Men Behind the Sun (1988)

Men Behind the Sun: Directed by Tun-Fei Mou. With Gang Wang, Dai Yao Wu, Runshen Wang, Zhe Quan. Japanese troops round up Chinese and Russian prisoners of war and take them to unit 731, where they’re horribly tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons.

“Thereu0026#39;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 youu0026#39;ve seen a lot of disturbing movies, you know exactly what Iu0026#39;m talking about. Youu0026#39;ll get the idea after one viewing, and you wonu0026#39;t be able to wipe some of the images out of your head, or still have nightmares about them, even years later anyway.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI heard about this movie in the 80u0026#39;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 thatu0026#39;s beside the point. Many of my favorite horror authors had brought up the movie when asked about the most upsetting movies theyu0026#39;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 couldnu0026#39;t find it. Years after Iu0026#39;d given up I found a bootleg copy from the laser-disc. This was after Iu0026#39;d seen Peter Jacksonu0026#39;s u0026quot;Braindeadu0026quot; uncut at a film festival, and pretty much decided Iu0026#39;d seen it all and couldnu0026#39;t be shocked anymore.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie is evidently based on real-life events during WWII, about a medical camp referred only to as u0026quot;Camp 731u0026quot; 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 couldnu0026#39;t pay me enough to watch because it was rumored to be real and I didnu0026#39;t want to even see a fake depiction of it, a cat. Iu0026#39;d heard that it made Ilsau0026#39;s SS Camp look like a day at the beach. Well, I donu0026#39;t know about that, but this is definitely one of the most disturbing and depressing movies Iu0026#39;ve ever seen- as the guy I bought it from said, u0026quot;Guaranteed to ruin your dayu0026quot;. 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 hadnu0026#39;t watched it, though.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis 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 u0026#39;campyu0026#39; and u0026#39;funu0026#39;, I donu0026#39;t think youu0026#39;ll be too cheerful during this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enIu0026#39;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. Thereu0026#39;s one experiment, though, I think it was called the u0026quot;frostbite experimentu0026quot; (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 donu0026#39;t want to u0026quot;spoilu0026quot; it if youu0026#39;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 Iu0026#39;m talking with someone about scenes in movies that really disturbed us, this is one of the first ones I think of. Itu0026#39;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 Iu0026#39;ve seen for sale give it away in the cover art, so donu0026#39;t look too closely at the box before you watch it (unless you want to know what youu0026#39;re getting yourself into before you rent it). Iu0026#39;ve got to hand it to whoever thought up that one, because I did NOT see it coming.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enIf youu0026#39;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 – itu0026#39;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 donu0026#39;t mind really disturbing, upsetting movies, or those (like me, I hate to admit) that want to say theyu0026#39;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.”