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58 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :-
One of those movies that you definitely only need to see once., 9 May 2001

Author: Rusty Martin (Rusty-61) from Cell Block H

There's only a handful of movies I can say that about- Threads and Funny Games are the other ones I can think of off the top of my head. If you've seen a lot of disturbing movies, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You'll get the idea after one viewing, and you won't be able to wipe some of the images out of your head, or still have nightmares about them, even years later anyway.

I heard about this movie in the 80's, when I went out of my way to see every movie or video I could that was supposed to be shocking, disturbing, or really sick. Actually, I still do that, though these days I do try to read about it first, to make sure it is worth spending my money on. So that probably means I need some sort of therapy, but that's beside the point. Many of my favorite horror authors had brought up the movie when asked about the most upsetting movies they'd seen, and someone I talked to who had seen it just shook their head grimly when I asked them about it. I looked everywhere for this movie but couldn't find it. Years after I'd given up I found a bootleg copy from the laser-disc. This was after I'd seen Peter Jackson's "Braindead" uncut at a film festival, and pretty much decided I'd seen it all and couldn't be shocked anymore.

This movie is evidently based on real-life events during WWII, about a medical camp referred only to as "Camp 731" where the Japanese perform really nasty and unusually creative medical experiments on the Chinese prisoners. This includes women, children, and, in the one scene you couldn't pay me enough to watch because it was rumored to be real and I didn't want to even see a fake depiction of it, a cat. I'd heard that it made Ilsa's SS Camp look like a day at the beach. Well, I don't know about that, but this is definitely one of the most disturbing and depressing movies I've ever seen- as the guy I bought it from said, "Guaranteed to ruin your day". Fortunately, my day was already pretty much ruined, as I was home sick with the flu and feeling wretched the day I watched it. I probably would have been able to fall asleep way earlier if I hadn't watched it, though.

This is definitely not an enjoyable movie, or fun to sit through. Any Italian cannibal movie I can think of is more upbeat than this. Even if you were one of the people who thought the un-cut Ilsa was 'campy' and 'fun', I don't think you'll be too cheerful during this.

I'd actually heard about what were supposed to be the most upsetting scenes, like the poor man in the decompression experiment that sort of implodes in a horrible way that I think is safe to say has never been filmed before or since, when all the air is sucked out of the room, and the very graphic autopsy of the one character in the movie that the filmmakers go out of their way to make sure you care about. Man, that was cold-blooded, but I was expecting that. There's one experiment, though, I think it was called the "frostbite experiment" (most of the experiments are preceded by a title card, which gives the movie an even more cold-blooded, documentary feel) that caught me totally off-guard. I don't want to "spoil" it if you're really into getting caught off guard, but it was one of the rare times I was so shocked when watching a movie I actually gasped and cursed out loud when I was watching something by myself. It takes a lot to shock me, but whenever I'm talking with someone about scenes in movies that really disturbed us, this is one of the first ones I think of. It's been over 5 years since I saw that scene but I still remember it waaay too vividly. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) some of the newer DVDs I've seen for sale give it away in the cover art, so don't look too closely at the box before you watch it (unless you want to know what you're getting yourself into before you rent it). I've got to hand it to whoever thought up that one, because I did NOT see it coming.

If you're into non-stop over-the-top gore, then you might get bored during parts of this. The filmmakers spend some time making you feel sorry for the characters in other ways. This film is well-made, well-acted, has very realistic (way too realistic) gore, and nothing is ever played for laughs - it's not a low-budget splatter movie.The entire movie is just completely depressing, downbeat, and disturbing to the very last frame, and I really only recommend it to people I know who are pretty jaded and don't mind really disturbing, upsetting movies, or those (like me, I hate to admit) that want to say they've seen it all. You also might want to recommend it to any smug people you know that brag about how nothing makes them sick.

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33 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
don't believe the sequel hype, 19 April 2003
Author: soaringhorse

Man Behind the Sun is a worthy film, and readily smeared through its association with a number of schlock "sequels".

