Cult Labs - Men Behind The Sun (1988)

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Men Behind The Sun (1988)

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Story of a Japanese terror camp in the end of WW2, where the Japanese are using the Chinese as guinea pigs in terrible experiments to develop deadly bacterial-plagues.

Hmmm where to start? this notorious film is sick & based on real life atrocity's which makes the film hit hard! There is all types of evil torture,baby killing & cruelty in this classic, also worth pointing out the effects are done using real cadavers & cadaver body parts. Defo check this out but be warned unless you are sick in the head this film is pretty shocking to say the least.

This is the only one I haven't got out off all 4 films. It is pretty strong viewing but a decent one all the same tho.

A landmark movie but bloody depressing! The performances are almost too believable, especially Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii.

Many of the director's other films are interesting as well.

There's an extensive docu on him on youtube that was never released it seems,it's titled Black Sunshine: Conversations with T.F. Mou.

I have a US release of this that's uncut but horribly dubbed. Needless to say I'm not holding any hope that this gets a UK release. The sequence of the cat getting eaten alive by plague rats is enough to get it censored at least.

From what I recall it has had a very limited release here, with just the cat scene missing .

Here a quote I just found,

A cut version of this film was approved for a UK release by the BBFC, which missed out the scene where a cat was thrown into a room full of live rats. However, the film was not available on general release and only available for sale in Chinese video shops.

Apparently that scene was faked?

I own the Dutch dvd btw.

I've seen the film on YouTube.The cat scene wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, having read about the film before watching it.I wouldn't be surprised if it was faked.It is a pretty horrible and depressing film experience overall though.

It's also interesting to note that the real life Ishii was recruited by the US to 'advise' on their biological weapens programme and was granted full immunity from prosecution for war crimes. Who says crime doesn't pay, eh?

Quote:

Arrested by the US occupation authorities at the end of World War II, Ishii and other Unit 731 leaders were to be thoroughly interrogated by the Soviet authorities. Instead Ishii and his team managed to negotiate and receive immunity in 1946 from war-crimes prosecution before the Tokyo tribunal in exchange for their full disclosure of germ warfare data based on human experimentation. Although the Soviet Russian authorities wished the prosecutions to take place, the USA objected after the reports of the investigating US microbiologists. Among these was Dr. Edwin Hill (Chief of Fort Detrick), whose report stated that the information was "absolutely invaluable", it "could never have been obtained in the USA because of scruples attached to experiments on humans", and "the information was obtained fairly cheaply". On 6 May 1947, Douglas MacArthur wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948. In this way Ishii was never prosecuted for any war crimes.

Richard Drayton, a Cambridge University history lecturer, claimed that Ishii later went to Maryland to advise on bioweapons. If Ishii did travel to Maryland, it was most likely to advise at Fort Detrick, a well known major biomedical experimentation facility in Frederick, Maryland. Another source says he stayed in Japan, where he opened a clinic where he did examinations and treatments for free. He was especially concerned with the health of children. In his final years he converted to Christianity. He kept a diary but it did not reference any of his wartime activity. He died of throat cancer at the age of 67.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gag (Post 343748)

From what I recall it has had a very limited release here, with just the cat scene missing.

Here a quote I just found,

A cut version of this film was approved for a UK release by the BBFC, which missed out the scene where a cat was thrown into a room full of live rats. However, the film was not available on general release and only available for sale in Chinese video shops.

No, the BBFC also cut the shot showing a number of rats on fire.