified person who calls himself an enthusiastic fan, of 54 still pictures and a 19 page letter. The letter told the cartoonist that a horrible and bizarre crime seemed to have been performed by the person of aesthetic paranoia in some secret place.The 8mm film was considered to be a vivid and authentic film showing an unidentified man chop the body of a woman into pieces and put her into his collection. Therefore, this film should not be shown to other people. Hideshi Hino newly created this video as a restructured Semi-Documentary based on the 8mm film, pictures and letter."
A woman leaves a station and is followed, sedated, and kidnapped. She wakes to find herself tied to a bed in a room with blood spattered walls. She see's a man dressed as a samurai sharpening blades in the corner. The samurai goes to another corner of the room where there is a chicken in a cage, takes it out, and standing over the woman says "Look! This is your fate!". He then proceeds to chop the chickens head off.
The samurai then makes up a syringe and drugs the woman. "The woman is at present in a state of ecstasy from an injection of drugs. She feels no pain at all, as you see. Not only does she feel no pain but the feeling is rather pleasurable. When her bright red blood starts to creep voluptuously and creature-like on her white skin, like blossoms of blood and flesh blooming in a sea of red, truly a dazzling, intoxicating rapture. There is absolutely nothing more beautiful in life than this. I am going to show you the ideal of beauty. First of all, red blossoms of blood blooming from her wrist." At this point the samurai is talking to the camera and to the people watching.
What follows is a truly graphic depiction of the woman's hand being severed by the wrist. The rest of the 40-odd minute film is a step by step dissection of the woman in graphic detail. Before each part of the body is removed the samurai turns to the camera and give a short description of his intentions in his usual poetic way. After all the dissecting he goes on to disembowel, behead, and take out one of the woman's eyes (which he also decides to have a nice little nibble on!).
After all this is done you'd be safe in assuming that you've pretty much seen all the film has to offer but then the samurai adds one more thing. "Now, I am going to present my collection to you." He pulls back a curtain to show his collection of body parts he has amassed over time. This is the most unsettling part of the film for me. While showing close up shots of body parts decomposing with worms and maggots crawling about them, the samurai sings quite a disturbing song over it which really nails the tone of this film.
A funny story about this film is that the actor Charlie Sheen saw it in the early 90's and thought it was real so he contacted the FBI. To be honest he probably saw it on an old tape with no subtitles, and the special effects are pretty good so must've looked all the more real on VHS. Before that the movie was only really known in Japan where it was a top 10 hit in the VHS charts! Somehow a copy had managed to get to Charlie Sheen who then made a big deal about it, got it into the news, and gave the film a lot of publicity. If it weren't for that incident, the film would probably be forgotten now and wouldn't be out on DVD.
The makers of the film were also ordered by Japanese authorities to prove that the film wasn't real and that the woman was still alive. They made a making of feature to this effect and it has been a companion piece to the film ever since.
What are my thoughts? The film is very basic story wise and running at about 42 minutes means there is very little filler. It has slightly more of a story behind it than the first one where a plot is non existant, but the real point of the film is to deliver shocking scenes of violence that are supposed to offend the viewer, and it really does deliver on the violence. It doesn't shy away from showing you everything in gruesome detail, down to the samurai chiseling away at the bones in the arms to remove them. To the samurai, the dismemberment of the woman's body and the blood that flows is like a seed blooming into a flower. To everyone else, it's pretty insane (though it would make a great character study if fleshed out a bit more).
Kudos has to be given to the special effects team. The effects are quite realistic and are the reason this film is so disturbing, and some of the close up's look shockingly real, and to the untrained eye I can imagine people could see this as real (some scenes also give the game away that they are obviously fake too though, so I don't think anyone else would be doing a Charlie Sheen haha). Extreme horror and a resurgence of splatter films have made this film more relevant than ever, as it one of the originators of ultra violent extreme cinema. Even today it runs circles around modern films!
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you're a real special effects fan or gore hound, this is a must see. Also the film is very cruel and straight to the point for people who like their films disturbing. I found the end of the film when the samurai shows off his collection th most disturbing aspect of the movie. For anyone else, you might as well steer clear and forget the film even exists.
For those that want to see the film, it is on YouTube in it's entirety. Though be warned it is graphic!
The next post will be a bit more light hearted. It will be on "Guinea Pig 3: Shudder! The Man Who Doesn't Die".
As always please feel free to post comments below. I also have twitter and facebook pages that can be linked to on the right hand side of the page if you want to join in!
Hi there! The next few posts are going to be concentrating on the infamous "Guinea Pig" series of films. As you can see from the image on the left, these films are nice and romantic!
The Guinea Pig series are highly controversial Japanese gore films made in the 1980's through to the 90's. The first two films (this is the first) are known to be the most notorious due to strong scenes of torture and mutilation, and no storyline so to speak. The films after the first two became a lot more comedic with proper stories driving them probably due in part to such high controversy.
