tonymurphylee
I saw this in the middle of the night, and it wasn't subtitled. Still, I figured out what it was about, despite the fact that I don't speak it's language. It's about what appears to be a painter who rescues an injured woman who begins to rot and spew pus. As she dies, he uses her goop as paint. The film's ending is depressing as it appears that he wasn't playing with a full deck.The overall tone of the film is bad enough without the bizarre situation, but the fact that the film literally doesn't race makes the outcome more of an effective idea that could be better implemented with a little less patience. Still, when the screen isn't drenched with guts and pus, it's pretty to look at. This is, i guess, a part of some strange series of films in Japan that deal with special effects gore and realism. This works in both areas, but also happens to have a little more to offer.
Nikolaus Maack
A painter finds a mermaid in a sewer. Then she starts to get sick. "Paint me," she insists.There's gore and disturbing scenes, but the story itself seems to have a depth to it. Even if there really isn't much of a story at all. I blame my love for the movie on my psychology degree, and my own dreams. The sewer is the unconscious. He takes the mermaid from the sewer to save her, to make art out of her -- only she's infected. But if she came out of his unconscious, then really, isn't he the one that's infected?There is definitely a sort of Cronenburg, Kafka, "Picture of Dorian Gray" feel to the movie. Repulsive, and yet I couldn't stop watching, even as I squirmed in my seat.Definitely not for everyone, but what's there is powerful -- even though the acting and special effects sometimes make the movie feel more like camp than true horror.
haildevilman
Hideshi Hino is famous in Japan for his violent graphic manga. He tends to touch on disease, holocaust, and WWII flashbacks. It shows here.Hino decided to make a GP film with an actual story. You have to wonder however if the artist in this story is a self-portrait. If so, I wonder if Hino has TOO MANY dark secrets.The main reason for this film, it seems, is to see how far it can go. Can we let the Mermaid get sicker just to keep painting? And did the FX guy get top pay? The grainy film and sub par editing add to the nightmare. Do NOT let your kids see this.
Number8
WARNING, may contain minor spoilersI watched this film mainly out of curiosity, given the reputation of the entire Guinea Pig series, and I must say that I am a bit disappointed. While I started really hoping to get totally sick, I wind up laughing at the screen halfway. The problem is that it is very easy to see pass the supposed blood and gore see paint and plastic. I can literately feel the little plastic hoses that squirt out those multi-coloured paint from the puss. When the mermaid's face is deformed by the disease, the face looked more like a plastic mask glue on the actress than something supposedly revolting. And it is obvious that the actress never did put the worms in her mouth, since you never actually see her barfing them out (the camera pans down away from her face at that point). It's really just a clever camera trick.But it isn't for the lack of trying. That are some genuinely shocking moments in the film, such as when the artist discovered what was inside the mermaid when he chopped up the mermaid after she died. So I am not saying that the film is not disgusting, but I found the low-budget and dated special effects to be laughable.Story-wise I did like that the film is short and not overly complicated. Obviously the main drawing point is the gore, but there's a pretty decent story as well about lost love, and life in general. And The ending just added an extra layer of mysteriousness into the mix, leaving the viewer thinking just what exactly has transpired.I still haven't figured it all out myself.
AD
