Cody Rapp (biscutbuu69)
Possible Spoilers! A Hong Kong Horror War film from 1995 from the director of 'Men Behind the Sun' and tonight's movie is 'Men behind the Sun 4' aka 'Black Sun: Nanking Massacre'In 1937, Japanese troops raid the Chinese city of Nanking to execute a planned massacre by subjecting over 300,000 helpless civilians to various tortures and atrocities before slaughtering them all.This film is actually based on the war crime The Rape of Nanking. Now for those of you who do not know The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking during the second world war over 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. The most notorious atrocity was a killing contest between two Japanese officers. The contest— a race between the two officers to see which of them could kill 100 people first using only a sword, this contest was covered much like a sporting event in newspapers with regular updates on the score over a series of days.Much like the first 'Men behind the sun' film this one isn't fully true but its still an interesting film but its still just pure exploitation, I don't want to say fun so I'll say nastiness. If you like the first film for how violent, upsetting and interesting it was this one is about the same accept this isn't medical experiments its war crimes which one could argue is worse. The acting is pretty decent along with the writing. The camera work and lighting are really good. But the show stealer here is the gore, its over the top and times and just right at others, the film doesn't get boring like the first sequel to MBTS. The film is graphic, upsetting, kinda cheesy, but all and all its just classic exploitation. And its not for everyone you shouldn't expect the best cinematic representation of War atrocities from a series of exploitation films. Some times the film even replaces the gorier scenes with historical photos of these things happening like pictures of dead innocent children who where massacred.On the gore meter from one to ten One being something like 'The Corpse Grinders' and Ten being something like 'Braindead'. 'Black Sun' is a 6 It isn't super gory but with the medium amount of gore and the fact that this film is based on actual war crimes brings it up a notch. Also there is a good amount of baby death in this one too!'Black sun' while an interesting film still isn't as good as MBTS but its a step in the right direction for the films subject matter. One film I think honestly is only worth one watch its interesting but not amazing disturbing or violent to warrent many viewings and honestly for this film its a good thing. 4/5
brasil60
This film is truly shocking, not in the sense in that its a bad movie but in the sense that the events that took place during the war were truly disturbing. The film also includes true footage taken including old black and white photographs which in part are more disturbing than the film its self.More shocking is the fact that at the end of the movie they tell you the grand total of number of people that were killed during the invasion of Nan king and that the film footage is not as bad as what really went on during the war.Overall i wouldn't say that this movie is all that great, but its worth checking out if you enjoyed men behind the sun or other exploitation movies or if you are just interested in the history of the Japanese invasion of China.
christopher-underwood
This is worth viewing and the DVD Special edition well worth buying for the 'extras', but there are one or two problems. I think the main difficulty is that the director has available to him awful, original footage of events and decides to mix these in with what for the main part can only be described as exploitative material. Nothing wrong with a good old exploitation movie of course but here the, probably cheaply done, massed bodies and brutal slayings look nothing compared to the original sickening footage. There are moments like the burning of the bodies at the river's edge that are undoubtedly powerful but for the most part we are only too aware that this is a one event movie spun out for the sole reason of showing the spilling of blood and guts and getting across the message that the Japanese are evil. Having said all that the DVD distributors have exceeded themselves and included notable items including a most illuminating 1944 US propaganda film, 'Why We Fight: The Battle Of China' - not to be missed.
Mahatma Fabrizi
Arriving at my door, this video, which I had procured from E-Bay.com has many extras and features and is very-well put together, but the film itself, unbeknownst to me at that time, would prove to be my undoing: Quite by accident I'd come upon a dread vision more fantastic than anything from out of Dante; putrified, bodies piled in heaps on beaches in the Chinese province of Xixioung, a, like so many flesh-balloons ripening and bursting in the afternoon sun. On this the camera lingers, unflinchingly -- Pop! a corspe, bursting at the seems, abruptly inflates and then pops open strewing it's organs amid a splash of half-uncoagulated blood, and then another, and then another...Finally, toward evening, this ranch of carnage is set ablaze and we are treated to a symphony of sickening popping sounds and the abysmal sight of what can best be described as a field of human popcorn yielding it's unwholesome fruits. The heat from the resulting conflagration, you see, creates pressure within the floury endosperm of corpse-meat, causing it to explode, and, horrific to relate, turn itself inside out.In addition to a severe case of panic/anxiety disorder, a screening of these terrors, celebrated in this film, "Rape of Nanking-- Solar Disc of Umbra" (literal translation) resulted in something my doctor has told me is called "restrcutring cognitive distortion", a condition wherein brain fluid backflows (refluxes) into the lobular cavities, sometimes getting into the ears, occasionally, I understand, even into the mouth. It produces ultra-intense headaches at least twice a week. Actually. before I started taking Pantroprazole, it was occurring not just twice a week, but more than twice a day. In addition to the nightmares, in a very small percentage of people, including me, it produces nearly impossible to describe creepy feelings like something besides just brain fluid is crawling around in my head.Additionally, it also seems to produce, or, at least, trigger creepy feelings and pressure in my head that vaguely resemble the anxiety I experienced when first watching the terrific imagery presented in this title, but are unlike any headache I've ever had. My doctor says that those headaches have nothing to do with the Nanking Massacre, but I don't believe him.And when dead bodies start erecting themselves, and march out of their graves, or people with crippled skeletons are restored to perfect form, CNN will be there ...
