Customer Reviews

Men Behind The Sun

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When discussing World War II, you'll hear a lot about German atrocities committed throughout Europe. You'll even hear about the Soviet Union taking upwards of 20 million casualties in that fight. What you won't hear much about, unfortunately, concerns the carnage inflicted upon China by the Japanese Imperial Army. Even to this day, Japan refuses to take full responsibility for the injuries wreaked upon their neighbors during that conflict. Once in awhile you might stumble over an article in the paper involving the Japanese government's activities in Korea. China is another matter altogether. Silence seems to reign about what happened on Mainland China between 1931 and the end of the war. Remember the North Korean nuclear test a few months back? Remember how the Japanese started talking about building their own nuclear arsenal as a counterbalance in the region? China went nuts when they heard that talk. If you don't understand the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s and the genocidal campaigns that occurred shortly thereafter, you won't understand why the communist regime threw a hissy fit about Japanese nukes. Welcome to the film "Men Behind the Sun," a movie that explains a lot about modern Asia's attitudes toward the Japanese.

When Japan conquered Manchuria in 1931, the created a puppet state called Manchukuo the following year. They used this area as a source for raw materials to fuel their war machine, and also as a staging ground for invading the rest of China. What followed was a nightmare for everyone involved. Arguably the worst atrocities centered on a place called Unit 731, a Japanese research facility that used mostly Chinese men and women (other nationalities died there too) as test subjects in order to develop various biological and chemical weapons. The scientists at the research facility often performed vivisections, without anesthesia, on prisoners of war and pregnant women. They messed around with amputation, sometimes to learn the effects of massive blood loss and sometimes to see what would happen if gangrene went unchecked. Other tests included using flamethrowers on innocent civilians and studying the killing and maiming capabilities of grenades. Worse, the laboratory dove head first into learning all they could about employing diseases as a weapon. They used ceramic containers filled with anthrax and cholera infected fleas as bombs in civilian areas, killing hundreds of thousands of Chinese men, women and children. Unit 731 developed this program by first testing it on inmates at the facility.

I could go on and on about the atrocities committed by these monsters. You can read about them on dozens of Internet sites devoted to Imperial Army war crimes. You can also watch T.F. Mou's "Men Behind the Sun". I went into great detail about what went on in Unit 731 above because we see many of these events unfold in nightmarish detail in the film. We see the Japanese scientists' penchant for vivisection taken to nauseating extremes in a scene involving a small child. We see the monsters put a guy in a high-pressure chamber so they can find out what happens when they turn the dial up as high as it will go. Experiments conducted to find out what occurs when a human being's limbs are frozen and then suddenly thawed leave the viewer with a horrific vision that will stay with you long after the film ends. A central theme of the movie revolves around the base commander figuring out how to spread fleas riddled with diseases via ceramic containers. Then there's the racist tone of the film. The Japanese Army's most powerful weapon was racism. By dehumanizing the Chinese, it was easier for the personnel in this facility to perform the experiments.

"Men Behind the Sun" is a grim, grim movie. I called it an exploitation film above, but I'm not sure about the accuracy of that label. The atrocities depicted in the movie hew so closely to what actually occurred in Unit 731, as documented by numerous investigations conducted after the war, that to call Mou's vision an "exploitation" flick does a grave disservice to the victims of the Japanese Army. The director himself doesn't think "Men Behind the Sun" is an exploitation movie; he makes his true feelings abundantly clear in an interview included as an extra on the disc. His motivation for the film is to educate viewers about the atrocities committed during the invasion of China. Well, this motion picture certainly does that in spades. A few subplots in the film, including one showing a contingent of recently recruited Japanese soldiers playing ball with a Chinese boy, probably serves as an effort by the director to inject a bit of humanity into the proceedings. That the boy in question ends up on an operating table in the movie's most grotesque sequence only underscores what the movie tries to teach the viewer, mainly the destruction of real people under the heel of the Japanese invaders.

