This is a rather strange entry in the Guinea Pig franchise but one that is a must see after a while because in the beginning it looks rather childish and stupid but slowly it turns into a squirmfest to end in a gorefest.When a painter wants to return to a sewer were he has been before entering the manhole to go into the sewer he comes across a girl laying in the filthy water. Coming closer he notices that it is a mermaid. Somehwo he has seen her before but by getting closer he sees that she has some kind of infection. He picks her up and takes her home to place her in a bath. She do ask to be painted by him and to use the colored puss coming out of her infection. Until then it's a bit ridiculous but the painter gets addicted to her and when the infection gets worse and she almost dies the worms come in. It's from that point that this horror flick turns into a gruesome flick. First out of the puss do come the worms but if that's not enough she starts vomiting worms being alive and it's not faked. Naturally the mermaid do dies and the painter can't take it anymore and starts to cut her up. At the end we do have a twist and this gory flick is over. It's a rather good entry into the franchise because it do has it flows. The worms can make viewers decide to turn it off but for people into Japanese stuff this is your thing.Gore 3/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Za Ginipiggu 4: Manhoru no Naka no Ningyo, or Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole as it's more commonly known amongst Enlish speaking audiences, starts in the Japanese sewer system where an artist (Shigeru Saiki) likes to go & paint things, for some reason I'm not aware of. One day he discovers a beautiful mermaid (Mari Somei), half Japanese woman, half fish. He decides to paint her but it quickly becomes apparent that spending all her time in the Japnese sewer system isn't doing the mermaids health any good & she starts to develop huge puss filled sacs of diseased flesh on her stomach. The artist takes her back to his place & sticks her in a bathtub filled with water, unfortunately this does not have the desired effect & the mermaids entire body becomes engulfed in these disgusting sacs of rotten flesh which eventually begin to burst. The artist becomes desperate as his beautiful mermaid is rotting away in front of his very eyes!This Japanese production was directed by Hideshi Hino & I'm not really sure what to make of it or who it's supposed to appeal to, the entire Guinea Pig series of films seem to exist for no other reason other than a pointless exercise to test the endurance levels of it's audience out. The script is far removed from reality although it does try to redeem itself with a really sick & unpleasant twist ending that seems to contradict itself. Za Ginipiggu 4: Manhoru no Naka no Ningyo seems to exist for no other purpose other than to try & gross it's audience out at every available opportunity, which when I think about it isn't necessarily a bad thing by any means! It's hard to know what to make of it & as long as you know what your letting yourself in for I suppose it's quite good in a sick, perverse & bizarre sort of way. At only an hour or so in length it moves along at a fair pace & certainly grips the viewer as you want to know how this thing is going to end. The dialogue is sparse & little attempt is made at characterisation, but the filmmakers include just about enough to get by with.Director Hino doesn't do anything special in the film-making department, this thing has all the style & class of a TV soap opera. The gore is plentiful, the puss filled sores & sacs on the mermaids body really are gross, that is until they burst & start oozing blue, purple, green, yellow & white liquid when it becomes more comical. One thing this film uses are slimy worms, boy the filmmakers must have used 100's if not 1000's of the things! They start to slime & crawl their way out of the mermaids wounds & totally cover her, if you don't like slimy creepy crawlies then Za Ginipiggu 4: Manhoru no Naka no Ningyo isn't for you as there's loads of them. The nasty climax features a total body dismemberment, severed limbs, hacked out foetus's, a popped out eye, scalp removal & plenty of internal organs. Most of it's pretty disgusting & Hino doesn't mind long lingering close-ups of the action.Technically the film looks cheap throughout, it's point & shoot stuff. The special make-up effects range from gross to absurd but most of the time they are well realised. I never comment on the acting on subtitled films but I'm sure the material doesn't lend itself too well for a great performance, that female buck toothed neighbour was highly annoying though.Za Ginipiggu 4: Manhoru no Naka no Ningyo is a strange film, I can't really say it's a good film but I can't say it's a bad one as I thought it was OK & took a certain amount of sick pleasure from it but I personally wouldn't want anyone I know to watch anything like this. Equal parts disgusting, strange & pointless. One more thing, that guy's carpet must have been rank by the end of the film! I mean he could have put some newspaper down or something, right?

"Mermaid in a Manhole" is one of the stronger entries in the "Guinea Pig" Series. Basic premise: Artist finds sick mermaid in a sewer, takes her home and as she begins to deteriorate physically, uses her blood/pus/bodily fluids as paint for his painting. Off the wall story-line, decent gore effects, this installment of the "Guinea Pig" series is better than most. It's definitely pretty out there and gross, but after hearing about this series for years it still didn't quite live up to all the hype. Unearthed did a great job with the transfer, everything is crisp and clear, but this is another situation where I think a grainier, older looking copy may have actually added to the viewing experience. The DVD copy is SO clear that the pus/blood oozing from the mermaid almost looks like neon paint, which actually detracts slightly from the overall effect - but that's just a slight gripe on my part.Definitely worth a look for the "extreme" horror viewer, definitely not for casual horror movie goers. 7/10

*MINOR SPOILERS* Recently widowed painter spends all his time shifting through the local sewer to find motifs for his paintings. The sewer is build where the river dried up and he played at as a child, but the river's frogs and dragonflies are gone and now he is starring at dog cadavers, aborted fetuses and worms and he comes across a mermaid in the sewer, he met her as a child in the river. She stranded in the sewer when the river dried up. But the mermaid has a nasty infection, so he brings her home. She wants him to paint her and not spend time to treat her, so the infection grows worse, much, much worse! The viewer is treated to boils, pus, worms and blood. All very gross made, yet this is a very moving film as well, it is clearly the most artistic of the Guinea Pig movies, the ending is ambiguous, you have to see for yourself. This little gem of a movie is laden with atmosphere and symbolism, it has beauty midst its grossness. 8/10