Steve reviews "Guinea Pig"...

Oh shit...

please tell me there'll be no screen captures...

And Steve deserves the CHUD MVP award for exposing his eyes to the filth.

I saw one of those...wish I could remember which one. Pretty much a waste of time in my opinion.

If he puts up screen captures he'll ruin the plot!

I deserve the runner-up prize. Nick, you'll have my trashing of a film tonight...

THE PAIN!

The Guinea Pig stuff actually manages the near-impossible task of making gore look boring. There's just no sense of pacing to the any of them, and the 24/7 nastiness ceases to have any impact upon the viewer. The All Night Long films are far superior IMO.

BTW I trust everyone knows about the Charlie Sheen/Guinea Pug "incident"?

Actually, 'Guinea Pig' wasn't a film, it was a TV show on in Japan for a while. The episodes they're releasing on DVD are some of the originals, I think.

I've seen 'Mermaid of the Manhole'. Sick, sick, sick. It's just one of those shows that's nasty for the sake of being nasty, there's no real story or character development.

Something I would recommend seeing if you feel you need to see anything dubbed "extreme", but other than that they're not worth the money.

I'm not sure how, but I survived a double viewing of THE DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT, and THE ANDROID OF NOTRE DAME.

The final proof that the Japanese are some seriously fucked up people.

Let me just say that THE DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT is probably the grossest, most depraved thing I've ever seen. It's about these guys torturing this woman to death in a number of ways.

As for the screen caps, I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but there'll be some.

And may God forgive me for doing them.

I cannot believe someone could make a "film" like EXPERIMENT! Ugh.

It was a series of direct-to-video cheapies (not a TV show), and Devil's Experiment and Flowers of Flesh and Blood (the one that Charlie Sheen mistook for an actual snuff film where a wacko dressed as a samurai starts cutting up a woman with his sword) were directed by Hideshi Hino, reknowned cartoonist (Panorama of Hell).

After the controversy grew surrounding the authenticity of the tapes, they eventually released a making-of compilation where they explained the various makeup effects for the entire series.

There is no story to the proceedings, it's just a non-stop barrage of torture and dismemberment. Except for the third entry, Mermaid in the Manhole, which Johnny mentioned and is regarded by some as a twisted parable of modern relationships.

Sick shit. I think some years ago, a Japanese watchdog group started flagging these titles to see what sort of sickos actually rent these for any kind of entertainment value.

The Kobe kid who decapitated his retarded 11 year old neighbor had the entire series I think.

I took a look at one of the screencaps and couldn't go further.

Sorry dude, but I bet it's good as always.

The captions were terrible, but this wasn't exactly the easiest movie to do. And those pictures were the least offensive ones I took. The Devil's Experiment is beyond sick.

You're a real trooper, Steve. I would have just tossed the fucker into the nearest trash bin.

I think the one that I saw is the same one that Charlie Sheen reported to the police, where it was one single woman being mutilated by a single man. Yuck.

I have to say, I love the fact that this got reviewed on a fairly mainstream non-horror site. Very cool.

I'm scared, people. But I'm going in...

That is some seriously twisted shit. Someone pin something shiny on Steve as a reward for managing to watch and review the DVD for us. By detailing what goes on in the movie, I regard that Steve just took one for us so we don't have to. Atleast on my part anyway. Now I won't be so curious that I'd end up tracking a copy down just to squirm thru it to see what's the fuss's about.
Just reading about what goes on in the movie turns my stomach, can't imagine how it'd be like visually. Bravo again Steve.

Unfortunately as I discovered there are underground scenes in Japan that is fascinated by depraved crap like this. It's very, very small but exsist nevertheless.

From time to time I like to check out the Japanese comic scene, mainstream or otherwise as I found out that they provide a somewhat interesting view and/or "vibe" of the contempary culture there in Japan.
As a result I ran into a couple of comics that were similar in depravity that Steve described in the DVD. Interestingly one of the comic isn't even an underground comic.

That said, the DVD and the comics I ran across doesn't represent the Japanese society as a whole, or even just a small part of it. In the scheme of things, it's nearly insignificant. It's just that in a reserved society like that of the Japanese these things get blown out of scale, even by the Japanese themselves.
I've found them to be actually quite passionate people, despite their calm, polite manner which they carry themselves in. The problem is what some of them are passionate about that spawn the problem.