The DVD version of "Men Behind the Sun" isn't the best in technical terms. The picture quality lacks sharpness, and the audio is only adequate. I'm not sure I'd want to see a pristine version of this film, and you'll likely agree if you ever sit down with it. Even the paucity of extras (the aforementioned text interview and a trailer for the film) isn't worth complaining about. You're watching this film because you either want an education about what went on in China during the war or because you want to see sickening scenes of gore. If it's the latter, you're missing the point--although you'll see gore that, in a couple of scenes, apparently involved the use of real cadavers. Yeah, it's that bad. I really suggest you read up on Japanese atrocities in Asia before watching the film. If you remember what you're seeing, for the most part, actually happened, I think you'll come away from the movie with a different attitude about what constitutes exploitation filmmaking.

Men Behind the Sun is the mostly true account of the "Bacterial and Experimental Unit 731." It depicts in unflinching detail the depths to which Japan went in the name of science and imperialism during WWII. Hyperbaric chambers, live unanaesthitised autopsies, flesh debridement, forced immersion in liquid nitrogen: it's all the stuff of horror, but it really happened and to countless numbers of people. The historical accuracy of T.F. Mous' film is impeccable. Every experiment in the film is portrayed with the utmost realism and shouldn't be taken lighheartedly. What's really distressing is the fact that the "test subjects" weren't soldiers or insurgents, they were chinese civilians, refugees, and Japanese defectors. All were innocent! This isn't a film with a nice glossy veneer covering the genocide and human rights abuses that are inherent in warfare. It gives us a front row seat to humanity in its rawest form. Either you can handle the movie and the fact that it happened or you can't. You be the judge. Sidenote: The war crimes that were commited by 731 were never cited under the Geneva Convention so all the physicians, scientists, and military personnel who participated in the atrocities got off with no punishment due to dubitable evidence (its kind of ironic considering that the Japanese goverment has video footage of the experiments that hasn't been releasaed to the public and also photographs which were released only 6 years after the war ended, go figure.)

Do not be fooled that Amazon will actually can get this dvd. My order has been on hold for over three months and I doubt that I can ever get it from them.
Meanwhile, this movie is a historical document of what the Japanese did to the Chinese during the wane of WW2. "Atrocity" does not begin to describe the brutality of this film. When you hear the rats squeal for the second time in this film, even the strongest stomachs should use the fast forward feature. Unless you REALLY hate cats and applaud deliberate animal cruelty, for which the director was blacklisted. The horrible thing about this movie is that these "medical experiments" concerning frostbite, plague injections, ceramic bomb tests, death by pressure chamber, and various murders involving babies stomped into the snow, ACTUALLY HAPPENED. The live vivesection is also a popcorn treat. (through research I learned that the little boy dissected alive was sold to the director by Chinese peasants who were tricked into thinking that they were supporting the revolution.
For the gore-mongers among you, even you must beware of severe nausea. Thank God that Ishi did not document the"Rape of Nanking" also perpetrated by the sick Japanese of that time. In Nanking, live babies were thrown into the air and caught on bayonnets, among other delightful sport. Have fun if you dare, but do not expect more than excuses from Amazon.

When people ask me what is the most horrific film I have ever seen, I tell them it's this one. Don't be fooled into thinking it's a spiced up horror film...it's not. Especially for UK horror fans, who think that finally getting their hands on the famed "video nasties" that were banned in our country for many misguided reasons in the 1980's is giving them access to the most unspeakable horrors ever committed to DVD. Most of that trash never approached what this film is prepared to dish out.

You can see from the other reviewers on this page just how seriously nasty Men Behind The Sun is, so I don't need to add any graphic description of the content. Suffice to say that you might really feel like you have seen live people (and animals) tortured, killed and dismembered. And in some scenes, you actually have. There's not a trace of humour or light relief in any of the proceedings, it all unfolds in the screen like some hideous historical lesson. Which of course, seems to be the point, as the movies puports to chronicle what went on in a notorious World War 2 Japanese POW camp, and shows the way they used the prisoners for all manner of appaling experiments.
It's really more like a ritual of endurance to watch some scenes all the way through, rather than entertainment as I know it. It's not even some sleazy low budget number, this is a glossy feature with seemingly considerable funding behind it. There is also a plot of sorts, and characters who have motivations and emotions, which probably makes the whole experience worse, to be honest.

