Men Behind the Sun/Man Behind the Sun

By Jimmy Squarejaw

Japanese Unit 731 is one of those historical atrocities that seem almost too insane to be real.  Reminiscent of the horrifying human experimentation at Auschwitz performed by Joseph Mengele, the crimes against humanity committed at Unit 731 are enough to make you squirm at night and be thankful to not be anywhere near the Pinfang district of Harbin, in the largest Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II.  Whatever the fuck that means but thanks Wikipedia.  There are a few flicks about Unit 731 out there in movie land, the first being T.F. Mous’ Chinese exploitation flick MEN BEHIND THE SUN.

MEN BEHIND THE SUN did not make me tingle when I first popped it in the ol’ DVD player.  The production looked cheap, the dubbing was TERRIBLE (worse than that Martian-faced mutant Nikki Minaj trying to lip-synch live), and the Chinese writing on the screen during different scenes did not have subtitles so I felt like I was missing some possible points of reference or at least in the dark about the locations of scenes. 

The story follows a group of kids who are brought into Unit 731 to train under the Japanese Army.  They are subjected to consistent beating and will breaking by Lt. General Shiro Ishii, as well as other ranking officials that I never found the names for.  We also follow along the story of Lt. General Ishii as he tries to create a new bomb that can spread bubonic plague carrying fleas. After mingling with some naked female servants and getting really pissed he throws a ceramic pot that explodes all over the place inadvertently leading to inspire his “greatest idea.” Lt. General Ishii unveils to his solders the plans for a low temperature ceramic bomb that can spread the fleas without killing them in the process. Hurrah!  

There are plenty of horrific gore scenes in MEN BEHIND THE SUN covering executions, torture, and creepy human science experiments.  Numerous splayed open cadavers that were evidently operated on while still living, it’s called vivisection kids, are displayed throughout the film.  The movie also frequents the dank, hauntingly grim crematory run by a kooky old bastard who’s job consists of carting around bodies and body parts, stacking and propping up cadavers, and of course mass burning of said bodies and parts.  A really terrible scene, and from my understanding quite the controversial scene in it’s day, is the realistic looking autopsy scene on a naked lil’ local mute boy.  During the movie he becomes friends with the Japanese youth army and gets tricked into coming into an operating room full of giggling doctors in surgical garb.  After they strip the kid and bop his dick a few times, all while giggling, they lay him on a table, bop his dick again, and gas him to sleep.  While sleeping the crack pot team of doctors cut the kid open and remove his guts.  I gotta say I’m curious how the special effects were setup because someone did their homework and made this scene realistic.

MEN BEHIND THE SUN is rife with other torture scenes and war crime violence.  One notable scene where the doctors decide to kill a guy with sound decibels leads to his ass prolapsing and blowing out across the chamber floor resembling a creature from John Carpenter’s THING.  For the animal lover, like me, there is a horrible scene where a cat gets thrown into a pen of rats and ripped apart.  I’m not sure how real the carnage was during this scene but the filmmaker’s brings it up a notch in a later scene when the entire room full of rats is set on fire-and this is very real and very hard to watch. There is A LOT of footage of the lil’ creatures scurrying everywhere squeaking with flames roiling off of them!

I would have never thought this flick was as crazy as it was off of my first impression.  After watching it I completely understand why it has such a crazy reputation.  I'm sure there are some historical inaccuracies and I encourage people to look into the real and completely fucking crazy accounts of Unit 731.  Truth really is stranger than fiction, and in this case it's a lot more disturbing.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Gore: 4 out of 5, there’s a lot of fodder for the gore whore.

Rape: 0 out of 0, few close calls but no.

Animal Death: 5 out of 5, I think the cat lived but those poor little rats…….sad!

Necrophilia: 0 out of 0, not here.

Torture: 5 out of 5, this movie is based around the torture of thousands of people.

Overall Movie: 4 out of 5, a unexpectedly good watch.