Guinea Pig 5: Android of Notre Dame

This is actually part 3.Blame Thomas Weisser for his useful but highly innacurate Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia,this is where lots of mistakes like this originate.The first two entries (on Midnight Video) in this series are DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT and FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD.This entry (which is curiously also called GUINEA PIG 2 in Japan) is from a completely different video company (JHV).You can tell because this is where the series switched from thoughtful and detailed meditations on sadistic behaviour (although you'd have to be an idiot like Charlie Sheen to really think it's snuff) to camp gore comedies like this. Toshihiko Hino (who can be spotted as a torturer in the first ZERO WOMAN-not the one available on Japan Shock video as Zero Woman,that's actually ZERO WOMAN 2) is a dwarf scientist trying to find a cure for his terminally ill girlfriend.He experiments on naked women.Parts are funny,and it's easy to sit through at only 50 minutes.Director Kuramoto is also responsible for the first two SEX BEAST ON CAMPUS sequels

I didn't exactly know what the hell was going on since I saw this in Japanese without subs, but from what I could piece together the plot involved a dwarf scientist trying to find a way to bring his dying girlfriend back to a healthy physical state. Along the way he does lots of bizarre and graphic experiments on naked women (and he always nods his head after doing *ANYTHING*) and holds some guy captive who apparently tried to sucker him out of a business deal. The movie was certainly interesting to watch, and as with the rest of the series the special effects were for the most part phenomenal; but it just wasn't as gritty, humorous, or disgusting as the other GUINEA PIG films. However, I still feel that it's a worthy effort.

None of the urban mythology surrounding some of the other Guinea Pig films applies to this one which is just a mad scientist tale involving quite a bit of gore. It does not resemble a snuff film in any way, nor is it supposed to appear to be anything more than a movie. The effects are visual amazing, but are not all that realistic, not that androids have ever been dissected before in reality.

It's only about an hour long and the production values are low, but still it might be worth tracking down. The story is interesting enough and deals with the ethics of killing someone to save another person's life.

Android of Notre Dame: 4/10: Demented DNA dabbling dwarf seeks to cure ailing sister (her ailment isn't specified but I'm guessing Ali MacGraw disease as she becomes prettier the sicker she gets). He gets a living dead girl to experiment on from a blackmailing body procurer (Tomorowo Taguchi who has only one expression but it's a doozy and kind of reminds one of a Japanese Phil Hartman). Taguchi gets greedy, the living dead girl decomposes, the sister gets sicker and the dwarf goes to a bad place.

The script sometimes writes checks the F/X can't cash (The legs and flying saw blade scene is particularly unconvincing) And the movie concentrates so much on the anatomical gross out it starts looking like an alien autopsy film. Yet an overall goofiness survives throughout.

Maybe it was the complete lack of humor (This is straightforward Poe style moralizing), the video quality that reminded me of a Canadian television movie, or the fact that after watching companion feature Devil's Experiment anything looks good but this little film wasn't all that bad.

Android of Notre Dame is third Guinea Pig movie, the first is Devil's Experiment and second is Flowers of Flesh and Blood, and these first two are the sickest in the series. Mermaid in a Manhole is fourth, and the rest of the series I can't remember clearly in which order they have been made. Anyway, Android of Notre Dame is no better than the others, and it isn't particularly disgusting either, and that is a achievement when we're talking about Guinea Pig films! A funny looking dwarf tries to save his beautiful sister from a deadly disease by using dead girls as guinea pigs for his experiments. The experiments on dead girls are pretty vile, but dull too. They don't shock too much even though the film tries it very much. The severed head reminds me of Re-Animator but that's all these films have in common. The acting is again non existent and the film was pretty hard to sit through for the second time, even though the film runs only slightly over one hour. The scene in which the dwarf tears off his victims/guinea pig's ribs with sound effects, is perhaps the most disgusting scene in the film, but it is also very stupidly made and the make up effects look as realistic as ketchup flying to the wall.

Android of Notre Dame is one of the worst shock intended movies I've seen and the most trifling part in the series because it offers absolutely nothing significant for the viewer. Japanese cinema fans will probably check this out, and so did I, but the expectations shouldn't be too high, and that applies to the whole series, too. Even the first two are not as sick as they could have been, but they are still very rough and mean spirited. Watch if you think you're interested in this kind of sicko cinema.