Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood A.K.A. Za Ginnipiggu 2: Chiniku no Hana
Release Date - 1985
Directed by Hideshi Hino
Starring - Hiroshi Tamura and Kirara Yugao
"When crimson blood crawls over a white woman's skin like a living thing, she blossoms into a flower of flesh and blood whilst drowning again and again in a bloody sea of rapture and ecstasy."
No film in the history of Japanese film has produced more controversy internationally then Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood. It's pedigree within the halls of horror is quite big. Making people think it's a real snuff film, getting people in court, and pretty much forcing the creators to make a "Making Of" video to prove that it's all hogwash. Even today there have been reports of the movie making customs officers think that it's real. It's safe to say that Flower of Flesh and Blood is definitely one of the most controversial films of all time.For all of those who do not know, Guinea Pig is a series of six Japanese films made from the mid eighties to the early nineties. Each film is fairly short, only running a little under an hour each. However within each near hour length of the films, the viewer will find some of the most violent and insane footage ever put on video. The first two entries (Devil's Experiment and Flower of Flesh and Blood) are known for being very brutal realistic pseudo snuff films. The rest of the series changed it up every film, going from comedy to fantasy to science fiction and just all around weirdness.
But out of the entire series, Flower is the most known, due to it's very graphic content. For many a fan, it's how they got into the series. So to say it simply, it's the one that everybody talks about. And obviously, I'm talking about it today for Hell-O-Ween. It'll be hard to say what hasn't already been said, but eh, I can give it my best. Now this goes without saying, but this review should for the most part ONLY be viewed by those over the age of 18. If you are younger then 18, I strongly suggest not reading ahead unless you want to see some really gruesome stuff.
First, let's get the film's backstory out of the way. The project came about when Satoru Ogura, the creator of the series and maker of Devil's Experiment approached Hino to direct a film in the series. After being shown the film by one of the SFX crew members, Hino signed on to make the film. Now, there seems to be a bit of a myth/rumor as to how Hino came up with the idea for the movie. Before we tread any further, we might as well talk about it.
According to popular rumor, Hino at some point in the early eighties was given a package. Inside the package was an 8mm film, a 19-page letter, and a couple of photographs that showed and described the abduction, torture, and eventual murder of a woman. This backstory appears before the movie starts, and it has become under speculation if it really happened or not. Regardless, Hino got the idea for his manga Akai Hana, which would in the end become Flower of Flesh and Blood. So with that, let's get to the film.
The film opens with some shots of an unnamed section of Japan, presumably Tokyo. This is when we meet a woman wearing a black coat and red belt. She leaves a subway station, and begins to make her way home. However, she's being followed closely by a man in a mask in a car. After chasing her through an ally and a park, the man chloroforms her, and makes off with her.
She eventually wakes up, she tied down to a bed in what appears to be a basement. At first, she begins to panic for the simple fact that she's tied down to a bed, remembering the man who had pounced on her. However, a full wave of panic takes over her as she hears something being sharpened. This is when we meet the other character of our film, a man dressed like a samurai wearing makeup. We soon become familiar with this dungeon of sorts. It has a few wall paintings, it has a lighting structure, a sink, and a table that has a variety of sharp tools on it.
The samurai then demonstrates what is to become of his kidnappe, he doing this by taking a gardening sickle and decapitating a chicken in front of her. This tells both the woman, and the viewer the grim events about to unfold on screen. After doing this, he mixes up a drug that upon digesting, will make whoever took it feel no pain, only pleasure. He feeds her the drug, and after a minute or so passes he tests to see if it has taken affect. He does this by jamming some form of a tool into part of her chest. At first she jerks back as per normal reaction, but when she doesn't start screaming in pain, only making a sighing sound, he has his answer. The drug has indeed taken affect, leaving her to his whimsical ways.
Once the drug has taken affect, the samurai strips the woman of her clothes, opting to cut a small slit and rip them off instead of just normal taking them off. After doing this,he declares to the camera that he will bring out her inner beauty, and make her flower blossom. This forms of dialogue will become commonplace throughout the rest of the film, as they come right before he does something to the woman, he using different terms to describe her blossoming and jewels. Along with these declarations, every scene from here on out has a different color filter, which is why he has the lighting structure.