Building up a film in this way is bound to disappoint a few gorehounds when they finally see it (yes I'm sure there are a few who will say "Was that it?" even to this), but for most people the dry, documentary approach to the shocking images that will assail you is a brutal slap around the senses from which you may not recover for a very long while.

On one hand, "Men Behind the Sun" is a disturbing, yet informational, look at the human atrocities the Japanese performed upon Chinese captives. From a simply educational point of view, this film speaks volumes to those who wish to learn more about the tragedies that took place during World War II.

On the other hand, those who wish to view this movie because of its rather blatant disclaimer of graphic violence and brutality may be left a little unhappy.

Clocking in at a little under 90 minutes, "Men Behind the Sun" is a tempestuous watch. A little tedious and boring at parts, though wildly interesting at others. Certainly not for true gorehounds and shock fans alike, its most disturbing scenes are few and far between. This leads me to believe that the main focus of the film isn't necessarily the graphic imagery or the violence, but the simple point that historically, the imagery and violence of the time period itself is much, much worse. Almost as if the director purposely created bits and pieces of the atrocities merely to remind viewers that they were part of something much, much more real.

Again, as an educational film, "Men Behind the Sun" works. As a splatterfest-loving horror film, it's tame.

Sure, it has its moments. While I feel most of the "gross" stuff was almost of amateur quality, it is monumental in the fact that an actual human cadaver was used for the autopsy scene. This earns the movie major points on both sides of the fence. Probably the only realistic portrayal of violence and/or graphic imagery in the film, the autopsy scene is the "high point" of the film.

..as for the cat scene, I expected to be horrified. I wasn't. Funny that with all the rats in there and all the "blood" that was covering the WHITE cat, not a pinch of fur was found pulled off anywhere else in the room. These must be very precise rats in the sense that they can damage a furry cat enough to draw blood, but not rip away any fur at all. PETA can rest easy on this one.

All in all, this was an interesting film, but only from the standpoint that it was based on something real. The sickening side of the film should trigger a mere snicker or grin from a gorehound, but to a casual viewer, this might warrant a pushing of the "STOP" button on his or her remote.

During the final days of World War II, the Japanese want to win the war if they can just create the perfect biological and chemical weaponry for as they feel they are losing the battle. They recruit young boys to turn them into full blooded soldiers ready to kill enemies thus the Japs decide to capture Chinese and Russian people for experiments in their prison camp where they use them as test subjects called "Manchut 731" as they torture and kill them for their testing to see if they can win the war.

Harrowing, ultra-violent and unpleasant WWII horror drama from Hong Kong that is one of the most controversial, infamous and disturbing movies of all time! this ain't no easy movie to watch but should be seen on how the Russians and Chinese suffered during that time. There's alot of graphic torture and gore scenes such as a man is in a decompression room as he is suffering naked then literally explodes his instestines out of his butt, a real cat being devoured by hordes of starved rats, and a autopsy of an actual dead child is shown in a graphic and vile manner. The film is a dramatic and horrifying look at how WWII really happened according to the Japanese before Hiroshima was bombed, it's not a movie for queasy stomaches and difficult to watch but it's a painstakingly devestating flick that will either make you weep or take a shower after seeing it.

The DVD here is average with English dubbing and the original Cantonese/Mandarin languages with no subtitles, the original theatrical trailer plus trailers to other Asian flicks, and a text interview with the director, this is not a flick for the faint of heart or those who are squeamish but if you can handle the flick then you'll find this to be a devestating experience.

