Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

T.F. Mou's Black Sun: 731 (Man Behind the Sun) is the rarest of the rare, a film that is horrifying in its portrayal of inhumanity and still manages to document a period in history rarely acknowledged in the western world.Black Sun: 731 is an important film. It documents the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army Medical Corps against the Chinese and Russian prisoners of war taken in the Sino-Japanese war.It's all true.Mau's original intention was to create a documentary of the activities at Unit 731 but it is believed that no film from that time in history still remains. If any does it is locked in the deepest depths of a Japanese medical school vault, or in a military installation. Therefore Mau was obliged to bring this story to the screen in docudrama format. That is, fictional stories based around real events where the main idea of the film is the events that frame the story used to move the viewer along to a conclusion. This was popularised with, surprisingly enough, an American made-for-television movie named "Holocaust" that chronicled the Nazi extermination of European Jews during the Second World War.Mau tells three separate yet important stories in this film. The first concerns the return to power of General Shiro Ishii, the leader of Unit 731 and inventor of the Ishii Battlefield Water Purification Pump (I am not sure the name is correct) following a charge of corruption filed by one of his staff members. The second concerns the coming-of-age of several Japanese Youth Corps members who arrive at Unit 731 at the beginning of the film. The third story follows the attempts of three prisoners to get information about the Japanese act ivies out of the camp.The acting is uniformly excellent.All three stories are effectively framed by the closing months of the Second World War as more and more pressure is put on the camp to develop bacteriological weapons for use against the Americans and Russians.Again, since this film is a docudrama the stories are less important than the frame of the movie, and the frame of the movie is bacteriological (and other medical) experiments performed on prisoners of war, and in some cases, innocent civilians.

Many of you who's found your way to this page on IMDb, probably already know pretty much what you're getting yourself into. It's terrible, horrifying, sickening, disgusting yet well-made, well- acted and well-directed. It's truly a unique movie, and I can appreciate all the things it does oh so right. If you're looking for something that can show you the ugly side of war or human beings, then you've found it - this is the real deal, and makes Schindler's List look like a day at the theme park in comparison. But I gotta say, that this is too much. While everything that's being showed doesn't feel out of place or bad in any way, this is not why I go watch movies - it made me depressed and made me feel HORRIBLY bad after I watched it. While the truth of war and reality of things can work in movies, it doesn't work here - it goes beyond whatever we call entertainment or even film, and becomes a document of the most disgusting events you can imagine. If you're a moviegoer like me who appreciates good movies and well done ones, I can't recommend this to you. If you're just looking for something shocking and grossed out, well, this is probably for you. But damn man, I'm telling you, be READY for what to come. I expected it to affect me, but not this much. It's not so much the events that makes the film horrible - which many reviewers makes it look like - but the overall feeling of authenticity and complete darkness and depression. If this film wouldn't be so damn well-made it'd probably just be another forgotten world war 2-movie.I've been trying my limits for a long time now, seeing "the worst there is to see" and never really being content or felt that my limit was reached. Well, now it is, and I've frankly had enough. Seeing blood and guts are fine compared to the truly depressed and sickening feeling I had after watching this.To sum the movie review up: After I saw it I couldn't eat for a week. If that's something you're looking for, then you'll be one pleased movie-goer, but if you're like me and still value the little peace you have in your body, then stay away.

With a couple of exceptions, generally any film to do with war is guaranteed to bore the hell out of me. However, Men Behind the Sun is generally held in high regard by gore fans as one of the most sickening, disturbing and shocking films ever made; and it's that alone that made me want to see it. After the first twenty minutes or so, I was beginning to think I was in the wrong film as I was watching an extremely badly dubbed film about a bunch of young Japanese soldiers horsing around at a prisoner of war camp, and it didn't seem like it was going to turn into the shock-fest I was expecting. However, things soon start to turn around... The film is apparently a history lesson, and takes place in Japan towards the end of the Second World War. The plotting is very loose (anyone that has seen any of the Italian Nazi films will have an idea of what to expect) and really only focuses on a bunch of experiments carried out on prisoners of war at a Japanese prisoner of war camp.The whole atmosphere and style of the film is very grim and depressing; the camp itself is portrayed as an entirely hopeless environment, and that pays dividends once the film begins showing the most grisly and shocking scenes. The film is not wall to wall nastiness and the memorable scenes are few and far between; which is probably a good thing considering how strong the shocking scenes are! I counted six scenes in particular that are liable to shock viewers. Sequences that show women have their hands frozen and prisoners crucified in a bomb field are obviously special effects; but the compression chamber scene (which is very well shot) is rumoured to feature a real corpse, while the autopsy footage is apparently real also. It's the scenes of animal violence that I will remember for the longest, however; a scene that sees rats burned en mass and another that depicts a cat being eaten alive by rats are too realistic to be fake. Animal lovers should take note. I really can't say I enjoyed watching this film; I appreciate the way that it goes 'that extra mile' at times and I do think that all adults should have the opportunity to experience something like this if they choose to. However, while I enjoy a good gory film; I also watch films primarily for entertainment, and this one is just too grim to really be liked. Good enough for a single viewing if you think you can stomach it.

This film should get a double vote. Technically it's superpoor. Acting is poor, story is just an excuse to show the drastic images, everything looks very cheap. Maybe my impression was strengthened by the fact i watch the version with English dubbing which made things look even more grotesque. (Generally i hate dubbing, so this might not be a disadvantage in somebody else's eyes) Overall quality of this movie is really below the acceptable ranks.But on the other hand - it's something i could call "absolutely hadcore" as the amount, inventiveness and quality of violence raises this film to very high positions in my Extreme Film ranks. What can i say? I just enjoyed the creativity of its inventors regarding graphic visualization of brutality and i am pretty sure many other people would not. The general poorness of the pictures added special spice to it and after the slow beginning I couldn't wait to see more. This film is not for everyone, but those who think they might like it will love it. It's cruel, bloody, violent and extreme. You have been warned!