User Reviews

Honestly this movie is very, very upsetting. It's like going back into time, and watching old nightmares come back alive. It was powerful, raw, and just downright depressing. Few movies has made me felt so angry and emotional than this film. There was nothing good about it. It was a borderline snuff film. There are some exploitative gross out moments, like an unborn baby being pulled out of a pregnant woman's stomach via bayonette or scenes with children getting rape. The scene of hundreds of bodies being burned on the beach is truly haunting. Unlike films like 2009's City of War: The Story of John Rabe or 2007's Nanking that shows disturbing historic scenes, but also uplifting real life accents or stories of heroic figures trying to save them. This film is pure negatively exploitation with no linear storyline. Instead, the film has a small handful of overlapping vignettes detailing the horrors and atrocities inflicted on the citizens. There isn't any scene in the movie where you can rest from the amount of violence, gore, and disturbing imagery. You don't come out of watching the film feeling like there is any hope for mankind. You just feel sick in your stomach. Men Behind the Sun 4 or Black Sun: the Nanking Massacre is about the real life accents of what happen in 1937, when Japanese troops raid the Chinese city of Nanking to execute a planned massacre by subjecting over 300,000 helpless civilians to various tortures, rapes, and atrocities before slaughtering them all. The director's depiction of the Japanese is as heartless and soulless savages, while the Chinese are shown as meek and submissive is interesting to say. I think in real life, there had to be some Japanese soldiers that felt that what they were doing to the Chinese was wrong, and I doubt the Chinese would have been that submissive. There is only a few scenes of Chinese trying to fight back, while no scenes of Japanese soldiers questioning their actions. There is no clear main character in the film, as it follows the story of many men and women trying to survive. Too bad, none of them, survive that long to get the audience hook on them. The movie desensitizes the audience by not having a main character to root for. There is little or no any educational value behind seeing people die. The movie seems to follow step with Iris Chang's book, "The Rape of Nanking" and is, as far as I can see, historically accurate. I don't know how much exploitation it has for exploitation's sake. Still, It's very factual and very well filmed. The backdrop is so intricate, I can only imagine how much time and money went in to its production. Mixed with real film footage and photographs of the actual events, the film really shows the atrocities of war. The movie was directed Tun Fei Mou who known for disturbing movie such as 1988's "Man Behind the Sun". Don't worry, the Men Behind the Sun's Saga has nothing to do with each other, so you wouldn't miss anything if you don't watch the original or the Godfrey Ho's films "Man Behind the Sun 2: Laboratory of the Devil" and "Man Behind the Sun 3:Narrow Escape". There seems to be a few shots cut from the Hong Kong version against the U.S version. There is a Film tear 20 minutes in the film and another 41 minutes later. I heard that this was due to Chinese censorship, but I'm not for sure. It doesn't affect the movie U.S release version. The movie comes across as blatant anti-Japanese propaganda. Black Sun is not a documentary, and the emphasis is on shock rather than historical accuracy. Also, the connection between Black Sun to the rest of the exploitative "Men Behind the Sun" films doesn't help the film's credibility. Overall: Too much gore, lack of empathy to the characters portray in the film make this nothing, but an open wound between the relationship of Japan and China. This movie isn't no Chinese Schindler's List, there is void of no hope for anything good to come out of this film.

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.

"Black Sun:The Nanking Massacre" is another harrowing piece of horror/war drama directed skillfully by Tun Fei Mou,the creator of two disturbing masterpieces "Man Behind the Sun" and "Lost Souls".The film stays soundly rooted in the retelling of events that took place in 1937-specifically,those actions that took place in the Chinese city of Nanking,where a planned massacre was ferociously and flippantly facilitated by the invading Japanese.The stock footage of Nanking massacre and actual killings is genuinely disturbing and not for the easily offended.The scene where a pregnant woman has her unborn baby torn from her stomach and skewered on the end of a Japanese soldier's bayonet is absolutely revolting.The sequence of the bodies being burned on the riverbank is truly powerful-the sight of these enormous flames racing across an entire landscape of dead people is especially hard to forget.The film is well-made and acted,and the photography is simply stunning.Watch this one in pair with Mou's "Man Behind the Sun"-just avoid two Godfrey Ho's films "Man Behind the Sun 2:Laboratory of the Devil" and "Man Behind the Sun 3:Narrow Escape".8 out of 10.

He fourth entry into the spectacularly nasty Men Behind The Sun series of films, based on war atrocities. In this case the Japanese invasion of Nanjing in 1937. I'm not a history buff and I'm not that familiar with what was dubbed the "Rape of Nanking". What I do know is a good trashy exploitation film when I see it and unfortunately this isn't one.

