Hei tai yang 731 (1988)

Director:

Tun Fei Mou

Writers:

Mei Liu (writer)
Wen Yuan Mou (writer)

Release Date:

1 December 1988 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Japanese troops round up Chinese and Russian prisoners of war and take them to a place called Squadron 731, where they are grotesquely tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons.

Plot Keywords:

Biological Weapon | China | Mutilated Child | Blood | Axe

Cast

Hsu Gou
Tie Long Jin
Zhaohua Mei		(as Zhao Hua Mei)
Zhe Quan
Gang Wang
Runsheng Wang		(as Run Shen Wang)
Dai Yao Wu
Andrew Yu

Also Known As:

Hak taai yeung 731 (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Man Behind the Sun (Hong Kong: English title)
Men Behind the Sun
Squadron 731

Runtime:

105 min | UK:102 min (cut)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) | Australia:Refused Classification (original rating: 1989) | USA:Not Rated | Australia:R (re-rating on appeal) | Singapore:R(A) | New Zealand:R18 | South Korea:18 | France:-16 | UK:18 (cut)

Company:

Sil-Metropole Organisation

Quotes:

Dr. Shiro Ishii: A small rat can beat a cat. Fleas and germs can defeat bombers and guns. This is... the basic theory behind Squadron 731. It is also my philosophy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Conversations with T.F. Mou (2010)

The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore…

Pretty much everything they say about this movie is true... It's sick, unnameable cruel and shocking, but also unforgettable and quite impressive. "Men Behind the Sun" is not just another wannabe-controversial Asian horror movie, but a devastatingly graphic and accurate history lesson that mostly became controversial due to a handful of notorious scenes. The events take place during the final months of WWII in a Japanese prisoners' camp. The Japanese, allied with the Germans, are slowly but surely losing the War and one General and a couple scientists believe it's up to them to turn the tide by experimenting with bacterial weapons and recruiting young boys to fight for their country. In the middle of their heavy training schedule, these boys are forced to witness some of the most inhumanly sadistic and repulsive experiments ever. The victims are ordinary Chinese and Russian citizens – men as well as women and newborn children - that were captured during battle & held prisoner in lamentable conditions. I'm really not going to debate how "real" the footage of these experiments is (the human cadavers are believed to be real and also the animals-sequences look suspiciously real), so I'll just confirm they're highly disturbing and, in case you're just a little squeamish, stay as far away from this movie as you can! Nevertheless, "Men Behind the Sun" remains one of the absolute greatest Asian shock-productions ever! The acting performances are really convincing, T.F.Mous' directing is solid & professional and the locations and scenery appear to be genuine. The emotions you experience whilst watching this movie are almost indescribable. How are you supposed to behave when observing the detailed autopsy of a defenseless little child? Not even to mention the utterly gruesome experiment in the decompression chamber? Does this make you a sick voyeur yourself or is it actually necessary to see this in order to acknowledge the factual horrors of war and reassure yourself that this may never happen again? Any movie able to provoke these kind of thoughts in your head is a milestone of cinema and nothing short of a masterpiece.