Men Behind the Sun 4 (1995)

In 1937, Japanese troops raid the Chinese city of Nanking to execute a planned massacre by subjecting over 300,000 helpless civilians to various tortures and atrocities before slaughtering them all.

Director:

Tun Fei Mou (as T.F. Mou S.)

Stars:

Liang Zhang, Yung Pan, Shao-tien Hsiung

Cast

Credited cast:
Liang Zhang
Yung Pan
Shao-tien Hsiung
Wen-ting Chiang
Wen-tu Pan
Hua Shao
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vincent Benziger
Hsi-ho Chang
Chiu-liang Chen
Liang-Yue Chen
Ming Chiang
Liang Chou
Wei-li Chou
Shiao-tan Chu
Jeremy W. Cleaver

Storyline

Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre is an uncompromising portrayal of the war crimes perpetrated by the Japanese Imperial Army upon the Chinese military and civilian population of Nanking during the occupation of the city. Hailed by critics as one of the most disturbing films ever released, Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre is unflinching in it's depiction of the barbaric cruelty with which the occupying army raped, pillaged and terrorized the defeated populace.

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Plot Keywords:

massacre | japanese | chinese | war crime | rape | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

7 July 1995 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Men Behind the Sun 4

Company Credits

Production Co:

T.F. Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film's final afterword states: "According to the verdict of the war crimes tribunal in 1947, the Japanese Army was judged to have raped over 20,000 women and killed 300,000 Chinese during the Nanking Massacre. One-third of the city was destroyed. Property was plundered at underestimated losses. No family was spared."

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Connections

Follows Maruta 2: Laboratory of the Devil (1992)

User Reviews

getting across the message that the Japanese are evil

This is worth viewing and the DVD Special edition well worth buying for the 'extras', but there are one or two problems. I think the main difficulty is that the director has available to him awful, original footage of events and decides to mix these in with what for the main part can only be described as exploitative material. Nothing wrong with a good old exploitation movie of course but here the, probably cheaply done, massed bodies and brutal slayings look nothing compared to the original sickening footage. There are moments like the burning of the bodies at the river's edge that are undoubtedly powerful but for the most part we are only too aware that this is a one event movie spun out for the sole reason of showing the spilling of blood and guts and getting across the message that the Japanese are evil. Having said all that the DVD distributors have exceeded themselves and included notable items including a most illuminating 1944 US propaganda film, 'Why We Fight: The Battle Of China' - not to be missed.