D V D C R Y P T

GUINEA PIG
MERMAID IN A MANHOLE / HE NEVER DIES

MERMAID IN A MANHOLE

Directed by Hideshi Hino
Produced by Satoru Ogura
Written by Hideshi Hino FX by Nobuaki Koga
Cast: Shigeru Saiki, Go Rijyu, Masami Hisamoto & Mari Somei

1988/57 minutes/Color/2.0 DD
1.33:1/Japanese/Japan/NTSC All Region

HE NEVER DIES

Directed by Masayuki Kuzumi
Produced by Satoru Ogura
Written by Masayuki Kuzumi
FX by Nobuaki Koga
Cast: Masahiro Sato, Keisuke Araki & EVE

1986/41 minutes/Color/2.0 DD
1.85:1/Japanese/Japan/NTSC All Region

Review from the Unearthed Films DVD

Web Sites: http://www.guineapigfilms.com & http://www.unearthedfilms.com

In MERMAID IN A MANHOLE we follow an art teacher and struggling painter (played by Shigeru Saiki), who recently lost his wife. Lately he's been wandering in the sewers to find inspirations. One day he discover a mermaid sitting there unable to move. He recognizes her from his childhood when this place was a river and he used to play there. When the river dried up this place was turned into a sewer and the mermaid got trapped in it. Saiki decides to take the mermaid to his place, she appears to be hurt so he wants to help her. What first looks like not much turns into a terminal disease, with her body mutating, decaying changing her from a beautiful creature to a disgusting vomiting pile of flesh! The mermaid has one last request, she wants him to paint her portrait using her own puss which is coming out of her body, and not to forget the hundreds of worms coming out of her! The painter paints her using her seven colors of puss that were excremented from her body has she was dying.

Certainly one of the most disgusting film i've seen, MERMAID IN A MANHOLE is also my second fav GUINEA PIG film right after FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD. While a brown barf bag might be useful for some, the basic idea of the film is love, a twisted love you might say but a deep one between the painter and the mermaid.

In HE NEVER DIES, we follow someone who seems to be like a normal person. Actually this business man is tired with the routine and want to end his life... there's only one catch, as the title says, he can't die! After slicing his wrist, the bleeding stop and he can't feel any pain. He then drives a pen right through his hands but nothing! Maybe slashing his throat will kill him... nope it doesn't. He decides to call one of his friend who happens to have an affair with his girlfriend. He invites him at his place, so he can disgust him by gutting himself, taking out his own intestines and throwing them at his "friend". Soon he's nothing more then a head on a table... a talking head i must say.

This is by far the stupidest episode of the serie, sure some of the gore fx are pretty good but the whole "comic" tone hurts the film badly. Worth seeing but not as good as MERMAID IN A MANHOLE.

Both films were shot very low budget in the mid/late 80's, still the transfer is quite impressive. Presented in their original aspect ratio the image looks good and the 2.0 Dolby Digital remix is quite nice. The films are in Japanese with optional yellow English subtitles. The main menu is a split menu where we choose which feature to watch, nicely done. There's some animations and music. Both films are separated in 12 chapters. There is no inlay card of booklet and the DVD comes in a keep case. But wait there's more, we get two still galleries, one for MERMAID IN A MANHOLE and DEVILS EXPERIMENT while the other is for HE NEVER DIES and ANDROID OF NOTRE DAME. We get a very good 17 pages history on the GUINEA PIG serie and 5 trailers; DEVILS EXPERIMENT, ANDROID OF NOTRE DAME, MERMAID IN A MANHOLE, FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD, MAKING OF GUINEA PIG. For fans of ultra violence and gore!

These two GUINEA PIG films were also released on PAL Region 2 DVD in Germany.

Thanks to Unearthed Films

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