Given that most reviewers here can't read Chinese and are measuring the film by its disgust factor, it's easy to see why "Godfrey Ho" is wrongly credited with directing it, instead of just "parts" 2 and 3. The actual director, Mou Tun-fei (aka T.F. Mous) is alive and well and living in Taiwan at last report. He is also a committed Chinese nationalist, which helps to explain the genuine, almost uncontrollable anger in this film.

The "sequels" on the other hand are money-spinners. Anyone who has seen the original should know there was no scope for a sequel set in a camp that had already been destroyed at the conclusion of WWII. At best, "part" 2 is a remake, and a cheap, shabby one at that.

The film is also careful to note significant historical elements, such as how the US government protected some of the criminals portrayed in this film, partly in order to get hold of the scientific data produced at the expense of the lives of thousands of Chinese civilians. If you read books on the matter you will also discover that the vast majority of Japanese scientists implicated in these experiments went on to enjoy successful careers in Japanese universities.

There was no Simon Wiesenthal to chase up and prosecute these individuals, despite their conspicuous presence under a lengthy US administration, and to this day the two governments prefer not to talk about this particularly vile component of Japan's wartime legacy. "Stuff happens," eh Mr Rumsfeld?

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27 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely disturbing and devastating film., 17 February 2004

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

T.F.Mous' 1987 film "Man Behind the Sun" has to be one of the most disturbing and unpleasant movies ever made.It tells us about the atrocities committed by Japanese scientist during the Second World War in China.The acting is pretty good and I think that some of the actors did an outstanding job.The film offers also some of the most revolting gore I have ever seen.Some scenes are truly sickening for example a man is put into decompression chamber and the pressure is steadily increased until he shoots intestines out of his anus-actually Mous used a real corpse to make this scene.There is also incredibly graphic autopsy of a young mute boy-a real cadaver was used for this sequence as well.The scene where a real cat is attacked and consumed by literally thousands of starving rats is incredibly vile and unnecessary.Overall,"Man Behind the Sun" is pretty hard to find,but if you liked "Cannibal Holocaust" or "Bunman:The Untold Story",then give it a look.However fans of cute American horror should avoid it like the plague!

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26 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Not cute, 9 June 2004

Author: Andreas Moss from Tromso, Norway

There's been various contests around the internet. "What is sickest movie ever?", "What's the most controversial movie ever?", "What's the most gruesome movie that has ever been made?".. Men Behind The Sun often wins the whole thing. Notoriously banned in a whole lot of country. For a long time unavailable, but has now been released again to the surface.

And now I finally saw it. I didn't look forward to it. Is it as bad as I thought it would be? Well, yes and no. It works pretty much as a normal movie at first. A lot of the story is based around other things than just showing exploitation.

First its centered around these kids(around 16 years old or so) that is joining the 'youth corp' on the camp, and them being learnt how to see the Chinese as "maruta's"(experiment animals or something like that). The kids are quite sweet and you see them having a bit of an argument on their officer Kawamata(which drives them a bit hard). The officers at the camp are not seen as evil men either. They're almost likable actually.. and in my opinion, very well-acted.

The kids play good too. The movie has a good story even though its more famous for other things.

The exploitation scenes then. Well, I thought the scene when they threw the baby away from a screaming hysterical mother and sent the mother away was perhaps the one that showed most inhumanity. And the officer didn't care to kill the baby either, he just shuffled snow with his foot into its carpet so it would stop to cry.

The movie shows that kind of thing three times, and to me that was much worse than the hyped cat scene for example. I don't think the cat actually was killed either. It looks more like it was drugged and they threw some fake blood on it.. you never see any open wounds on it or anything. I know and love cats, I know a cat that is in pain, that one wasn't.. it just seemed annoyed by the rats that surrounded it before it went to sleep.

The scene when they trick that happy little boy, drugs him and starts an autopsy on him is pretty bad though. They have used a real children body here, so I imagine that can be a bit hard for some to watch. The rats that were on fire... probably real too.

All in all though I think its an important movie that should be deemed for being a good movie for people who want to learn about the gruesomeness of it all. Its not really a movie directly for gorehounds exactly.

