Ruptured Review: Mermaid In A Manhole

          MERMAID IN A MANHOLE 

Country of origin- Japan
Year of release- 1988
Director- Hideshi Hino   
Cast- Shigeru Saiki, Mari Somei, Masami Hisamoto, Go Riju, Tsuyoshi Toshishige,


Warning, this review contains graphic descriptions for truly disgusting imagery. Oh, and some spoilers.

If you are familiar with the infamous Guinea Pig films, you basically know what to expect from this one, a thin plot and a ton of gore, goo and splatter. Plenty of people will tell you that this isn't the nastiest edition in the Guinea Pig series, but I would argue against that. This film may not achieve the levels of gore seen in Flowers of Flesh and Blood, or the levels of gleeful sadism in Devils Experiment. But this film, in my opinion is the most disgusting entry into the series.

The film opens with some rather miserable shots of random objects floating in a sewer. We then see a still twitching fetus floating in the water, the fact that this film has dead/dying babies in a sewer within the first three minutes, should give you an idea of the tone of the film. We then see a figure walking through the sewers towards the fetus, the film then cuts to an artist painting a picture of the fetus. The artist is clearly struggling with some kind of mental anguish, this is then confirmed as a little later on he exits his apartment and bumps into his neighbours, who behind his back discuss his wife leaving him. We then see him go down a manhole back into the sewers, where he finds a decomposing cat which he thinks is a childhood friend, because who hasn't made that mistake? The artist then hears a splashing sound behind him, he go's to investigate and surprise surprise he finds a mermaid. I bet none of you could see that one coming. The artist begins to talk to the mermaid, and then realises that he has seen her before. It turns out that this sewer was once a river, and the artist used to play there as a child. This is a very interesting scene, because it is clearly commenting on the increasing industrialisation of Japan. The artist then notices an infected wound on the waist of the mermaid, who is clearly unwell.

The artist decides to bring her back to his apartment to treat her wound. WE are then treated to a pretty surreal scene of the mermaid sitting up in a bath tube while the artist paints a portrait of her. We then see that her wound has developed large pustules in and around it, suddenly they seem to rupture. Blood  gushes everywhere while the mermaid screams and the artist desperately tries to stop the bleeding. Eventually the bleeding stops, and the mermaid passes out. Soon after this we see that the pustules have become much worse, they have spread up her chest almost to her neck. She begs the artist the to cut them open, which he then does with truly revolting results. As the artist slices open one of the pustules, the mermaid screams and leans out over the edge of the bath to allow her pustule to drain into jar that has been placed there by the artist. This process is repeated again and again, we also see long worms, and maggots slithering out of the open pustules and even more disgustingly being pulled out by the artist. I have an extremely strong stomach, but this scene was enough to make me loose my appetite. We then see the artist painting another portrait of the now half dead mermaid, but this time instead of using paint he is using the fluid from the mermaids pustules, waste not want not. We can now see that the rancid pustules have spread to half of her face, but the artist continues to paint her. Suddenly the mermaid leans over the side of the bath and vomits maggot filled blood, then her left eye pops out of her head while puss and blood spurt hose like from her body. She than dies. The artist, in an extreme state of shock, picks up a clever and dismembers the mermaids corpse, and eventually pulls from her stomach, a dead fetus. The film then continues on to reveal a pretty predictable twist ending, but I am not going to give that away.

I came away from the film felling a little depressed, but that didn't in any way   
stop me from thoroughly enjoying it. The best aspect of the film was definitely the effects, they where practical and unpleasant. Despite what you may be thinking, this film did have an actual message that it was trying to put across. The film was a lament for a pre over-industrialised Japan, and a protest against the ever increasing putrefaction of natural beauty by humans. I am going to give this film  8/10, I really enjoyed it, and some of the effects where nasty enough to shock me a little bit, and that never happens.