Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood (1985) review

Director: Hideshi Hino
Starring: Kirara Yugao and Hiroshi Tamura
Duration: 42 minutes

Ah, you can never beat some Japanese gore because seriously, they do it better than anyone else. Recently I’ve become pretty consumed in viewing what the Internet deems as extreme films, but the extremity all depends on who you are and what you’ve seen. So it seemed appropriate to watch Guinea Pig Series: Flowers of Flesh and Blood.

This film holds host to some of the most realistic mutilation I’ve ever witnessed, and I can almost see how Charlie Sheen thought it was real, resulting in a freak out and a call to the FBI. He certainly was not winning that day. Although my Scooby Gang and I never turned a head, we did expel some “OH FUCK!”s with wincing faces. Anyway, let’s get cracking, literally…

As a woman walks to her humble abode, probably looking forward to a hot cup of tea, she’s knocked out with some classic chloroform by a curious attacker. The unknowing woman awakes to find herself in a crimson dungeon, strapped down by her wrists and ankles. From that point on, we’re fortunate enough to observe a white-faced samurai transform the girl into a beautiful, blood soaked ‘flower of flesh and blood’.

First things first, let’s talk about why this film satisfied me so much. The gore was purely astounding, the way it was so meticulous in realism really had my mind scrambling to remember it wasn’t a real snuff film. Of course camera tricks are used, such as cutaways, but those cutaways end up as intense close-ups that show the ripping and tearing of skin, tendons, ligaments and then bone. In many severe gore films the actual dismemberment of the ‘participant’ is fairly clean, and often performed with razor-sharp instruments – but this samurai likes being caught red handed. Think of how you savagely mutilate the Christmas turkey whilst drunk; your hands all slimey, your mouth watering and any hint of disgust, vanished. Take that thought, imagine the turkey is a naked woman and add a shit tone of blood and visceral, a little elbow grease and you’re nearly there imagery wise.

I shouldn’t focus solely on the carnage aspect, so we’ll discus plot, dialogue and not much else. The overall plot of the film isn’t filled with flair or miles of unforeseeable bends, but it wasn’t designed for that purpose. As a segment on its on, some might say the story is non-existent and dull, but seeing as it’s a series, this is just one small part of the slaughter jigsaw. In terms of dialogue, you shouldn’t be surprised that the woman doesn’t really get her chance to trade pleasantries, but the samurai offers up a plethora of his ramblings. Banging on about how he’s reconstructing her into a fucking gerbera whilst hacking her into pieces. You can’t get more philosophical than that really.

Basically, I found the whole film utterly breath-taking in both the ways of amazement and pure terror; you cannot stop from staring open-mouthed at the screen whilst being so horrified you feel you should just turn it off. To me, that shows they did a bloody good job. Sometimes, it’s the worst and most disturbing things that intrigue and make you tell your mates to look at it. If like me, you daydream of laying in a bath tub full of blood and human matter, then you know you’ll go watch this tonight.

Verdict: 5 out of 5

Verdict: 5 out of 5