The film's cinematography is done in a way that induces thoughts of soap operas. You know, that "overly polished, but attempting to look like real life" style. It is quite a change from the typical "movie" style that the opening credits are done in. I'll have to give it another watch to see how I really feel about that.The plot of Mermaid in a Manhole is that a lonely man, simply called The Artist, has recently lost his wife and is seeking inspiration for his paintings. His secret place is a sewer which used to be a lush river, whose banks he used to hang out on during his childhood. One day, his beloved pet/animal friend is dead and he frantically seeks to use it (I'm not sure what the animal was, by the way… it looked too big for a rat, but too mangy for much else) as artistic inspiration, when he encounters a mermaid. He becomes enthralled and obsessed with said mermaid, and decides to take her home – you see, she has some sort of funky flesh-eating infection, and he believes he can cure it. Also, by taking her home with him, he can just sit and paint her all day.Mermaid in a Manhole is a very quiet film. I mean that in a couple ways – first, while there is a lot of dialogue in parts, in most parts, there is silence with only the environmental sounds as the backdrop to the scenes. It's quite nice, and adds to the realism that the film was going for. The cast is very small, which also aids to the quiet of the film. In fact, you don't really see more than those four characters until the end.Now, with the above stated, I have to say that the amount of over-acting in this film is astounding. Most of the over-acting comes from The Artist (Shigerui Saiki). The man can overdo it with the best of them. The nosy neighbor does her fair share, as well. The Mermaid (Mari Somei) and The Artist appear to communicate telepathically – actually, The Mermaid appears to do all of her communicating telepathically and hams up her voice-overs just as well as the other two. In fact, I think the only one who doesn't ham it up in this is the boyfriend/husband/brother (their relationship is unclear) of the nosy neighbor – and this is possibly because he has so few lines.Though Mermaid in a Manhole is included in the Japanese splatter library of film, it's really not as gory or disgusting as you would think. Sure, it's not for the weak-stomached, what with its bleeding/worm spewing flesh eating mermaid virus, or the pus paint in seven colors. But, I certainly have seen much worse.If you want something that is extremely cheesy and fairly entertaining, with subtitles, I would recommend it. It's certainly not a bad film, but it definitely isn't good.

A painter finds a mermaid in a sewer. Then she starts to get sick. "Paint me," she insists.There's gore and disturbing scenes, but the story itself seems to have a depth to it. Even if there really isn't much of a story at all. I blame my love for the movie on my psychology degree, and my own dreams. The sewer is the unconscious. He takes the mermaid from the sewer to save her, to make art out of her -- only she's infected. But if she came out of his unconscious, then really, isn't he the one that's infected?There is definitely a sort of Cronenburg, Kafka, "Picture of Dorian Gray" feel to the movie. Repulsive, and yet I couldn't stop watching, even as I squirmed in my seat.Definitely not for everyone, but what's there is powerful -- even though the acting and special effects sometimes make the movie feel more like camp than true horror.

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?

Any hopes I had for "Mermaid" were soon awash in the gallons of pus and blood and ranks of maggots that oozed and sloshed and swarmed out of the poor thing's belly, which is already looking like a bubbling peanut-and-butter jelly sandwich by the 15 minute mark. And may I say: nice pustule make-up, guys. Even in closeup, with the straight razor lancing them, you'd swear those are real cankers. To quote from the script: "Aaaaaiiiieeeeee!"And that's it, alas. Hideshi Hino has a powerful imagination only hinted at here, in this little squiggly glistening exercise. The sewer sequence, with its monologue about memory and loss, and the Poe homage as the painter settles down to immortalize his dying mermaid suggest we're in for deeper treats. Nope: maggots, mainly. And OK already: you can hardly blame a gore film for being gory. But as readers of his horror manga know, Hino, like his heir apparent Junji Ito, can be a captivating storyteller. Here he's only skin deep.