Think of it as a few bad apples problem. And then everybody jumping on the bandwagon being outraged by it which blows it up even more.

Oh well, just my 2c I guess...

at the very least, we got that great Creed crack out of making Steve see the movie...

Yeah, the Creed reference made looking at the screen caps worth while. Ugh, Steve, was this punishment for hitting Dennis with the softball the other night? Geez, there's no way I could have even made it through the first 10 minutes of the first film. Thanks for not only taking the bullet, but the entire clip. *shudder*

Steve, did you have a puke bucket handy while watching that piece of filth? I just about needed one for the screen caps alone. Your eyes indeed deserve a medal of honor.

Hmmm...not a show. Somebody LIED to me. Damnit.

Every culture has a small, small section that just cannot enjoy something unless it's in the extreme. One of the other 'GP' shorts I saw featured a guy with a girl tied down, and slowly he dismembered her over the course of a few days. It was just pointless gore, but I have to admit the effects were absolutely amazing. I can understand why some would think it was real without in being in context.

There was a movie reviewed on the site called 'August Underground' that reminded me of 'GP'. Two guys run around, taking kidnapping people and tying them up in their basement for the pursposes of torture and death. No point, just an hour long POV shot from the killer's friend's camera. Sick.

Just goes to show it takes all kinds, I guess...

The Devil's Experiment is the worst of the two I've seen so far. I can't (nor want to) think of film that could possibly be MORE disturbing, but we'll see. The next series comes out in August.

I can't shake the images from this movie out of my head, that's how messed up this film is.

Johnny, read <a href="http://www.guineapigfilms.com/front.html" target="_blank">this</a>. It tells you the history of the series.

Sorry, that's the wrong link. Just click on HISTORY on the left and it will take you to the article.

This is why Japan is so great. Reading that history and assuming it's totally on the level, these movies weren't just underground movies. They were big hits, showing up in the top ten rentals of some months. That would never happen here.

eek!

God damn. That is some sick SICK shit. Someone give Steve a hug.

We're coming to this from western society's perpective though remember, In some countries in Asia, during football matches, at half time there are public executions in lieu of a brass band playing the hits of Manilow. Mass shooting. For "entertainment" to all intents and purposes. It's life. It's how their society functions.

While I'm no expert on the subject, David Kereke's fascinating book Killing For Culture posits the theory that Japan's culture, until recently, was based on notions of guilt and honour as opposed to conscience and morality. They come at things from a very, very different angle. The kind of shows that are mainstream in Japan would make Jackass look like a kid's show (which in one respect it is I know, but, well...).

In that respect, I find these film's existence fascinating. In the same way that the paler, less ballsy but still-in-the-same-ballpark Faces Of Death (remember that series was staged for "entertainment" as well) exist in America, you have to remember that Japan is where highly sexualised humilation is a core form of adult entertainment (theres a recent edition of Asian Cult Cinema devoted to a series of rape films that are jaw droppingly popular in Japan - mostly geeky weeds clumsily groping unassuming stereotypes of submissive Japanese females.)

It's a society where soiled underwear is sold quite openly in vending machines in adult bars and clubs. Where clubs have simulated tube train sets in which men can sit and feel a model's pants underneath her skirt (the models in question dressed as school girls).

Different strokes, folks. Not to say that the Guinea Pig pictures are quality entertainment, but from a sociological and cultural perspective they are far more intriguing and worth baring in mind than the kneejerk yuk factor lets be. Whoever said that films are much, much more than mere entertainment was a very perceptive fellow. (NP Salo, Aftermath, Africa Addio et al)

*shudder*

The hate returns! Cry for Steve.

These films are CRAP!

I can't believe they put forth the effort to release these on DVD?!?!

I'd really like to know where this is documented. I'm not inferring that you're bullshitting about your source of info, Straxboy. It just seems most of these Mondo Asia type literature and documentaries are nothing more than ethnocentric or sometimes even xenophobic exposes into a miniscule aspect of a foreign society.

In a similar respect, in Japan, there is a series of videos geared toward "documenting" fanatic cults and unusual biker lifestyles right here in the US. I can't remember how many times I've had to refute my Japanese schoolmates and co-workers' claims that this is the way life is in the US.

