Men Behind the Sun (1988)

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

**Some Spoilers Will Follow** Many people who see this film describe it as exploitation and disgusting. I hate to tell you, but this is what war is, even though what really happened goes far beyond what is allowed. All the experimentation depicted in the movie did actually happen, and much more. The movie itself is not particularly sickening, but nor is it for the faint of heart. The use of a real cadaver may seem like (pardon the pun) "overkill", but it only adds to the realism and just goes to show how strongly the people of China want justice for crimes that to this day have been pretty much suppressed (mostly by Japan and the US government, who gave Shiro Ishii and some of his staff immunity from prosecution in exchange for his medical data). The only complaint I really have of this movie is the poor job done in dubbing it in English which is perhaps some of the worst I have ever seen, but keep in mind that this film was primarily intended for Chinese audiences, not American or European. Some compare this to "Cannibal Holocaust", and while there are some similarities the movies are very different. The main difference being the sadistic nature and heinous acts actually happened in "The Men Behind the Sun". All in all, a truly brilliant piece of cinema that shows just how evil men can be and how incredibly depraved they can act.**A side note** To all you people out there screaming about animal cruelty, I assure you that no animals were hurt in the making of this movie (yes, the cat scene was totally fake).

World War II is the background of Men Behind the Sun. Based on the historical facts of the Japanese army using Chinese prisoners for medical experiments; the film pulls no punches, with its' graphic depictions of the cruelty inflicted by the captors. Some of the prisoners were injected with virus's to develop a form of bubonic plague for use against the civilian population. Others are tied to crosses and exposed to infected fleas. The few who attempt to escape are shot down as they run away. Much like the German's, the Japanese responsible for the atrocities, destroy the facility in order to cover up their misdeeds. The film stirred a huge controversy as an exploitation flick, but the director defended its' accuracy and use of grisly footage to get his point across. The torture scenes are horrific, the worst being a young woman tied up outside in the freezing cold as water is poured over her hands. She is later brought into a lab and forced to dunk her hands into a chemical which removes all of the flesh and all that is left is bones. The scientists watch it with no sympathy for the victim, as it is for weapons research to be used on the enemy. The point of the movie is to show that the holocaust was not limited to the Jewish population of Europe, but was a worldwide phenomenon. Men Behind the Sun is tough to watch but informative nonetheless.

With a couple of exceptions, generally any film to do with war is guaranteed to bore the hell out of me. However, Men Behind the Sun is generally held in high regard by gore fans as one of the most sickening, disturbing and shocking films ever made; and it's that alone that made me want to see it. After the first twenty minutes or so, I was beginning to think I was in the wrong film as I was watching an extremely badly dubbed film about a bunch of young Japanese soldiers horsing around at a prisoner of war camp, and it didn't seem like it was going to turn into the shock-fest I was expecting. However, things soon start to turn around... The film is apparently a history lesson, and takes place in Japan towards the end of the Second World War. The plotting is very loose (anyone that has seen any of the Italian Nazi films will have an idea of what to expect) and really only focuses on a bunch of experiments carried out on prisoners of war at a Japanese prisoner of war camp.The whole atmosphere and style of the film is very grim and depressing; the camp itself is portrayed as an entirely hopeless environment, and that pays dividends once the film begins showing the most grisly and shocking scenes. The film is not wall to wall nastiness and the memorable scenes are few and far between; which is probably a good thing considering how strong the shocking scenes are! I counted six scenes in particular that are liable to shock viewers. Sequences that show women have their hands frozen and prisoners crucified in a bomb field are obviously special effects; but the compression chamber scene (which is very well shot) is rumoured to feature a real corpse, while the autopsy footage is apparently real also. It's the scenes of animal violence that I will remember for the longest, however; a scene that sees rats burned en mass and another that depicts a cat being eaten alive by rats are too realistic to be fake. Animal lovers should take note. I really can't say I enjoyed watching this film; I appreciate the way that it goes 'that extra mile' at times and I do think that all adults should have the opportunity to experience something like this if they choose to. However, while I enjoy a good gory film; I also watch films primarily for entertainment, and this one is just too grim to really be liked. Good enough for a single viewing if you think you can stomach it.

Men behind the Sun is based on "facts" surrounding events carried out by a secret Japanese military outfit called Squadron 731, who were based in Manchuria. They used the local Chinese as their guinea pigs in their quest to find the ultimate in chemical and biological warfare. The film really lives up to its reputation, there is a scene where a mute Chinese boy is lured to their operating theatre and is dissected while alive, the actor was replaced for actual dissection by a real corpse, the dead boys body had been donated by his parents who had allegedly wanted the film to highlight the atrocities. There's another horrible scene in a pressure tank, that has also been mooted to have also been a corpse, although the director has denied it, where the man in question has his insides shoot out his ass as the pressure builds up, Nice!. Added to all these delights are many scenes of torture, there is also some baby killing, animal cruelty and death, child nudity, the setting alight of hundreds of live rats and a live cat is thrown into a room of rabid rats, who then devour it in an extremely overlong scene that last four minutes or so, very extreme and quite sickening. A hideous film that relates just how cruel man can be to his own kind. I still found it a thoroughly compelling viewing.