In 1935, Japan's Unit 731 conducts inhumane experiments. A doctor tries to free prisoners, including his fiancée, from the camp while witnessing atrocities. The film depicts the graphic even... Read allIn 1935, Japan's Unit 731 conducts inhumane experiments. A doctor tries to free prisoners, including his fiancée, from the camp while witnessing atrocities. The film depicts the graphic events at the camp without censorship.In 1935, Japan's Unit 731 conducts inhumane experiments. A doctor tries to free prisoners, including his fiancée, from the camp while witnessing atrocities. The film depicts the graphic events at the camp without censorship.
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I liked this film. I have seen the first one too and unlike what others have said, I don't think it mattered that much, I still enjoyed both. The worst scenes are not as scary or shocking as I had expected, still, on a par with the first movie so you won't be disappointed! I didn't find the film slow at all, the story was actually quite interesting and filmed with such a macabre/melancholy atmosphere that it worked well. Pity the English dubbed version I watched would have taken away the atmosphere from hearing the original audio track and dialogue. Still, it managed to convey the feeling. I am now going to get the third one and I expect it to be worse than either of the first two as there are only so many ways of telling the same story right...?
"Laboratory of the Devil" is one of the sickest movies ever made, though it's not as bad as its predecessor. It also lacks the sense of realism that "Men Behind the Sun" had because it replaces documentary style filmmaking with stylish camera work. It also goes for plot and character development instead of just showing the horrors of the camp. This is not to say "Laboratory..." isn't violent; it's just that the violence does not have the impact of that in "Men...".
The plot follows a man who is enlisted in the infamous squadron 731 in Japan. He is also forced to leave behind his fiance, and due to the secrecy involved with the location of squadron 731, he cannot have any kind of contact with her or any of the outside world. As he is forced to kill the Chinese, his mental state begins to deteriorate. "Laboratory..." has many scenes of various inhuman deeds being performed, which include the "skin-ripping" seen in the first film, a VERY detailed "autopsy" on a living person, and people being given lethal injections just to see how long it takes to kill them. All of these scenes are extremely realistic, and are bound to sicken even those with the strongest stomachs.
Had "Laboratory..." had the documentary style of "Men...," it easily could have surpassed it. Godfrey Ho's direction is once again very solid, and the special effects are almost too realistic, which really adds to the film. The acting is also very good. Like "Men...," this film also suffers from terrible dubbing (It sounds like those dubbing the film are talking through a mouth full of food). Like the first one, this film is not all about violence; it has a very strong message about Japanese WWII war tactics (They kidnapped numerous Chinese off the streets and killed them inhumanly in experiments. The Japanese have not apologized to this day for their actions against the Chinese.).
This film is for those with strong stomachs who want more than just violence in their films and also is for gorehounds. My rating: Seven out of ten.
The plot follows a man who is enlisted in the infamous squadron 731 in Japan. He is also forced to leave behind his fiance, and due to the secrecy involved with the location of squadron 731, he cannot have any kind of contact with her or any of the outside world. As he is forced to kill the Chinese, his mental state begins to deteriorate. "Laboratory..." has many scenes of various inhuman deeds being performed, which include the "skin-ripping" seen in the first film, a VERY detailed "autopsy" on a living person, and people being given lethal injections just to see how long it takes to kill them. All of these scenes are extremely realistic, and are bound to sicken even those with the strongest stomachs.
Had "Laboratory..." had the documentary style of "Men...," it easily could have surpassed it. Godfrey Ho's direction is once again very solid, and the special effects are almost too realistic, which really adds to the film. The acting is also very good. Like "Men...," this film also suffers from terrible dubbing (It sounds like those dubbing the film are talking through a mouth full of food). Like the first one, this film is not all about violence; it has a very strong message about Japanese WWII war tactics (They kidnapped numerous Chinese off the streets and killed them inhumanly in experiments. The Japanese have not apologized to this day for their actions against the Chinese.).
This film is for those with strong stomachs who want more than just violence in their films and also is for gorehounds. My rating: Seven out of ten.
"Man Behind the Sun 2" aka "Camp 731: Laboratory of the Devil" is one of the most worthless films I have ever had the displeasure of seeing. Godfrey Ho (who is incorrectly listed as being an alias for T.F. Mous) managed to take Mous' disturbingly realistic film (which was originally intended to be a documentary and ended up falling somewhere in between docudrama and exploitation stomach turner) and completely flush out every element that made "Man Behind the Sun" so hard to view.
What's worse is that Ho doesn't even make a weak attempt at a plot. Instead he literally copies Mous' work word for word only stopping to pump up the amount of blood, torn flesh, innards, and severed limbs. Ho never treats his victims with honor, rather he goes out of his way to completely exploit the unwatchable torture and mass executions these innocent prisoners of war endured.