Oh, I'm not for a minute propagating or abetting any type or xenophobic hyperbole and apologies if you inferred that I was gaining information from anywhere other that <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1871592208/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/026-9174433-1029218" target="_blank"> this</a> fine publication in my above post. I'm no expert as I say and wouldn't want to be bullishly throwing facts out of no where. Fact is, this and the disturbingly rendered Amnesty International sponsered documentary Executions, both spin tales of public-forum - and in some cases public-participation - torture andexecution. (All "criminals" I hasten to add, and nothing remotely as salacious as what these film have on offer. A thorny societal issue that, and entirely seperate discussion from the artistic merits of the Guinea Pig films.)

The fascinating thing about this book is that it intelligently and entirely objectively explores and infiltrates exactly the type of tabloid-fed furores instigated by such pictures and incidents and seperates the wheat from the (more often than not) chaff. A sobering and disturbing read no doubt.

Crap, the Guinea Pig series may be (and I certainly won't argue that it has any artistic merit, save some fine, if misguided F/X work), but crap is not always without its relevance: it's notorious for a reason, and popular by all accounts. You don't out out a DVD release that'll cost you thousands without knowing that.

No apologies needed, Straxboy. Thanks for the clarification and the link.

I've skimmed thru this book once years ago at a Borders in Hollywood, and may have to sit down for a more extensive read. The initial impression I got was that it was trying to be a bit too sensational and lurid like Mondo Cane or segments of the Faces of Death tapes. I hope I was wrong.

Just for the record though, there's no public executions in Japan during half time shows at football games. I don't even think they have a league, unless it's filled with ex-NFL or US college players.

Sorry, I wasn't intimating that that happened in Japan, but what I was implying was that, certainly 15 years ago when these films were starting to be made, Asia and the middle east was a much more politically and socially unstable world than the relative democracy of the west (not to say that Europe wasn't under the same pall as exemplified by events in Yugoslavia and Bosnia). And meybe that human-geographical climate has indelibly left an imprint on what that society produces: to whit the edition of Asian Cult Cinema with an article on the<a href="http://www.asiancult.com/cgi-bin/webcart/webcart.cgi?CHANGE=YES&NEXTPAGE=/mag_34.htm&CODE=105" target="_blank"> SubWay Serial Rape </a> film series. Quite startling, even to a jaded viewer like myself.

I feel its just worth remebering that context is all where most film is concerned. Willingness to explore that openess in cinema is of course entirely subjective and non commital, but to deny its presence is to deny a very real element of critical cultural and cinema study...

I knew that you weren't implying that the public executions and such took place in Japan, Strax, but just to clarify for others maybe who aren't as aware.

As a resident of Japan during the period that the Guinea Pig series were produced, I sensed little economical (and social) turbulence during the mid to late 80's, unlike in the 90's when their bubble collapsed and Japanese residents began feeling insecure about their future for what seemed like the longest time. Other parts of Asia I can't vouch for, but Japan was seemingly infallible at the time.

I believe that the Subway Rape series and other assorted Japanese DTV S&M nasties were the next natural progressions of the popular 70's and 80's Nikkatsu Pink series of films. Japanese viewers starting to get bored with the standard Roman Porno storylines and such.

Which is surely a thesis-worthy examination in itself.

Thanks for the background there BK. Wow, what a fascinating time to have lived in the far east - especially movie-wise.

You're quite welcome, fellow Hickox fan

As far as the 80's being a fascinating time to live in Japan, movie-wise... I was in the habit of shelling out $12 a ticket for Hollywood classics like Over the Top and The Golden Child at the time so I really can't say.

It's amazing that you two have found this much cultural relevance to these shitty movies to talk about!

I think it's great.

Precisely the reason why I love this fuckin place.

Abso-fucking-lutely. That's the joy of Nick's baby: there's always some sort of order out of chaos.

Over The Top and The Golden Child you say ? 'Should have taken your Japanese pals to see Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol: that would have shown 'em a little cultural superiority ! They give us Bubblegum Crisis and *ahem* Entrails Of A Virgin....we give them Bobcat Goldthwait and Guttenberg's last hurrah !