Sunday, May 6, 2012

"Guinea Pig 2:Flower of Flesh and Blood"(1985)d/Hideshi Hino

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We're skipping right over the Satoru Ogura original 1985 short, Ginī Piggu: Akuma no Jikken, which is horrible enough in it's own right, tonight, crunching right through the humerus to the glenoid of the matter with a pair of hedge shears, a plastic samurai helmet, and some seriously cruddy-looking fronts.That's right, Hino's Gini piggu 2: Chinuku no hana, or Flower of Flesh and Blood, the notoriously nasty faux-snuff epic that fooled Charlie Sheen(like fucking with that guy's perception is any major accomplishment, huh) into thinking he was witnessing real murders, contacting the MPAA who, in turn, contacted the FBI who were already investigating the filmmakers with authorities in Japan, leading to a court decision that finally dismissed all criminal scrutiny.I've heard the tape was passed on to Sheen by either Chris Gore, of 'Film Threat' fame, or the late Chas Balun, of 'Deep Red' magazine, either way, a tip of my cabbie to the responsible party.Hino himself has claimed that the ultra-violent short is based on an actual 8mm snuff film sent to him by an unhinged fan of his horror manga and later turned over to authorities(how much later, you old dog), bypassing story and characters completely in serving up one of the goriest splatterfests to date, with UnEarthed Films releasing the definitive North American collector's dvd box of the series, the disc for tonight's entry containing a hidden easter egg that allows you to view the film in nth gen snuff-o-vision, cutting out the lead-in and getting right to the gruesome goodies for the sick fucks out there that break out the AstraGlide and aloe-laden tissues so they can crank a suzy right off during their fave dismemberments, Dahmer-style.Don't look at me, you dicks, I like my women intact(mostly) throughout our interludes, it's you creeps that worry me...
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Where are your precious Sugarcubes to the rescue?We've got you now, Bjork, you odd bitch.
After a text disclaimer warns us that the tape we're about to bear witness to was sent anonymously to artist Hideshi Hino by an obsessed fan, who was paying tribute to Hino's own "The Flowers of Flesh and Blood" manga, we see a woman(Kirara Yûgao) being stalked and filmed from a car as she walks, then chased through a playground and finally subdued by a trusty ether-hanky.To her horror, she awakens in the personal abbatoir of a pasty-faced Japanese yukk-mouthed freak in a rubber apron and samurai helmet, eyeing her body, bound to a slab at the wrists and ankles, with bad intent, indeed.The freak taunts the girl with a live chicken, cutting off it's head, and remarking, "Look. This is your fate."He pumps his hostage fulla dope via syringe, commenting: "Now the woman is in a state of rapture.Due to the drug I injected into her, as can be seen, she is completely unable to feel pain.But, instead of feeling nothing, she feels only ecstacy."However you look at it, it's all downhill for this chick from here, as pale n' gruesome fixes to whittle her down like some sadistic carver with a women-for-wood whimsy.At least he's got the common decency to recite poetic Eastern verse that draws artistic parallel between blood-letting and botany both for his bound up n' banged out victim-to-be, and his soon-to-be repulsed audience following along at home...
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There's something decidedly very Hemingway about this shot.
First, he allows the scarlet to billow forth by opening her wrists as she writhes about orgiastically, her naughty bits tastefully hidden behind a sheet that's about to need a good 'Shout'ing out, if you know what I'm sayin'.Naturally, he amputates her hands next, then her arms are chiseled out of her shoulder joints, and what the hell, after another poetic diatribe, why stop there?He chops off her feet and legs at the knee joint, before gutting her torso like a plump channel cat destined for the fry pan.Next, it's the girl's domepiece that's gotta go.If it wasn't bad enough to lose your head in such a way, her disembodied head gets smooched up by the serial killing-Samurai with questionable oral hygiene, an interlude it would have no doubt balked at were it still attached to shoulders and breathing, I'm willing to bet.In the boffo finale, we're forced to watch the fiend spoon one of the eyes out of the head, and swish it around in his mouth like a gross jawbreaker.The camera lovingly pans his crazy crib, which is adorned with multiple gruesome trophies of flesh and blood from his previous victims, before we see another girl being set up for a real bummer of an evening.Walking a little funny for awhile is the worst any girls come away from getting together with me, just sayin'...
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Obviously, she hasn't been killed thoroughly enough, yet.
At one time, forty bucks would have gotten you the aforementioned box set, uncut, right off the shelves of Best freakin' Buy, ferchrissakes.Seriously.Think about that for a second.Just two aisles down from Grease(1978) and Xanadu(1980).Nothing compliments Olivia's wholesome, sweet charms like a mitt full o' pulsing, gory innards on movie night, huh.I used to groove a lot more heavily on stuff like this in years past, but as I've mentioned a few times before, I'm somewhat more indifferent towards it these days, unless there's a valid story around it, acted out by professionals, that's moved along by the violence, even centered around it for all I care, just don't try to shock me with gross-out tactics at this point in the game.Still, this is legendary stuff for it's disgusting ilk, with amazing splatter effects for the time period, especially considering the evaporating output of the West during that same time.I remember flinching once or twice the first time I bore witness to the damned thing, on a black bootlegged VHS sans labels back in the nineties, a rare occurence, believe me.The best/worst of its kind to this very day, an indelible black mark on the world of cult cinema that's required viewing for any and all self-respecting gorenophiles out there while the squeamish should steer well clear.On the scale, a well-deserved score of simple-yet-disturbing, visceral brilliance:
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You are here, so am I. Maybe millions of people pass by, but they all disappear from vieeeeeeeeew...
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