Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole

Director Hideshi Hino brings his manga to screen as an installment in the notorious GUINEA PIG series, about a recently widowered painter who finds artistic inspiration in an unlikely location from an unlikely creature. For gorehounds and ONLY gorehounds. The special effects—albeit twisted—are undeniably impressive. Probably one of the only films that could make the viewer want to run to the bathroom and vomit—not counting hand-held-styled movies that causes motion sickness. Aside from the shameless nastiness, the story's originality should also be recognized because of how difficult it can be to pull off this type of horror without involving serial killers or monsters in the mix.

*** (out of four)

Guinea Pig III: Mermaid in a Sewer (Hideshi Hino, 1988)

Mermaid in a Sewer, one of the four Guinea Pig films directed by Hino, is the only one that rivals The Flower of Flesh and Blood in notoriety and popularity. Unlike its more graphic and brutal cousin, Mermaid in a Sewer (often translated as Mermaid in a Manhole, Mermaid in the Bathtub, or any other number of similar titles) actually has a plot to it. An artist (Shigeru Saiki), obviously modeled on Hino himself (Hino's style is unmistakable), draws his inspiration from things he sees and finds in his local sewer system. One day, what he finds among the muck and stench is... a mermaid (Mari Somei). Yes, a mermaid. A very attractive one at that (and one is forced to wonder what, exactly, would motivate an actress to play a part like this...). We find out, after the two have conversed a bit and he's done a preliminary sketch, that she is wounded. He takes her home (how he gets her there without anyone noticing is beyond me) and installs her in his bathtub in order to take care of her.

You can see where this is going, I'm sure. Wound + sewer = bad, bad things.

I'd comment on the acting, dialogue, etc. if I actually understood Japanese. Sometimes watching films in foreign languages with no subtitles is good for the soul, I guess (though anyone who happens to have a script from either 2 or 3 in English who'd be willing to send a copy my way would be remembered in my will, and not with a debt). The couple who lives downstairs from the artist (Masami Hisamoto, Tsuyoshi Toshishige) pop up every now and then to give what would seem a comic turn to the film, which only adds to the disgust and horror. If you get nightmares easily, this is not a film you ever want to see. As Joaquin Phoenix said in what was one of only a handful of lines in _8mm_ that's actually worth remembering, "there are some things you can't un-see." I could never pop this tape into the cassette player again, and certain images would remain as fresh in my mind as they are right now. It's that bad. *** 1/2

Mermaid in a Manhole is the fourth entry in the more than infamous Japanese Guinea Pig series which tries to be as shocking as a film can be. This kind of trash can be made only in Japan. Mermaid is directed by Hideshi Hino, a man behind the most infamous part of the series, Guinea Pig 2: Flowers of Flesh and Blood. Mermaid is not as sick as the first two entries in the series, but Mermaid is still very very disgusting and "shocking" as the young painter finds a wounded and beautiful mermaid from a sewer and takes her home and places into tub. He begins to paint her as she is unconscious in the tub, but soon she begins to have some very severe symptoms of "melting" as pus filled and exploding vesicles appear on her skin and soon she is FILLED with crawling worms and disgusting excretions and secretions as her slow death comes more and more near..So this doesn't make much sense and all the film has to offer are shocks and a need for barf bag.

The scenes of wet and pus spurting mayhem are disgusting enough, but what I really had difficulties to sit through were the scenes of thousands of slithery worms which are definitely real and plenty, and the girl has them in her mouth, too! What kind of an actress would agree to act in such a role? I'm not actually scared of worms or don't hate them, but there are so many hundreds of them and they are filled with blood and pus and they appear ANYWHERE from the girl's body and they are very lively and active so I simply couldn't watch the film without some disgust reactions, even though I watched the whole thing and didn't use any fast forward. So I definitely can recommend this, if you're looking for something very disgusting and despisable!

There are no cinematic merits in this film (or other Guinea Pig films), although the scene in the sewer is pretty haunting, so that is perhaps the only cinematic merit of the film! Either horror fans like these or then not. Others will puke trying to watch these, that's for sure! Try to show Mermaid to your girlfriend or sister and count seconds how much she can take! It is impossible to give stars for these films, because there are nothing but scenes of disgust and loathing. If you're a fan of Japanese extreme horror and sicko cinema, then Guinea Pigs are worth tracking down as a curiosity, but they are by no means great or noteworthy films, no matter how hard core horror fan one thinks he is. I watched this film (and most of the whole series) as a curiosity and 'cause I'm interested in Orient cinema in its all forms, excluding s/m cinema and other of its kind. As a marginal cinema fanatic, I give Mermaid 5 stars out of ten even though it is pretty useless to give stars for these. At least this is the most disgusting film I've ever seen!

It is hard to describe the viewing experience for this movie. Even if you have seen the other Guinea Pig series movies, this one is on another level of disturbing. Where the first three are gory, they are also just straightforward dismemberment stories. They are simple and shocking, but no really new ground from hundreds of other horror movies. Mermaid in a Manhole is a different story. It focuses on disease and decay. It captures the lead character's descent into insanity. Then, once the viewer has gone through all this for the first two-thirds of the movie, we move to the dismemberment.

I like the psychological angle of this story and I think it makes this installment much better than the first two, but it is hard to watch and appreciate. To some degree, it reminds me of Nekromantik in that the story is intriguing and pushes the viewer to think about what is happening, but the images are so terrible that it is hard to want to.

I think during the 80's, while Cronenberg and the like were showing their special effects skills, some daring Japanese directors were ready to show their might on the screen and it led to these films. All of them were put together to showcase nothing more than special effects with almost no story line whatsoever. Except this little gem!! I have to say, these films are definitely heavy on the gore, and they are way good at the special effects. They definitely caught me off guard when I saw them without knowing what I was sitting down to watch. But that's where it ends, special effects for gross out factors (which the Japanese do very well). But again, this one is a bit different than the others, so don't just write it off like perhaps "Flower of Flesh and Blood" or "Devil's Experiment".

First off, this has the artist element, as the crazy man who paints the scum and filth inside of a sewer would. And it has a very strange feeling almost from the get go. An almost bizarre art house quiet despair right from the get go. You can almost smell the rotting filth just by watching it. And that's exactly how I can explain this film, as if you watch an animal get hit by a car and watch it die, and subsequently rot to a bloody mess on the side of the road. But that's only an allegory to what the movie looks like, as the movie is perhaps an allegory to a deeper meaning.

While this film is certainly vile, and has loads of gross out factors from stem to stern, it has a certain humanity to it. Almost a beautiful love to it. And that is where this movie stands out from the others.

If you've seen the others and haven't seen this one, then definitely watch it. If you've wanted to see them, and haven't yet, definitely watch this one. If you like gross out gore cinema, then definitely watch this one. If you're weak in the stomach, then steer very far away from any of these films.