This will probably be short. "the Devil's Experiment" was made in 1985 by director Satoru Oguya (who went on to produce several of the other films). The plot is pretty non existant, it's just scene after scene of terrible things happening to a woman.
Each torture scene begins with a black screen with a word describing what tortures are going to happen. These tortures are kicking, claw, unconscious, a sound, skin, burn, worms, guts, and needle. So basically you have scenes with the woman being kicked, repeatedly slapped, spun round in a chair and forced to drink whisky, having to endure a constant high pitched sound with headphones strapped to her head, burned, have meat thrown on her, and finally a needle put through her eye!
This all sounds pretty horrific and you may be wondering why I would watch this? In the 80's, watching this film on a bad quality tape would have probably made this film seem a lot more brutal than it actually is. Watching it on DVD, you can see how bad the so called acting is, and you can see that the slaps and kicks aren't really connecting. Though the eyeball scene is still quite well done.
Another reason I watch this stuff is because I'm interested in the history of horror in all it's aspects, and the history of censorship throughout the years. Though before you judge me, think of the masses of people who flock to the cinema to watch the latest "Saw" or "Hostel", this is really no different. Hollywood is basically ripping off and slightly watering down the same style of violence for it's horror movie franchises (and I'm sure Eli Roth was watching films like this in his youth and taking down notes!). Though the Japanese really took some of their violence to the extreme in the 80s and 90's splatter films.
"The Devil's Experiment" runs at just over 40 mins long as do the rest of the films in the series. This films sole purpose is to offend and sicken the viewer with its unnecessary violence, and for it's time was an experiment in how far the boundaries of acceptance where in film. Watching it nowadays, it's quite tame compared to some of the newer gore films. Though the Japanese have always excelled in the art of suffering, currently reclaiming their throne with "Grotesque" (which is also banned in the UK), which almost seems like a spiritual successor to the "Guinea Pig" films. I also feel that film stuck it's middle finger up at Hollywood, and reminded them that Japan were making films like this a long time before the States!
This film series is still pretty underground, it is banned outright in the UK and even in it's native Japan (who have even banned the words guinea pig from being in a film title). If you really want to see it, check online for a copy though be prepared to pay a bit more than a normal boxset, or you may be able to download it!
My own thought on the film is that I like it. To me sometimes horror has to be challenging and uncomfortable. A horror film should actually horrify and leave you feeling a bit numb. People should try and continue to push boundaries instead of making the same stuff over and over. That's what the Guinea Pig series done in the 80's and it's effect is felt to this day, even if you haven't heard of these films. Fortunately there are still a handful of people making interesting horror but 9 out of 10 horror films these days are really bad! Rant over.
Thanks for reading! The next post will deal with the second, even more controversial "Guinea Pig 2: Flower Of Flesh And Blood).
If you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment below!
Michael.
Warning! This trailer has a scene of violence some may not find suitable. You have been warned!
Hey everybody! A nice blogger named Grimm over at Grimm Reviewz was so kind as to nominate me for a Liebster Award! Thanks Grimm, it's good to know that people are reading and hopefully enjoying the blog!
The Liebster Award is really more of a hypothetical pat on the back and a nice bit of encouragement for bloggers than a real award, and it's great that someone kept me in mind!
These are the rules:
Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
Answer the question the tagger has set for you.
Create 11 questions for the people you have tagged to answer.
Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
Go to their page and tell them.
No tag backs.
Here's 11 things about myself:
I'm 30 years old (going on 15 haha!)
I live in Glasgow, Scotland.
I'm left handed.
During the day I work as an engineer.
I love videogames (I have all the current consoles)
I play guitar.
I have a massive music and film collection.
I don't write enough on my blog.
I have a large 3D TV to watch my films on.
I love gadgets.
I'm addicted to Irn Bru (Scottish fizzy drink)
These are the the answers to the questions I've been asked
What's your favourite horror movie moment?
One of my all time favourite scenes is in "Friday The 13th: Part 2", When the disabled guy gets a machete to the face and pushed down the stairs. It's also a great horror film!
What's your favourite horror movie?
Probably the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The art direction by Bob Burns and just the idea of Leatherface are so imaginative.
What celebrity would you pay to see naked?
Mila Kunis.
What's the funniest thing to happen to you in the last week?
I broke my key and was locked out my flat and I had left my phone in said flat!
What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Probably "The Exorcist".
What horror movie poster art do you think is the best?
Again, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
How many DVD's do you have?
I'm not sure as most of them are stored in boxes, but 500+ easily (excluding blu rays)
What size shoe do you wear?
8.
How old were you when you saw your first horror film?
5 and the film was "Halloween".
What is your favourite food?
Pasta (probably spaghetti)
What is your favourite drink?
Irn Bru.
Create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer,
