Guinea pig 2: Flower of flesh and blood

I've seen all eight of the notorious ‘Guinea Pig' series from Japan and can tell you this is by far the most extreme. A random young woman is kidnapped, drugged and tied to a bed. She is then slowly hacked to pieces by a guy in a samurai uniform. It only lasts for about thirty minutes, but during those minutes you are glued to the screen witnessing some of the cleverest and most realistic special effects ever committed to celluloid. This is about as gory and nasty as it gets and even seasoned gore-hounds will be distressed by some of the onscreen display.

Bought to notoriety by Charlie Sheen who mistook this for a snuff film, the FBI spent months tracking down the Director and eventually found him. Even by today's standards this is so extreme that most DVDs of the film also contain a making of just in case you start to believe what you're seeing.

Admittedly it's doubtful that you'll find this one in your local Blockbuster by accident, but be warned – this is very strong stuff indeed. For fans of extreme cinema, I cannot recommend this enough.

I began hearing about the infamous "Guinea Pig" series several years ago, but admittedly only got my hands on them recently. I really didn't want to spend $20 for a 2nd generation VHS copy, so... I waited and picked up the Unearthed box-set release. Luckily, I found it for pretty cheap, anyway... Quick synopsis: Freaky samurai dude abducts and dismembers a chick, the end. "Flower of Flesh and Blood" is definitely gory and the lack of any real storyline may be what makes this film so "shocking". It's pretty much the torture/murder of a girl with no apparent reason behind it. The problem is that even though the effects are pretty good for something shot in 1985 with a probably non-existent budget, it still looks fake. Anyone who would actually mistake this for real "snuff" is a retard (sorry, Charlie ;) The other problem that I have with this film as well as "The Devil's Experiment" (another "Guinea Pig" fake snuff film) is that the victims don't respond appropriately to what is happening to them. They whimper and whine a little bit, but I think someone who was having their extremities removed violently would react a little more spiritedly. Another thing that makes these films look fake is the quality of the transfer to DVD. Unearthed did such a good job with the transfer that you can clearly see how fake everything is. I think if this film had a little more grainy look to it, it may have actually enhanced the realism factor - Not that Unearthed should have made a crappy transfer, I just think that some films actually come off better looking kind of old and grainy, this film being one of them. Overall, definitely worth a look for "extreme" horror fans, if nothing else than to quench your curiosity about what all the fuss is about. Definitely not for the mainstream horror movie goer. A generous 7/10

This film when viewed on an old vhs tape is really very convincing. Hardly any dialogue spoken and just lashings of the old ultra violence. A girl is kidnapped and tied to a table then a guy in samurai gear proceeds to hack her to bits.

Then out comes the DVD release with a good quality picture and the effect kind of gets lost. It's looks quite phoney and takes away a bit of the "is it real ?, isn't it real?" factor of watching on low quality video.

If you're into gore movies, watch it on video first, then catch it on dvd if you can, just to see how all the effect were done (theres a making of documentary on the DVD).

This was one of the most disgusting films I've ever seen. But I couldn't stop watching it. I saw a Japanese copy.

Believe it or not, here in Japan, you can find this in used video shops among the Disney flicks and Chuck Norris sequels.

The grainy filming and bad sound made it seem like a real snuff film.

Supposedly, Charlie Sheen saw this and reported it as real.

The effects were shockingly realistic. But they did have a segment where they showed how they were done. This should ease minds.

Some people (like me) enjoy finding things like this. A real sense-tester. Watch it at your own risk.

Guinea Pig II: The Flower of Flesh and Blood (Hideshi Hino, 1985)

Hideshi Hino is, simply, one of Japan's finest exports. Writer, graphic artist, rabid media critic, all-around fun guy, but for as long as civilization exists he will be best remember as the guy who drove Charlie Sheen to the FBI.

Sheen saw _Guinea Pig II: The Flower of Flesh and Blood_ in 1990 at a party he was attending, and he was convinced that it was a true snuff film, so he took the copy and gave it to the local branch of the FBI. Large-scale investigations in both American and Japan followed, culminating ultimately in (a) the finding that GP2, like all other supposed snuff films, isn't real, and (b) Hino exploding in popularity in the United States (it's not a coincidence that an American graphic arts publisher started releasing Hino books in America in 1992, all of which I recommend very highly as a fantastic glimpse into the collective subconscious of post-WW2 Japan). The darker underbelly of the investigation resulted in the banning of Guinea Pig in Japan. To date, no distributor has picked up and reprinted the films officially (though the ban has not stopped new ones from leaking out, and the series now stands at nine), and so when one finds copies of Guinea Pig films, they are often fourth- and fifth-generation dubs of questionable quality at best. I have my doubts as to whether even owning them in the United States is legal, but one assumes that if it weren't, the sellers on ebay would be arrested pretty quick... but I'm relying on supposition here. (If I disappear quickly, you know why.)

Yesterday I received a third-generation copy of II and III (see below). GP2 is the most infamous of the series. It is also the shortest, clocking in at a scant forty-two minutes. It has no plot to speak of. A woman is abducted by a man dressed as a fourteenth-century Samurai warrior and systematically dismembered. And while, if you know the basics of film composition and realize that the cut shots could not have been done in the ways they are if this were actually being filmed in real-time, there are a few points where the best thing one can do is to sit and repeat to oneself "this is not real." The effects are, quite simply, spectacular (within the framework of what's going on), and I was pleasantly-- if anything about this can possibly be said to be pleasant-- surprised by the fact that other than the differing genders of the two players in this twisted, brutal sturm und drang (and much more drang than sturm, if you translate it literally), any sexuality involved is read into it by the viewer.

Guinea Pig 2 is not something to be enjoyed; it is something to test the boundaries of one's endurance. How is it possible to rate such an experience? And do you really want something like this in your home? In my case the answer is an unqualified "yes," but then, I'm depraved. Going strictly on the quality of my copy and the shattering effectiveness of the film at what it sets out to do, I'm forced to give it *** 1/2.