Men behind the sun

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Movie
German title Men behind the sun
Original title Chinese   黑 太陽 731  /  黑 太阳 731 , Pinyin hēi tài yáng 731
Country of production PR China / Hong Kong
original language Mandarin
Publishing year 1988
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 18 (cut)
Rod
Director Do Fei Mou
script Do Fei Mou
production Fu Chi
camera Fu Li Kawasaki
occupation
  • Gang Wang: Ishii Shirō
  • Hsu Gou
  • Andrew Yu
  • Mei Zhao Hua
  • Jin Tie Long
  • Quan Zhe

Men Behind the Sun (also: Hei Tai Yang 731 or Black Sun 731 ) is a Hong Kong-produced film from 1988 by Tun Fei Mou ( TF Mous ) about the Japanese unit 731 , which was stationed in Manchuria during World War II .

content

The film gives an insight into the activities around camp 731 (Camp 731) and is embedded in the presentation of experiments and murders that were carried out by the Japanese Army Unit 731 (Unit 731) towards the end of the Second World War. The focus of the plot is a group of Japanese youths who are being trained in Camp 731 and who are to be systematically trained off any human compassion that could stand in the way of a Japanese win at the war. The film depicts everyday life and human experiments in this concentration camp in sometimes drastic images (including cold and negative pressure chamber experiments, vivisection ). These are carried out on the Chinese civilian population and Russian, British and American prisoners of war.

controversy

In Japan, the film met with vehement criticism in nationalist circles, as they deny the existence and above all such activities of a unit 731. Most viewers consider the contrast between the sober, quasi-documentary staging and the explicit representation of emotional and physical violence to be particularly shocking. The latter was previously only known in this form from mainly fictional so-called splatter films. Since most of the events in Men Behind the Sun are historically guaranteed, the viewer cannot retreat to the position of fictionality . (See also criticism .)

The body of a boy who had died earlier was used in an autopsy scene. The release of the film is restricted in some states.

The film was shown in the Panorama program at the 1989 Berlinale and has since been made available to the German audience.

In 2012 the film was released for the first time in Germany as Men behind the Sun - The historical Edition with German-language dubbing. The version was cut by 9 minutes. The film has the age rating FSK 18. However, there is an uncut Austrian version.

Sequels

Of Men Behind the Sun three other parts were filmed, some of which only have a limited connection to the first part. Part 2 of the series, Men Behind the Sun 2: Laboratory of the Devil , is often viewed as a remake and, like Part 3 ( Men Behind the Sun 3: A narrow Escape ), comes not from TF Mous, but from Godfrey Ho . The unofficial 4th part, or its successor, Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre , by TF Mous deals with the massacre of the population of the Chinese city of Nanjing by Japanese troops. The connecting link is the denunciation of Japanese war crimes.

Reviews

Some critics complain that the film presents events as truths even though they are not sufficiently documented in the film or can no longer be documented at all. This is true in so far as the unit 731 destroyed almost all documents when it was withdrawn and only a few documents, such as the private records of Shirō Ishii , the head of the research unit disguised as a water treatment unit, were preserved. He gave these records to the Americans for immunity. Other documents were confiscated by the Soviet Union . The director relies on these sources.

In essence, the criticism of this film falls into the same controversy surrounding Japanese war crimes, such as: B. the Nanking massacre . It was not until August 2002 that the Tokyo District Court ruled that Unit 731 and the war crimes it had committed actually existed. As early as December 1949 , twelve Japanese military personnel were found guilty during the war crimes trials in Khabarovsk .

literature

  • –MAERZ– (Axel Estein): "Men Behind The Sun - Fried Chinese, or why the Japanese have such big teeth." In: Splatting Immage, # 6, March 1991

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=3207
  2. ↑ IMDb.com
  3. ↑ http://www.berlinale.de/de/archiv/jahresarchive/1989/02_programm_1989/02_Programm_1989.html
  4. ↑ http://www.amazon.de/Men-Behind-Sun-Historical-Edition/dp/B006J3GGJG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338803469&sr=8-1
  5. ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=3207
  6. ↑ https://ssl.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=1772&vid=335092