Mermaid in a Manhole DVD Review

As a child he would visit the river, his favourite place, and paint. Now as an adult and grieving for his wife who has left him, he returns to the river, only to find it’s now a stinking sewer. He comes across a beautiful mermaid (Mari Somei), whom he had met when he was young, she had been trapped there since the river was turned into the sewer. When he discovers that she's picked up an infection from her rotten environment, he takes her to his apartment to try to make her well. The mermaid's condition worsens; her body is covered in pustules which ooze pus. The artist (Shigeru Saiki) begins to paint her on canvas, and as she deteriorates, he uses her multi-coloured seepage as his medium. She begs him to complete his painting before the disease kills her, so the distraught artist frantically tries to complete his work, grief stricken that he may not be able to save her.

Mermaid in a Manhole stands out from the other films in the Guinea Pig series as it's not solely about gore and violence. It is sickeningly gruesome, but it is also a love story, sensitive and repulsive at the same time. The mermaid's rotting body gets quite disgusting towards the end, the weeping excrescence and leaking furuncle display is really something. I lost my appetite for a midnight snack when worms burst out of swollen bullas and she vomited up her infestation of blood, pus and wormy parasites. The site of the delirious artist trying to scoop up the worms from her dying body and plop them in a bucket will be too much for those with a weak constitution to handle. Massive respect must go to Mari Somei for going beyond the call of duty in her role. I wonder if the experience has put her off noodles? S.J.T.

Mermaid in a Manhole. 1988

Directed by Hideshi Hino