Also recommended: "Combat Shock", "Hostel", "Bloodsucking Freaks", "Cannibal Ferox", "Jungle Holocaust" ( a.k.a. Last Cannibal World), "Caligula", "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky", "Ichi The Killer", "Beyond The Darkness" ( a.k.a. Buio Omega), "Battle Royale", "Mountain of the Cannibal God", "Eaten Alive!" ( 1980), "Se7en", "Versus", "The Untold Story", "Schindler's List", "Black Hawk Down", "Saving Private Ryan", "Windtalkers", "Man from Deep River", "The Pianist", "Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre", "Videodrome", "Tora! Tora! Tora", "Day of the Dead", "Fist of the North Star (Anime version)", "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", "Apocalypse Now", " The Longest Day", "Full Metal Jacket", "Platoon", "Tears of the Sun", "Street Trash", "Cannibal Apocalypse", "Demons", "Troma's War", "The New York Ripper", "Visitor Q", " 3 Extremes", "The Passion of the Christ", "High Tension", "Shogun Assassin", "The Great Escape", "Blood Feast", and "Cannibal Holocaust".

Although there isn't much I haven't seen by watching Cannibal Holocaust, Faces of Death, or Salo, I ran across this film on youtube, the full length feature. Although what I saw was not in english and there were no subtitles, I got the point of the film just the same. Never before have I felt so sickened over one scene then in this movie. There is a scene where a mother and child are taken into the cold. The child which is only an infant is thrown into the ice then stomped to death. The mother which is being held down has pots of ice cold water poured onto her hands and arms, and they let it freeze. After I'm assuming a few hours the ice is knocked away from her hands and arms, which are now black due to frost bite. They bring her inside and instruct her to stick her hands into a bowling pot of water, which she does, but it doesn't phase her because she can't feel anything any longer. After a few minutes she takes her hands/arms out of the water and a scientist cuts the skin around her elbows then rips the skin and meat away leaving noting but bone as the woman is left screaming with strands of skin and meat hanging from her fingers. This scene my dear friends repulsed me more so then the cat being thrown to the pit of rats.

in order for people who have not seen this to better understand it, i will compare it to two recent films, bowling for columbine and schindlers list. this is what schindler's list would have been if spielberg wasn't too busy trying to make people think how sad the events were. and whereas bowling for columbine helped people understand what is going on and pushed them on the path to discovering the truth, this film MADE you see and MADE you understand.TF Mous, the director, does a very impressive job of keeping the film from wandering dangerously into the area of exploitation, allowing the script to clearly get across its reason for existing. this film is the accusations that the victims of squadron 731 were never able to make, this is the bloodied finger pointing at the murderers of 3000 people for the sake of death. but then schindler's list did the same thing didn't it? it did....but it made the occurrence safe, they were distanced from us, everything was black and white (both visually and symbolically), it was safe in the past and it couldn't hurt us. man behind the sun does not allow us this safety, it shows us how well this was hidden from everybody, it shows how it is clearly tied to our present, it gives us a first person view into the sickness that man is capable of. in part, it does that by becoming part of the sickness, it is not afraid to get its hands dirty in order to make us understand, which lends it even more power. real corpses are used in several sequences, for a child's autopsy, for the decompression of a man. and there are scenes of animal torture (although the famous rats eating live cat scene is not real, the rats are obviously just licking the cat and the blood is clearly just poured on while the cat is probably drugged causing it to slow down and appear dead), clearly showing that nothing is safe from man when he allows himself to see everything as an object. another thing which makes this so applicable is its connection to America and our modern world. the events in the film are real. and the man at the centre of it all was later picked up by American intelligence and given immunity in return for handing over everything he had learned and coming to work for them. i believe it was called Operation Paperclip. and a hell of a lot of modern medical technology came from the horrific events depicted in the film. and i don't think i need to go into any detail discussing the way prisoners of war are used and abused.....*cough cough*... this is an intelligent, and very very honest film. it is horrific, and most people would be incapable of seeing it. but it is something that people should know about. there is not much we can do anymore about making the world a better place, but we must always strive to know what is going on, to never let our heads be shoved into the sand either by ourselves or the people who supposedly protect us. my only complaint with this film is the god awful sub-titles which often don't even bother translating stuff, which does make comprehension of what is occurring difficult at times, but that is no fault of the films.