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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore…, 30 July 2006

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

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.

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23 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
You ain't seen nothin' yet! Truly unforgettable., 13 January 2002
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Watching 'Men Behind The Sun' is a very odd experience, because it's difficult to tell what exactly it is trying to achieve. On the surface it is presented as a supposedly serious expose of some of the little known war crimes committed by the Japanese in WW2. But it is made in such a trashy way (compounded by the badly dubbed copy I watched) that it comes across closer to an 'Ilsa, She-Wolf Of The SS' exploitation movie, minus the sex.

The reason this movie is so notorious is mainly because of a handful of scenes. One sequence, the frostbite experiment, is shocking, but obviously special effects, so gorehounds will treat it like a Romero or Fulci gore scene. However, two others, the autopsy scene, and the decompression chamber scene, appear to use real corpses. These are gruesome but strangely fascinating. What really pushes this movie over the edge though are the two scenes which involve animal abuse. One is very short but involves a horde of fleeing rats being burned alive. This scene is obviously real. The other is the notorious segment which involves a cat being eaten alive by rats. This appears to be real, and if it is, it's the most reprehensible thing I've ever seen in a movie. If it is faked it is one of the most convincing special effects I've ever watched, and even so, the cat is obviously highly distressed.

I must admit I still don't know what to think about this movie. If the film makers genuinely intended this to be a serious look at Japanese atrocities I would applaud it for bringing to attention a disgusting series of events that should not be forgotten. However, as I am dubious about their sincerity, I remain nonplussed. I can't really get all high and mighty about it, because after all I did watch the thing, and therefore I would feel like a hypocrite for having done so. All I can say is that if you want to see an extreme piece of film making and are not easily disturbed, 'Men Behind The Sun' is truly unforgettable.

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16 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Men Behind The Sun, 4 January 2001
Author: (grob248@aol.com) from Los Angeles, USA

"Men Behind The Sun" belongs to a totally different category than "Cannibal Holocaust," to which everyone seems to measure up this movie. I haven't seen its other installments, but this first "Men Behind The Sun" is a genuine historical drama with a strong documentary feel, and the notorius torture/experiments scenes only emphasize the film's brooding purpose. Hell, I will go as far as to say that this has far more in common with "Schindler's List" than with the horror genre. Purely in terms of "disgust" aspect, I guess it doesn't surpass "Cannibal Holocaust," but because this movie deals with the actual historical events, it actually turned out to be way more disturbing, despite the "fake documentary" style used in "Cannibal Holocaust." This movie is not a video nasty despite its brutal content. This is very strong and disturbing stuff, but it should be seen.

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Dark Days, 13 December 2006

Author: ElijahCSkuggs from Happy Land, who lives in a Gumdrop House on Lolly Pop Lane

Going into Men Behind the Sun I knew that it was a serious movie that contained animal cruelty and just some seriously graphic material. And the rumors were true. It contained both. But I wasn't expecting a seriously well-made movie.

Men Behind the Sun centers around Squadron 731 and how it tortured and killed thousands and thousands of people so Japan would have a great chance at winning the war with Russia. Really the movie is almost entirely about how Squadron 731 can improve their chance to win the war. Be it through torture type situations like extreme temperature or through air-borne bacteria. It's been said that while Squadron 731 was up and running, it's said that there wasn't a single survivor. It's not just an hour and forty-five minutes of death and torture, even though it is close. The movie follows a large cast, whether they show the Generals and troops talking about how important this is to Japan or they show the victims and how they need to tell the world what is happening. It's an incredibly strong look at some of the darkest days this world has ever seen. Many a country have committed awful acts, and I suppose this is Japan's. Even though I hear Japan hasn't officially said it took place.

Like I said before, Men Behind the Sun is a strong, powerful and graphic film filled with visuals the average film-goer would rather not see. Truthfully, there's a couple scenes I'd rather have not have seen. There's another comment on here that says "One Viewing Is Enough" and I can't agree more. The only people I would recommend this movie to are history/movie/gore buffs. 8.5 outta 10

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Think you've seen it all? Try this one for size!, 7 October 2007

Author: ba.harrison from Hampshire, England

Watch Man Behind the Sun expecting something along the lines of a Chinese Ilsa movie and you might be in for a surprise: this film has none of the camp qualities to be found in most POW exploitation—it's pure cinematic harshness from start to finish with not a buxom leather-booted commandant in sight.