Though, the most grueling ordeal is having to sit through a film that is based on real documentations of Camp 731, which was set up in Harbin, China by the Japanese during World War II. Inside Camp 731's Nazi-like interior
captured Chinese, Koreans, and Russians were subjected to inhuman biological warfare testing. In the end out of 3,000 men, women, children, and infant prisoners not one was left alive and some 200,000 more Chinese died from neighboring areas when the camp was imploded and the Black Plague (which was being experimented with) was unleashed.
Godfrey Ho should live in shame.
Zero Star Rating out of ****
What's worse is that Ho doesn't even make a weak attempt at a plot. Instead he literally copies Mous' work word for word only stopping to pump up the amount of blood, torn flesh, innards, and severed limbs. Ho never treats his victims with honor, rather he goes out of his way to completely exploit the unwatchable torture and mass executions these innocent prisoners of war endured.
Though, the most grueling ordeal is having to sit through a film that is based on real documentations of Camp 731, which was set up in Harbin, China by the Japanese during World War II. Inside Camp 731's Nazi-like interior
captured Chinese, Koreans, and Russians were subjected to inhuman biological warfare testing. In the end out of 3,000 men, women, children, and infant prisoners not one was left alive and some 200,000 more Chinese died from neighboring areas when the camp was imploded and the Black Plague (which was being experimented with) was unleashed.
Godfrey Ho should live in shame.
Zero Star Rating out of ****
Both "Man Behind the Sun" and "Maruta 2" are feature films, instead of documentarys. "Man Behind the Sun" fits historical facts, but "Maruta 2" clearly not. It is a fictional war love tragedy. Historical facts are a serious matter. This kind of fictional story is not helpful to people's understanding of history. It will only encourage the hatred of Chinese nationalists, because they may not be able to distinguish between fact and fiction.
The plot of this movie is relatively empty, and the part describing Ida's personal story does not seem to occupy the main line. Hayashida's death was inexplicable. Bing is not exactly Aiko's savior.
The plot of this movie is relatively empty, and the part describing Ida's personal story does not seem to occupy the main line. Hayashida's death was inexplicable. Bing is not exactly Aiko's savior.
Even though I swore to myself I would never lay eyes again on 'Men behind the Sun' or any of its sequels, I am now reviewing part 2. Go figure! I guess the call of the extremes just was too irresistible. At least now I clearly recall why I took this pledge
. These films are almost unbearable. The 'Men behind the Sun' franchise might as well be the most controversial and shocking series of films ever made (maybe a tie with the 'Guinea Pig' series, though) and handles about despicably explicit experiments performed on prisoners in a Japanese army base during WWII. These unfriendly Japs are developing germ-bombs to disable their enemies and a whole lot of other sick stuff involving nitroglycerine etc
There's an ultra-thin wraparound story about a young soldier who's sent to serve in the camp against his will but that's of minor importance. This second chapter is less repulsive than the original, but still contains more than enough sequences to make your stomach turn. Luckily the make-up effects are often cheesy and unquestionably fake. The acting is weak and the directing (by Hong Kong B-movie legend Ho) is atrocious. This is a film without any values. The only reason why it is made is because the DVD looks good in a cult-collection like mine.
Did you know
- TriviaThe uncut version was originally refused classification by the OFLC in Australia in September of 1992. One month later, the film was resubmitted, only heavily cut. It received an R18+ rating for cinema release, but when the heavily cut version was resubmitted for a video rating in 1994, it was again refused classification and banned in Australia, even though the same print was given a cinema rating. Finally, in 2004, the film was resubmitted and received an R18+ rating for the original uncut print on video.
- Alternate versionsAfter the film was released on DVD in the Netherlands and then in Austria in 2012, the world's first Blu-ray followed in Hong Kong in 2019. It was noticeable here that the autopsy scene and other bits of violence were filled with an SD image source. Obviously, the original HD master, possibly the original theatrical version from Hong Kong, was heavily censored. But unfortunately, not all of the missing scenes were completely restored, so this Blu-ray is to be classified as cut. It then became curious with the Blu-ray in the USA in 2023, because this was apparently based on the same HD master, but reworked with a completely different color scheme and the inserts for the autopsy scene, for example, were added in a slightly more detailed way. It was therefore assumed that the film had finally been reconstructed uncut, unfortunately, they only created exactly the same cut version as on the Hong Kong Blu-ray. In September 2024, the German-language Blu-ray premiere in mediabooks followed in Austria, which explicitly advertised that the version is "longer than in Hong Kong and the USA" and uncut. Except for a surprising alternative shot in one scene (the HD master is similarly explicit and even longer than the old DVD), the version on this new Blu-ray has been correctly reconstructed to the uncut version and is therefore recommended in principle. What was actually missing in Hong Kong and the USA is largely unspectacular, or at least it is by no means the film's hardest moments: a (presumably racist) folk song and an implied rape were only hinted at here and run longer in the uncut version.
- ConnectionsEdited into Hei tai yang 731 si wang lie che (1994)
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