Men Behind The Sun (1988) (DVD Review)
Directed By: T. F. Mous
Starring: Wang Gang, Wu Dai Yao, Wang Run Shen
Rated: UR/Region: 1/widescreen/Number of disc: 1
Available from World Video
Men Behind The Sun is the true story of the Japanese prison camp, Manchu 731, where people were subjected to tremendous horrors. This film is very powerful and hard to watch but it’s a film that should be seen by everyone, to show the fact that there were more victims that suffered during World War 2 than most people are aware of. Near the end of WW2, Japan is losing the war so a prison camp is created to test new biological and chemical weapons that might be able to help them win. In order to test these new weapons, the Japanese need to use test subjects, so they capture and use Chinese and Russians as guinea pigs for their cruel and barbaric experiments. The Japanese refer to the test subjects as Maruta, which translates to the word material. We follow the experiments performed on the Maruta by the crazy leader who runs the prison camp and a group of young boys that are enrolled in the camp but they cannot stand to deal with this cruelty. Although all 731 prison camp members disappeared into the darkness and all of the witnesses & records were destroyed, the bloody story of the devil 731 Bacterial Camps marked the immortal history of true and real, cruel and merciless evil.
This is a film that has a pretty infamous rep behind it and at one point I guess I could see why that is the case. The film came out in 1988 and it does pack some extremely hateful moments as babies are hurt and people are victims of some extremely violent and gory stuff. I think the movie seems like an Asian take on Salo at the heart of things because both films seem to be right in the same ballpark at the end of the day. If you like one you should like the other. Then again, if you hate one you willprobably hate the other.
Of course some of the effects are a bit dated. I can appreciate the none-CGI days as much as anyone and more so than others, but I think there were some really bad props here at times. Still, the movie can be a hard pill to swallow at times. I don’t think I’d go as far as to call the movie a good movie by any means regardless. It is certainly a movie that in its time could turn some heads it just seems to lose some steam due to what we have seen come out since and especially recently. The movie packs some shocks here and there, but if you have seen some stuff it does lesson the blow a lot.
– Trailers