Set at the end of WWII, director T. F. Mous' harrowing tale centres on Camp 731, a medical centre where the Japanese attempt to perfect bacterial weapons, using Chinese prisoners as guinea pigs in their nasty experiments. Mous' objective is to reveal to the world how his people suffered at the hands of their enemy, and in this he totally succeeds; the atrocities that are depicted in Man Behind The Sun are completely sickening and disgustingly convincing.

From the moment that a woman's baby is smothered in snow by a soldier, to the depressing, downbeat finalé in which the camp is razed to the ground by a retreating Japanese army (after shooting and burning all prisoners), this unflinching portrayal of man's inhumanity to man is a total gut-wrencher and certainly not recommended viewing for the easily offended.

In this film, people are treated worse than animals and the 'experiments' they have to endure are shown in every nauseatingly graphic detail: a woman has her arms frozen and then dunked in hot water, allowing the flesh to be easily ripped from her bones; a prisoner is placed in a decompression chamber resulting in his intestines erupting from his body (a scene rumoured to use a real body, but which, according to the director, was actually achieved using special effects); a boy is tricked into being the subject of a live 'autopsy' (cast-iron stomach necessary for this bit—real autopsy footage was shot for this scene!!); and a group of prisoners are 'crucified' in a field and used for target practice by Japanese bombers.

On top of all this there are also two moments of animal cruelty that will have pet-lovers up in arms: a cat is thrown to hungry rats and is eaten alive (not sure if this was done with FX or not, but the cat doesn't look too thrilled), and a load of rats are also set on fire (now this is definitely real!!).

As you have probably gathered, Man Behind The Sun is hard going and should be watched with caution. However, it is a well made film that does what it set out do do—educate viewers about the horrors of war. It's a hard one to rate, because it is such a gruelling movie and can't really be described as entertaining, but I'll give it 8/10 for being so genuinely disturbing.

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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Mix of History and Horror, 9 September 2005

Author: EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Personally, I like this film a lot. Many people go on and on about the "gore" scenes and "animal" scenes, and I feel that anyone who is fixated only on those aspects of MEN BEHIND THE SUN is missing the point. This film is a loose re-creation of real events and should be viewed as such. I don't really see this as a "horror" movie at all. It's basically a graphic depiction of the types of things that the Chinese suffered at the hands of the Japanese during WWII - and these events are still being swept under the rug or denied entirely. I feel that this is a historically relevant film, and should be viewed as such. Now for the gore... there are definitely some scenes in this film that will have the "gorehounds" cheering. Some are very well done (autopsy scene, decompression chamber scene), others are more poorly executed. Yes, there are a few scenes of animal violence, but anyone familiar with any Euro/cannibal film (CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, CANNIBAL FEROX, etc...) will have been exposed to scenes several times more gory and disgusting involving animals. I think the main difference for MEN BEHIND THE SUN is that the main scene in question involves a cat, and most people have more empathy for a cat than for a sea turtle, for instance. Anyway, if a cat getting mauled by rats is extremely offensive to you, this may not be the film for you. I believe that T.F. Mou is a Chinese patriot and set out to "set the record straight" about some things that affected him and his people, and he chose to do this in an unpleasant, unflinching fashion, and for this I applaud him. Obviously the movie was shot on a relatively low budget and it shows at times, but I feel this film is still very effective for what it is trying to accomplish. Again,I would not personally consider MEN BEHIND THE SUN a horror film in the genre sense of the word, although the actions depicted are pretty horrific. I also don't feel that this film is as gory as some have made it out to be, although there are definitely a few rough scenes. If you are seeking this film out to watch a violent bloodbath, you may be sorely disappointed. If you are at all interested in history and can stomach a few intense scenes, than this may be the film for you. Definitely recommended... 9/10

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