Sunday 2 September 2012

Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood

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Year:1985
Country of origin:Japan
Director: Hideshi Hino
Genre:Splatter
Starring:Hiroshi Tamura, Kirara Yûgao
Rating:5/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161635/
Tagline:No tagline
Favourite line:N/A - Subtitled

Part 2, and easily the most infamous of the Guinea Pig series.

The plot:
A young woman, walking home late one night, is stalked through the street and chloroformed. Awakening strapped to a bed, we are introduced to her abductor.
He’s not well.
He thinks about the human body as a blank canvas, ripe for illumination with blossoms and blooms, the ‘flowers’ he perceives emerging from wounds inflicted as he slowly dismembers her.
Starting with the hands, then moving on to the feet, legs and head before, finally, in an act of purest poetry, removing the eyes.

Gorier than the first one though, conversely, not as sick, this release gained international notoriety when Charlie Sheen sent a copy to the FBI, believing it to be a snuff movie.
And they took him seriously. The fools.
Now, listen up, we’re all well aware of Mr. Sheen’s mental instability, as evidenced by a series of interviews given that seemed to redefine the phrase ‘public meltdown’ but, honestly, how he could have thought, even for a second, that this was real is truly mystifying.
The knife comes in.
Close to the skin.
Closer still then, just as the cut is about to be formed, the camera angle changes, now in close-up so that, instead of watching a real life Nipponese being butchered, we are instead looking at a special effect.
A good special effect but, clearly, a special effect all the same.
With an artistry that the previous entry did not possess, this is elevated beyond mere exploitation, to an existential discussion on the nature of art itself: is it acceptable to carve someone up, in the name of creativity?
While the answer seems clear – no, unless it’s Piers Morgan – still, it’s an interesting discussion.
A proper gore movie, this, so fans of splatter will definitely find something to enjoy, there was nothing here to trouble the soul, and I’d even go so far as to say I bloody well enjoyed it.
So fuck you, MediaWatch.

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