As i am a gore hound, i almost died when i heard about this movie - and i was thinking; "Yes, finally something unusual to be showed", after being a bit tired of all these 2000's so called "splatter/gore" movies, with men in slaughter masks and a poor, women, screaming for help...
First of all to start with; this movie was suppose to be a documentary. To be a documentary-movie, i feel it has to follow some certain rules, in order to be a documentary. If it was the purpose for this movie to be a documentary, it did fail, A LOT. I've read a lot about Unit 731, and i think mostly folks, who did the same can agree that it was more Chinese/Koreans and crime, and locals who became victims for Unit 731, and only a few percentages of other none-Asian folks, like Russians, Americans and Europeans. In this movie we saw only Russians or western folks being killed.
Secondly, it was also children, small as age of 3 years old kids where reported, but it maybe had been too much to show how-to-torture-a-kid, but the fact that the Unit 731 flick "Men Behind The Sun", directed by Tun Fei Mou, actually did showed us at least two kids being killed in his movie. If this movie, Philosophy of a Knife, where suppose to be a documentary, they should have shown some kids as well, because of that matter it actually happened.
3th. I don't know what about all these girls who where killed in this movie; but it just felt strange - they looked like being taken from nearest Play-Boy center. After seeing real pictures from the incident, i can sure you, that the victims of Unit 731, was far away so "perfect" as these actress where. But as a experienced gore-movie fan, i can say; "to make a gore-movie more brutal, they often uses women in their flicks."
4th. It was just too much blood and guts. Whatever they did in this movie, the blood was just flushing out from the body; and if it didn't, they tried to make up for it by showing us how to boil a decapitated head or cut some dead bodies up in the crematorium. I know most of what happened inside these walls was very bloody, but even they knew about the risk for contamination or being infected by the test subject. It's hardly to believe that they let blood flushing out on the whole room, when their subject have been injected with various of very deadly germs...
5th. The music was pretty OK, not those bomb-explosions to sound effect, but the rest was just... crap. Many folks compare this to Men Behind The Sun, and they have not obviously read anything about Unit 731, Tun Fei Mou succeeded to get more realistic in his movie, even tho that movie was more a movie rater than a documentary. In that movie, everything was correct "balanced" between gore, actually happenings and the amount of foreign folks being killed.
6th. Impressions. Here's what this movie really fails. When i saw a mother, with her kid and desperately trying to cover her boy's mouth in order to keep him alive and seeing her fear in her eyes, being killed by poisoned gas (Men Behind The Sun), i felt very compassion with the character, and i got the feeling how terrible it must to became a test subject without any worth. A very similar thing was also brought into Philosophy of a Knife, however, as for all other scenes, blood and flesh just poring out from his face.
7th. Comparison. While Philosophy of a Knife just out for blood, women (oh well, some few boys as well), and gore, this was just a four hour long freak show in how-to-mess-up-a-human-body, included with falling snow that almost made you snow-blind, and with some very strange sexual contents between all these gore. The scene in the pressure chamber was just too ridiculous. Men Behind The Sun is a raw footage of what really did happened inside Unit 731's walls. Tun Fei Mou dare to show how folks (actress) really looked like when they where brought into the Buildings Of death. Even if that movie maybe not had so much gore, it had a more meaningful story, plot and a point that director Tun wanted to show us.
8th. Last words. As a gore movie it worked pretty good however, but saying that these was actually happenings it's maybe too much. Being a documentary, i can say that this was some kind of Russian propaganda, due to the numbers of Russians being killed in this flick. Plot-holes, since much of the torture scene completely missing it's point (why do you skin a young womens face off, and then putting a new one on her for a photography?) Very bad documentary, pretty OK gore-movie, if you can stand with four hours of amateur effects and snow falling.
First of all to start with; this movie was suppose to be a documentary. To be a documentary-movie, i feel it has to follow some certain rules, in order to be a documentary. If it was the purpose for this movie to be a documentary, it did fail, A LOT. I've read a lot about Unit 731, and i think mostly folks, who did the same can agree that it was more Chinese/Koreans and crime, and locals who became victims for Unit 731, and only a few percentages of other none-Asian folks, like Russians, Americans and Europeans. In this movie we saw only Russians or western folks being killed.
Secondly, it was also children, small as age of 3 years old kids where reported, but it maybe had been too much to show how-to-torture-a-kid, but the fact that the Unit 731 flick "Men Behind The Sun", directed by Tun Fei Mou, actually did showed us at least two kids being killed in his movie. If this movie, Philosophy of a Knife, where suppose to be a documentary, they should have shown some kids as well, because of that matter it actually happened.
3th. I don't know what about all these girls who where killed in this movie; but it just felt strange - they looked like being taken from nearest Play-Boy center. After seeing real pictures from the incident, i can sure you, that the victims of Unit 731, was far away so "perfect" as these actress where. But as a experienced gore-movie fan, i can say; "to make a gore-movie more brutal, they often uses women in their flicks."
4th. It was just too much blood and guts. Whatever they did in this movie, the blood was just flushing out from the body; and if it didn't, they tried to make up for it by showing us how to boil a decapitated head or cut some dead bodies up in the crematorium. I know most of what happened inside these walls was very bloody, but even they knew about the risk for contamination or being infected by the test subject. It's hardly to believe that they let blood flushing out on the whole room, when their subject have been injected with various of very deadly germs...
5th. The music was pretty OK, not those bomb-explosions to sound effect, but the rest was just... crap. Many folks compare this to Men Behind The Sun, and they have not obviously read anything about Unit 731, Tun Fei Mou succeeded to get more realistic in his movie, even tho that movie was more a movie rater than a documentary. In that movie, everything was correct "balanced" between gore, actually happenings and the amount of foreign folks being killed.
6th. Impressions. Here's what this movie really fails. When i saw a mother, with her kid and desperately trying to cover her boy's mouth in order to keep him alive and seeing her fear in her eyes, being killed by poisoned gas (Men Behind The Sun), i felt very compassion with the character, and i got the feeling how terrible it must to became a test subject without any worth. A very similar thing was also brought into Philosophy of a Knife, however, as for all other scenes, blood and flesh just poring out from his face.
7th. Comparison. While Philosophy of a Knife just out for blood, women (oh well, some few boys as well), and gore, this was just a four hour long freak show in how-to-mess-up-a-human-body, included with falling snow that almost made you snow-blind, and with some very strange sexual contents between all these gore. The scene in the pressure chamber was just too ridiculous. Men Behind The Sun is a raw footage of what really did happened inside Unit 731's walls. Tun Fei Mou dare to show how folks (actress) really looked like when they where brought into the Buildings Of death. Even if that movie maybe not had so much gore, it had a more meaningful story, plot and a point that director Tun wanted to show us.
8th. Last words. As a gore movie it worked pretty good however, but saying that these was actually happenings it's maybe too much. Being a documentary, i can say that this was some kind of Russian propaganda, due to the numbers of Russians being killed in this flick. Plot-holes, since much of the torture scene completely missing it's point (why do you skin a young womens face off, and then putting a new one on her for a photography?) Very bad documentary, pretty OK gore-movie, if you can stand with four hours of amateur effects and snow falling.