Men Behind The Sun

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I am laughing... so much... I can't breathe... Oh, Lord... Laughing out loud, for real, oh my...

Why, you ask? Well, here's why...

Because most people are outraged, shocked, horrified at the idea that an actual cat might have died in the shooting of this film. The director says it ain't so, but some people have decided they know better and so want to ban this film or whatever. Because animal cruelty is despicable.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals. But maybe I should tell you a bit more about this film...

It's about a Japanese camp in China, where inmates are used for medical experiments. Killing cats ain't cool; but when you see a woman being tortured by having her arms frozen then dipped in hot water and see her skin peeled off her bones, when you see cadavers being hacked off to be thrown in the crematorium, when you see people pretty much melting after a chemical attack, when you see a kid being cut open while still alive to harvest his organs, when you see a man's intestines explode out of his anus in a pressure-chamber experiment... well... a cat's death seems kinda not too bad. Especially since the special effects look too fucking real, so real you sometimes wonder if they are special effects. But of course they are. They must be. Right? You hope so. After a while, it looks more like a big-budget snuff film.

Sure, it wants to shock and sure: it shocks the fuck out of us. But that's the point. War and its atrocities are shocking and we should not shy away from them. It's too easy to turn a blind eye and ignore all of it. This film shows you what happened, unflinchingly and disgustingly.
The big joke/tragedy of it all is that when the Japanese knew they had to retreat, they destroyed everything. So all the torture and the deaths and the pain served no purpose whatsoever (as if it ever does). And you almost feel sorry for them. Almost, but not quite.

So, in case you still haven't figured it out: this is one fucked up film. It is disturbing and it is graphic and it made me nauseous. But it's also a film people have to see because, as I've said before: it's too easy to shy away from the horrors we inflict on our fellow human beings. The things shown here actually happened. Most of us have heard of Mengele and his fucked up experiments. Not many of us have heard of the atrocities commited by the Japanese during the war. This film takes care of that. And the people shown make light of the Nazis' experiments, so you know these dudes mean business.

Just make sure you don't eat 24 hours before watching it. Seriously. This is not a feel-good movie. It makes 'Ichy the Killer' look like 'It's a Wonderful Life.'

Sometimes you want to throw things at the screen and go: 'Oh, come on!' because it feels like a 'typical' Asian horror/over-the-top film. And it is. And it's also based on facts, so there. Even Chris Marker mentions the atrocities in 'Sunless.' This proves nothing, except that I've watched 'Sunless.' Today. Lucky break for me.

Then think that this is the kind of shit we are allowed to see... What happened/is happening in prisons all over the world that we will never see or know about? Well, let's not think about that for now.

Horribly, towards the end, you can't help thinking: 'Hey, thanks to Enola Gay, the Japs are gonna be the subjects of our own experiments!' Then you go: 'Awww, fuck, I'm as bad as they are.'

And you are. And I am. And we are. Because we're all humans.

In the end, we are informed that the evil commander did not get tried, but the Americans used his data. Really? Americans exploiting a horror to their own advantage? No, that can't be.

Things that make you go 'hmmm.' That is, if they don't make you puke.