The first thing he does to bring out this beauty is cut off both of her hands. This is when the film officially becomes the pseudo snuff gore flick. While by today's standards, the effects seem a bit outdated, they still prove effective, and this is the first scene that shows it. Accompanied by a soundtrack of soft ambiance, and the sound of blood squirting, flesh ripping, and bones cracking, the man cuts his way through her wrists, blood spurting out against the sheet upon which she lays. Once cut down to the bone enough, he abandons the switchblade which he uses to cut her wrists, and pulls the bones apart, thus severing her hand. He struggles to release the hand's grip upon his own hand, finally getting it free after a few seconds, setting the hand down in a pool of blood, the fingers curling back up as he does so. After cutting off the right hand, he moves over to her left side, and repeats the process.
Once her hands are have cut off, he replaces his switchblade with that of an actual knife, the same as one might find in a kitchen. So what's next on the body part severing menu? Her arms'. The process is the same as the hands. Samurai man begins by cutting into her flesh, with blood oozing out rapidly with each cut into her body. After getting down far enough, and exposing enough of her insides, he returns to his table of tools. He sets down the knife, replacing it with a hammer and chisel. He returns to his drugged out victim, placing the chisel against her bone. With it firmly in place, he begins bringing the hammer down against it in single shots, or rapid bursts. After a while, he finally hammers through the bone, thus severing her arm from her body. He picks the arm up, inspecting it thoroughly before placing it back down. Once again, he then moves over to her other side to repeat the process.
The next step to bringing out her blossoming flower is to remove that of her legs. For this, he opts to use a saw which looks more like a sword then anything. By this point, the viewer should know what's coming: he cuts off her legs. One thing that I haven't mentioned that I may as well do now is that besides the hands, you never see the samurai man cutting off the second limb. So you only see him cut off one arm and one leg. Figured I may as well talk about it now. So, back to the flick.
With her limbs cut off, and womb exposed, the samurai man decides it's time to fully end this and bring out one of her best beauties, the pearls around her neck. With an axe in hand (which I thought was a katana at first before he raised it and saw the axe blade), he brings it up over his head, standing near the top half of her body. In one full (slow mo) motion, he brings the axe down upon her neck, severing her head from her body. Blood gushes up, covering his face as the decapitated head slams against a wall, and rolls to his feet. The man picks the head up, staring at it for a bit before he rubs it up against his cheek, eyes closed in what can be assumed as bliss. However, the beauty in her face has not been brought yet. He sets the head down where it use to be connected to the rest of her dismantled body. He retrieves a spoon, and after informing the viewer that he will now take the jewels in her face since they are the most precious, he proceeds to remove her eye with the spoon. After doing so, he brings it to his face, and starts sucking on the eyeball itself, and the stem that once connected it to her eye socket.
The samurai, after removing her eyes sits on the bed where she laid smoking. He finishes his cigarette and stands up. He then informs us that he will now add her to his collection. Samurai man removes a wall painting which acted as a curtain, revealing a wall devoted to his collection, a collection of bones and body parts from all of his victims. After minutes of viewing his collection, the video fades to black. It then picks up a moment later, repeating the footage of the opening. But we now see a different woman in a white jacket leaving the same station, she being followed on foot. It goes to black again and the credits roll, showing grainy up close footage of the woman's dismembered body.
Flower of Flesh and Blood truly is one of the most horrifying movies I've ever seen. Not because it's scary (although to some this could be scary), but because of the feeling it leaves you with. Most horror movies will leave you with a feeling of relief, even if you're scared to death. But Flower does no such feeling. The boogieman isn't caught, nor is he killed. He's still alive, and as we see in the ending of the film, already on the hunt again. This very grim and nihilistic ending makes the viewer feel grim and nihilistic knowing that the horrors just witnessed could begin again at any time.
Obviously, there isn't really much to analyze as far as a story goes. I mean, the story is pretty much as simple as "A man playing dress up kidnaps a girl and kills her." So there really is nothing to analyze as far as the story goes. But luckily, there are other things to talk about.
