Something I look for in a film is a timeless quality. I often ask, will this film still hold up in thirty years?

I know that probably seems like a funny way to start of a review for the most notorious of the Guinea Pig films, but considering Flower of Flesh and Blood has now been around for forty years, I feel its safe to conclude that watching it today is pretty close to the same immersive, should-I-be-watching-this viewing experience as it was back in 1985. This film bears no shame. It is what it is: an unabashed gorefest. 

Part of what makes Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood so great is that it’s not just simply a film, it is a dare. Director Hideshi Hino dares you to watch a woman get pointlessly mutilated by a psychotic serial killer for forty minutes while he makes it look as unpleasant and realistic as he can…with the exception of some artistic flourishes.

And forty years later, people still seek out Flower of Flesh and Blood to accept the challenge.

(If you want to know more about what the Japanese Guinea Pig Series is as a whole, I wrote more about the history of the series in my review of Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole. Flowers of Flesh and Blood is considered to be the second film in the series, but I usually don’t refer to the numbers because they got kind of confused with the later titles. Plus, they’re all just stand-alone films anyways.)

Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood starts off with the acclaimed Japanese manga artist, Hideshi Hino, claiming a fan of his work sent him a snuff tape. What we are said to be watching is “a restructured Semi-Documentary based on the 8mm film, pictures and letter” Hino received from the killer. At least that’s what the English subtitles say. 

I absolutely love that line of text because I’ve seen the film, and have read about it, and I still don’t know what that means. What the Hell is “a restructured Semi-Documentary”? Is this a reenactment or is this supposed to be the actual footage of the snuff tape edited by Hino. The honest answer is that it’s probably Hino trying to have it both ways. The actual footage is too stylized and too well spliced together with close ups, overhead shots, reaction shots and a soundtrack to be believable as actual snuff footage. But Hino’s gore effects and the performances of our strange, mysterious serial killer are clearly intended to imply that this is the real deal. So yeah, the film’s premise, at its core, is a strange contradiction- yet its one that gives Hino freedom from the limiting confines of the found footage genre.

The film starts with a woman being stalked and abducted by our killer who will then take her to an unknown location to turn her into his latest creation. The implication is that the “Samurai”, as the murderer is often referred to because of the samurai helmet he wears when performing his horrifying acts, is really an artist that uses the bodies of abducted humans as his canvas. 

And that is about it for plot. In the early text, Hino writes that if we can make it to the end we will see him “put her” body parts “into his collection”, so there is a reward if you can make it to the end. But yes, this film is all about can you stand watching very graphic torture.

What makes Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh & Blood still such an interesting watch is the realism of its practical effects. In fact, in 1985, Charlie Sheen reported the film to the F.B.I. because he thought it was a real snuff tape. It turned out, Japanese police had already started an investigation on Hino and for a while, copies of the film got pulled from shelves. Things got so bad for Hino that he even made a short film showing behind-the-scenes footage of Flower of Flesh and Blood to help clear up reports that this was a real murder. It is all very reminiscent of what Ruggero Deodato experienced after making Cannibal Holocaust. At least, when Hino beheads a chicken in his movie, that is fake too. (Poor turtle.) But all that confusion at the time of its release just goes to show that Hino set a standard in 1985 for gorey realism in film that horror directors still don’t often reach.

Sadly, Hino would only go on to direct two other films and one is a very hard to find soft-core horror porn. The other is the only other Japanese Guinea Pig film that is worth a damn: Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole. Personally, I prefer Mermaid in a Manhole because it has a little more of a story and its gotcha ironic twist ending makes the experience so much more worthwhile. However, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy Flower of Flesh and Blood’s end. There is a wonderful nihilism that permeates through those final images of the Samurai’s collection. And I feel that there is a self-aware dark humour buried within these frames as well. Is Flower of Flesh and Blood gore for gore sake or art? Hino seems very aware that it is both. This is potent stuff coming from a man who made most of his living by telling horrible tales and drawing horrible things.