The Devil's Experiment
"Akumano Jikken" aka "Unabridged Agony" (1985) The first film revolves around a group of men who kidnap and graphically torture a young woman as part of an experiment on the human body's threshold of pain.
[edit] Flower of Flesh and Blood
The second video,
Za ginipiggu 2: Chiniku no hana (1985) was portrayed (for theatrical effect) to be based on an actual
snuff film sent to the director
Hideshi Hino by a crazed fan. In it, a man dressed as a
samurai drugs a woman and proceeds to cut her apart, and finally adds her body parts to an extensive collection. The snuff film rumour has been shown to be a contemporary legend; the film was in fact based on a manga (by Hideshi Hino himself, no less) about a florist who kills women and uses their dismembered parts as the seed of his beautiful flower arrangements. Most of this element of the story is cut out for the making of Guinea Pig due to the low budget and need of shock value. In fact, the actor playing the killer is the creator of the 1970s manga from which the story is derived.
After viewing a portion of this film, actor
Charlie Sheen was convinced the murder depicted was genuine and contacted the
MPAA, who then contacted the
FBI. FBI agent
Dan Codling informed them that the FBI and the Japanese authorities were already investigating the film makers, who were repeatedly interviewed by the Japanese police and eventually summoned to court to prove that the special effects were indeed fake
[1][2] [3] (similar to what Italian film director
Ruggero Deodato had to do with his film
Cannibal Holocaust). The band
Skinny Puppy wrote the song "The Mourn" after discovering the video and believing it authentic. When they later learned it was a fake they incorporated clips of it into their live stage show.
The special effects of the movie were explained in the 1986 documentary "Making of Guinea Pig".
[edit] He Never Dies
The third film,
Za ginipiggu 3: Senritsu! Shinanai otoko (1986) (lit. "Shudder! The Man Who Doesn't Die"), revolves around a bizarre crime scene in which it appeared that a man had cut himself apart and played with his body parts for several hours before dying. The movie is more mocking than the earlier two, and involves an elaborate revenge against the girl who drove the main character to attempting
suicide.
[edit] Mermaid in a Manhole
Based on a
manga by
Hideshi Hino and directed by the
mangaka himself, the next installment of the Guineapig series,
Za ginipiggu 4: Manhoru no naka no ningyo (1988), is about an artist who is trying to cope with the recent death of his wife. One day while being in the sewers beneath the streets of
Okinawa, he comes across a mermaid that he had met before when he was a kid, when the sewers used to be a big river. He sits down to paint her, but soon she starts crying in agony, and the painter notices that she has some kind of sores on her body. She has been stuck in the sewers for a long time and she must have been infected by the environment down there. The artist takes her back to his house, and after a brief period of time, the mermaid develops lacerations and begins to bleed. The artist uses the blood and pus from the wounds to paint her portrait, but as he paints, her condition worsens and she dies.
[edit] Android of Notre Dame
Za ginipiggu 5: Notorudamu no andoroido (1988) is about a scientist who tries to find a cure for his sister's grave illness. The scientist needs a "
guinea pig" to perform experiments on. A stranger approaches the scientist with an offer of a body for the experiments. The scientist accepts and the stranger supplies the body for a price. The experiments do not go well and the scientist becomes enraged, hacking the body to pieces. The stranger approaches the scientist once again and supplies another body so the experiments can continue.
- American guitarist Buckethead's album Kaleidoscalp contains a song titled "Android of Notre Dame", which is most likely about the film as Buckethead himself is a fan of horror movies and Japanese culture.
[edit] Devil Woman Doctor
Za ginipiggu 6: Peter no akuma no joi-san (1990) is the story about a female doctor who is a transvestite, played by real-life Japanese
transvestite Shinnosuke Ikehata. The film takes the form of several 'sketches' in which she treats her patients (often mutilating or killing them in the process). This episode shifted the tone of the series from graphic horror to extremely violent
slapstick comedy.
A making of this film was released 1990 under the title
Bangaihen: Akumano Joi-san Meikingu.
[3]
[edit] Slaughter Special
Za ginipiggu 7: Zansatsu supeshyaru (1991) is the seventh and final movie from the series. It works primarily as a "best of" special, showcasing the most gruesome moments from the first several films.