Since the entire film is set upon the dismembering of a person, SFX play a major part. They're needed to pull off what, well, you can't really do. In the case of Flower of Flesh and Blood, the effects are pretty much everything. And the effects do pull through. The special effects used are really good for a 1985 film, and back then, they had to be pretty innovative. Sure there were other movies with the same effects, but it's possible that they were never used to this magnitude. Since the movie has been cleaned up for DVD release, and with the release of The Making of Guinea Pig, it's easy to now tell that these are indeed effects. You can now see the latex, and all of the fun gooey stuff used to pull it off. That doesn't mean they lose their impact though. The effects are still effective at shocking the viewer, and for those not use to this sort of film, will certainly disturb and gross them out. Even for a hardened gore hound like myself, the eyeball scene is cringe worthy, and actually makes my eyes hurt. So even though 28 years have passed, and the movies have been cleaned up to be crystal clear, and the cheapness of the effects are shown (the effects costed in USD $31,222.00), they're still damn well effective at making us all cringe in our seats, just not as much as they use to.
The film doesn't really use music, instead opting for the sounds of ambiance and the sounds needed to make the effects sound real. The effect sounds while seemingly realistic, can be pretty funny at times with all of it's glugging and squirting. The ambiance though is downright chilling. From the dripping of water, to shrieks, to what sounds like howling wind, it all helps bring the viewer into the dark and ugly world of the film. The visuals will fill your mind, but the noise will help make them more distinct and memorable. The bubbling sound of the effects will draw you out of the snuff element, but the ambient noises will help bring you back in.
The acting should receive some form credit for their work. The actor who plays the samurai (the Unearthed DVD credits him as Hiroshi Tamura) does his role well. Even with the pretty silly costume, and the monologues that seem more fit for Shakespeare then a gore film, he plays the psychotic killer role well, bad teeth and all (I still want to know if those are his real teeth or dentures for the film). The female victim, played by Kirara Yugao doesn't really do much. She has zero lines, and for the most part, just lays down. But she plays it very well. Her moaning, while very similar to the moans heard in porn, are chilling. As a whole, both actors do a fairly good job at their duties, even if they're pretty small.
But let me be frank. Flower of Flesh and Blood offers very little to the viewer. It's mostly a display for special effects, which is what one of the original goals of the Guinea Pig series was, to show how far Japan could take effects. But that's all you will get. There's no meaning to life, no advice on how to deal with friends, family, and loved ones, not even a drip of intelligence. All you get is pure despair and gore. No story, no nothing. Just a series of varying degrees of torture and SFX.
That's not to say that the film is bad. For what it is, Flower of Flesh and Blood is a good movie. But only when you look at it as a gore movie. As a horror film, it's arguable how good it is. Many would say that it's bare bones style makes it pure horror, as there is nothing to separate the bad depressing scenes from happy ones. It's just depressing and bad. Some will say that this is what makes the movie bad, that having nothing then other one scene that's cut up a little bit makes it bad and shitty. I lean towards the middle. It's scary in the fact that somewhat insane effects aside, it could actually happen, and the lack of a spine helps send that idea home. But as a horror film, it's not really all that chilling or scary, no matter what Charlie Sheen says.
Surprisingly enough, Japan ate the film up. It actually cracked Japan's top 10 sales charts in videos, consecutively for two weeks, beating out flicks like E.T.. Even more shocking is that in 1996 in San Francisco, the film actually aired on public-access television. Yes you heard me right, a Guinea Pig movie was played on TV, in America.
All in all, Flower of Flesh and Blood is a good film for what it is, a gore horror movie that is more a less a stage to show off special effects. It's success and legacy is in that, and that only. As pure horror, it's up to debate how good it as. As an all around film, it's pretty bad. But for what it is, it's a good way to spend an hour. Just don't expect to be entertained.
"Thus, this flower of flesh and blood has bloomed completely."
C +
*Images courtesy of Google, Unearthed Films, Snowblood Apple, and Youtube*
*Quotes of the film courtesy of Trash City*
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