Ginî piggu: Manhôru no naka no ningyo (1988)

An artist finds and rescues a mermaid in a sewer. He takes her home with him and she develops sores all over her body that begin to pustulate and bleed. He uses what oozes from her sores to... See full summary »

Director:

Hideshi Hino

Stars:

Shigeru Saiki, Mari Somei, Masami Hisamoto

Cast

Credited cast:
Shigeru Saiki	...	The Artist
Mari Somei	...	The Mermaid
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masami Hisamoto
Gô Rijû
Tsuyoshi Toshishige

Storyline

An artist finds and rescues a mermaid in a sewer. He takes her home with him and she develops sores all over her body that begin to pustulate and bleed. He uses what oozes from her sores to paint her portrait. When he can no longer handle it anymore he breaks down and dismembers her body.

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Plot Keywords:

mermaid | sewer | artist | fifth in series | series | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

25 July 1988 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole

Company Credits

Production Co:

Japan Home Video (JHV)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits there is a small scene in the sewer where we hear something move in the water.

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Connections

Follows Ginî piggu 2: Chiniku no hana (1985)

User Reviews

Gross, bizarre, ghoulish and darkly funny

Originally part of the notorious underground video series GUINE PIG (which came to the public's attention when actor Charlie Sheen mistook an episode for an actual snuff movie), GUINEA PIG: MERMAID IN A MANHOLE is the only one to have gained a cult status outside of the series' infamy. People unfamiliar with the series need only know that it is largely made up of extremely gruesome, brutal and realistic footage of people (mostly women) being tortured, mutilated and murdered (sometimes self-inflicted). Guinea Pig 2: Flowers of Flesh and Blood (the one that sparked the Sheen controversy) is a 45 minute long video in which a woman is graphically dismembered and disemboweled. MERMAID has aspirations beyond simply grossing its viewers out (though it doesn't skimp on that), and goes more for a David Cronenberg-esque atmosphere of disease and decay, meant to disturb as much as repulse. The story involves an artist who gets his ideas from items he finds in the sewer. One day, while rooting around for inspiration, he comes across a real live mermaid. She is injured and sick, from years of living in all the filth and muck. He takes her back to his apartment and places her in his bathtub, where she slowly begins to rot. He paints her as her condition worsens. Sores appear all over her body and erupt in multi-colored pus, which he uses (at her request) to continue painting the portrait. Blood, slime and worms squirm out of her skin. She vomits worms and slime. Eventually, her intestines burst out of her body and ooze onto the floor. It's really, really gross. All through this he continues to paint her picture. Blood-drenched and nightmarishly bizarre, but with moments of dark, offbeat humor sprinkled throughout. If you have the stomach for it, and you can find it, this is an interesting little movie for fans of bizarre and/or grotesque cinema. Easily the best of the Guinea Pig series.