Men Behind the Sun (1988)
Reviewed by: Chungking_Cash on 2003-01-28
Director Mau Dui-fai doesn't just cross the line of taste -- he flies over it like a Boeing 747 at 567 mph and while that may be the point for some audiences others will feel like they've been taken for a ride.

Based on fact, "Men Behind the Sun" examines specific crimes against humanity inside the walls of Unit 731, Japan's Auschwitz of biological research located in occupied Harbin [Northeast China], during the Second World War. The populace of territories that fell under The Rising Sun made for convenient guinea pigs which the Japanese dubbed marata (kindling). Inmates of the camp found themselves subjected to crude experimentation to help scientists measure the effects of every thing from climate change and decompression to the effectiveness of ammunition, bayonets, and explosives.

Originally conceived as a documentary Mau discovered while researching the subject that the Japanese had destroyed nearly every shred of hard evidence on celluloid that tied them to the death camp (Unit 731's hasty implosion not withstanding, which opens the film).

Mau compensates by loosing his testicles and having a ball exploiting the misery of the camp's subjects as some kind of heir apparent to Hershell Gordon Lewis.

Those in search of educational merit would be better off tracking down The History Channel documentary "The Horror of Unit 731" or dedicating an afternoon to the subject on Wikipedia.
Reviewer Score: 5