Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Excellent but underrated film

Admirable film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This movie was mentioned in passing in Dr. Craig Reid's masterpiece, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MARTIAL ARTS MOVIES OF THE 1970s, so I decided to check it out. My bad. "History is history," we're informed prior to the first scene- and it's in that frame of mind that I sat through this one. Needless to say, this isn't the kind of movie I could recommend to anyone other than a scholar or historian. And animal lovers beware: we see a live cat being fed to a roomful of ravenous rats (fake or not, it's a gratuitous depiction that only distracts the viewer- as is the subsequent burning-alive of these rats; which clearly was NOT faked). I have to admit that my regard for a filmmaker goes WAY down when I see them engaging in on screen animal cruelty (faked or not, because even faked depictions of this kind of thing all too often inspires the real thing): the lack of empathy is apparent, but it's the taking of a LIFE that ****es me off.

World War II is the background of Men Behind the Sun. Based on the historical facts of the Japanese army using Chinese prisoners for medical experiments; the film pulls no punches, with its' graphic depictions of the cruelty inflicted by the captors. Some of the prisoners were injected with virus's to develop a form of bubonic plague for use against the civilian population. Others are tied to crosses and exposed to infected fleas. The few who attempt to escape are shot down as they run away. Much like the German's, the Japanese responsible for the atrocities, destroy the facility in order to cover up their misdeeds. The film stirred a huge controversy as an exploitation flick, but the director defended its' accuracy and use of grisly footage to get his point across. The torture scenes are horrific, the worst being a young woman tied up outside in the freezing cold as water is poured over her hands. She is later brought into a lab and forced to dunk her hands into a chemical which removes all of the flesh and all that is left is bones. The scientists watch it with no sympathy for the victim, as it is for weapons research to be used on the enemy. The point of the movie is to show that the holocaust was not limited to the Jewish population of Europe, but was a worldwide phenomenon. Men Behind the Sun is tough to watch but informative nonetheless.

If you think what the Nazi's did to Jews was some terrible stuff. That has nothing on what the japs did to other Asians, the true and horrifying things they did is terrible to the point it's unforgivable. This film doesn't try to bash on modern japan, but accurately portrays the war crimes they have committed. Some criticize this of being a exploitation film, I have no idea why since it accurately shows the experiments the japs did to other human being during WW2. The japs went bonkers when this film first came out and some still do, which is just idiotic since they are throwing a hissy fit for showing the truth. People are literally treated worse than animals in this and it's very graphic, also painful to watch. Yeah it does have animal cruelty in this which led some viewers to throw a hissy fit. I wonder why, since nobody cares when they see human being getting killed on screen, even when it's real. But when it comes to animals it's like a whole another story for them. Anyways this is a difficult film to watch all the way through since it really is genuinely disturbing, so watch with caution.7.3/10

because it's one of those films which takes a long time to think about. I've put off writing about this for some time but I do want to write about it. Not only is it one of the most disturbing, depressing and disgusting films I have ever seen, it is also extremely powerful and surprisingly well-made. The director goes to many lengths to make this more than an exploitation film, but at points it can't escape being an exploitation. T.F. Mous (director) gives this a documentary feel as he (loosely) chronicles the true events that occurred during World War II at Squadron 731, a Japanese experiment facility where they tested biological weapons on Chinese and Russian prisoners of war.Before watching this movie I had heard and read countless reviews about how disgusting and vile the movie is. I had heard plenty about the violence and gore and how bad it was. Having seeing countless exploitation and splatter movies before I honestly didn't know what to expect considering this was meant to be one of the worst. This movie is much more than gore, though, it is a brutal re-telling of some of the worst war crimes committed. The acts of torture and murder are all spaced throughout the movie because in between T.F. Mous tries to develop the story and characters. He goes into some detail about the Youth Corps and their training, he tries to flesh out some of the young ones and the commanding officers and even some of the prisoners. It shows he is more than just a director trying to create a shlocky horror movie, but someone who wants to tell an accurate account of the atrocities humans can commit so easily.That is not to say the gore is weak, all of it is realistic (too realistic) and disturbing. Just the thought of some of it makes me feel sick and cringe. It's enough to turn most people off food for awhile. However, one of those instances of gore put me off enough to deduct 3 marks off the movie. The use of real animals in two scenes completely disgusted me. I have always stood by my opinion that real animals should never be killed for the purpose of a film and in this case it is no exception. Aside from that it is one of those movies you must see before you die, only once, however.3½/5