While this film's subject matter is important (Japanese experiments on Chinese POW's in WWII), the execution of it is pedestrian and hollow. The film seems little more than a catalog of tortures, cutting from one to the other without any sense of narrative or reason, similar to the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom (but without de Sade's wit and brilliant prose style). There's a scene in which a cat is being devoured by rats (most articles on the net have said this scene is real. Others have said that it's fake. While you see the cat drenched in "blood", its fur is in tact. So one wonders). Regardless on whether this scene is real or not, it's completely useless, as it doesn't advance the film in any meaningful way. There is another scene where a boy is dissected by the scientists for his organs. A real cadaver (not the actual actor) was used for this, and it gives the scene an incredibly disturbing power. Bad English dubbing (there are no subtitles on the disc I rented) and cliched, stock characters don't help the film either. By the end of the film, you're numbed by it all. Thinking about the film now as I write this leaves me numbed, depressed, and disturbed, which may the point of it. This is a truly disturbing film, not for "gorehounds" looking for a good time. It is not easy to watch even for us jaded people, but is it good? Nope, not really. It feels like a cheap exploitation film disguised as something important.

I can't believe I'm seeing this..........Men Behind the Sun on sale from amazon!?

For anybody unfamiliar with this infamous Chinese films reputation all I can say is that this could very well be the nastiest film ever made! I am in a position to say that I've seen nearly everything "shocking" out there, ie 'Cannibal Holocaust', 'I Spit on Your Grave', 'Emanuelle in America', 'Baise Moi', the 'Guinea Pig' series, ect and anything on the 'video nasties' list and most films that have a reputation (btw I will admit as I write this I have not yet seen 'Aftermath') and after all this I still feel that this film is the most unsettling for a number of reasons: it depicts a TRUE story, the film has an unblinking realism that is nowhere present in any other film to tackle a similar subject matter, the cruelty of the men conducting these experients illustrates the darkest side of humanity which did and I guess still does exist and lastly, this film contains the most sickening animal cruelty ever caught on film.

During WW2 Japan occupied parts of mainland China and along with the many enormous massacres and genicides the Japanese army carried out for their emporer in the true 'samurai spirit', they also conducted cruel human experiments in germ warfare research camps using Chinese and Russian civilians and POWs. If the details of these Japanese atrocities are unfamiliar to you it is not your fault, while the Japanese govourment have humbly apologised for their treatment of US and Australian POWs, they certainly lose their memory fast when it comes to the subject of war crimes aginst the Chinese, the Nanking massacre and germ warfare camps such as these. Futhermore at the end of WW2 the same red army of "fighting Chinese allies" quickly became a "communist threat" and a defeated Japan with a new found passion for car manufactor and baseball became the friend in Asia thus Western history books and school classes ignore these events aswell.

Men Behind the Sun is a film made to tell this forgotten and ignored histrocial facts and is therefore one of the most important war films out there. The director has chosen to not spare the viewer any gruesome detail and even goes so far as to secure an actuall cadaver of a young boy (the boys parents where glad to release his body as they felt the film was important for China) for a inhuman surgurey scene in the film. The director even went too far in the opions of many with a scene in which a cat is thrown into a pit with hundreds of starving rats. While I felt this scene adds nothing to the film besides extra nastyness and am myself a vegetarian and oposed to animal cruelty, I find it hard to boycott or dismiss a film soley on the basis of it comtaining animal cruelty as thousands of cows die each day for mere hamburgers that serve little more purpose than to put fat into comsumers butts.(Please note: while I have always seen no reason to disbelieve the authenticity of the cat scene as the rats are set on fire for real later in the film and of course it's no secret that dogs and cats are eaten in Asia, alot of people feel, or at least like to say, this scene is faked by smearing fake blood on the cat and later using a prop cat puppet.)

Due to the graphic nature of this film it has being long associated with the gore film genre and occasionally called "the Cannibal Holocaust of the 80s" and most viewers watch it simply due to its gorey reputation (I know I heard of it this way) which is good in a sense that it will live in infamy forever in horror buffs discussions and lists but not so good that most will not take it seriously. However this unbeleivably horrific film already has huge cult status and I have no doubt that future generations will appreciate it for its brutal honesty.