The film was rated Category III (Cat III) in Hong Kong the equivalent of 18+ or NC-17. Other films to be rated with this certificate are the excellent The Naked Killer and a few other rape and revenge films, as well as some Triad films. Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre has gained notoriety in the internet age as one of the film's most memorable scenes: a soldier cutting a bloody foetus out of a pregnant woman and holding it up, was used as an internet GIF. There's also scenes of gory decapitation and a few fights and some scenes of corpses being set on fire. These scenes are fairly rare and the bulk of the film is dialogue heavy and unfortunately it has a rather dry script, presumably for educational purposes.

To put it simply Black Sun is no more a serious historical document highlighting the horrors of war than Goodbye Uncle Tom is a serious critique of racism or Antichrist is a feminist study. They are all tacky, sleazy films that are designed to get bums on seats by showing extreme scenes. However, they have their place in the vast pantheon of cinema. Goodbye Uncle Tom has a stunning soundtrack and some incredible fantasy sequences. Antichrist is powerful and bold with convincing acting. Black Sun has an OK soundtrack, cheap-ish production values; bearing in mind this film was made in 1995 and comes across as cheaper than earlier Cat III shocker Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991). The few gore scenes there are are good and that's it raison d'être. There's something about it I like, but it manages to be dull which is worse than being offensive.

The DVD from Unearthed Films has a nice print with some slight archive damage and only 2.0 sound. Probably as good as it gets unless a BR or HD broadcast does the rounds. The discontinued UK DVD on Tartan Grindhouse (Tartan DVD\Films spin-off) is hen's teeth. I've never seen a copy in the wild and importing the US is cheaper.

BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE (Hei Tai Yang: Nan Jing Da Tu Sha)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Mono

Dramatized account of events in 1937-38, when Japanese military forces overran the city of Nanking, unleashing a wave of barbarous cruelty on the defenceless population.

Though hyped by its director as a sincere depiction of China's darkest hour, BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE will be remembered chiefly for its exploitation trimmings, such as the scene in which a sneering Japanese soldier uses his bayonet to cut a foetus from the womb of a pregnant Chinese woman. It sounds horrific, but the incident is staged with freak-show explicitness more likely to generate laughter than horror - until one remembers that such things *did* happen during this period, and much worse besides...

In narrative terms, the film offers a curious mixture of gruesome horror and earnest recreations of historical events, punctuated by lengthy scenes in which high-ranking Japanese officials argue the merits (or not) of their behavior toward 'enemy' civilians. Unlike the scenes of carnage, however, these dialogue exchanges are rendered with little or no visual flair, a stylistic conceit which serves the demand for historical accuracy whilst simultaneously blunting any possible sympathy the audience may develop for the Japanese characters. Director Mau Dui-fai - billed as 'T.F. Mous' - was previously responsible for such see-'em-and-vomit items as LOST SOULS (1980) and the notorious MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1988), and here he demonstrates an aptitude for sideshow theatrics which renders him uniquely suited to the subject at hand.

For all its sensationalism, however, the movie is distinguished by an extraordinary *lack* of melodrama. Mau depicts the worst horrors (rape, decapitation, mass shootings and burnings) with po-faced solemnity, lapsing into carnival grotesquerie only when the pace threatens to flag. Those looking for sleazy thrills will get their money's worth, but "Black Sun" straddles the gap between commercial exploitation and journalistic integrity, and takes few prisoners along the way. Performances by a largely unknown cast are uniformly fine, and production values are top-notch for such downmarket fare.

(Cantonese dialogue)

Excellent film about one of the blackest periods in history it gave me a better insight into what happened. Unlike the second world war which I know pretty much about the subject,having seen plenty of war films and documentaries, the Nanking massacre was something I only vaguely knew about, but had never seen much about the subject.The documentary with the film explains a lot. for example how horrific this event was and how it should be remembered and learnt from. my opinion is that the Japanese government has to admit to the crimes they committed just like the German's apologised for the holocaust. I have to say this movie is very hard to watch, it is extremely graphic. but why it is graphic is because the director wants to show how horrible this event was.

The original "Men behind the Sun" – the Chinese "Schindler's List", as it is often described – was no doubt a sordid little piece of propaganda and it is unlikely that many people watched it because they were historically interested in the topic of Japanese occupation of China during World War 2. No, most viewers watched it for one purpose and one purpose alone: the violence, the splatter and the (often) realistic and (often) even un-simulated gore. Among the audience were usually horror-fans who had become too jaded to enjoy "harmless" flicks like "Friday the 13th" or "Evil Dead" and had move on to harder stuff like "Cannibal Holocaust", the Japanese "Guinea Pig"-films or pseudo-documentaries like "Faces of Death" (and worst).

Those who stayed with the "Men behind the Sun"-series through two sequels, stayed with it for the same reason.

Trouble however was, watching hardcore splatter-films has the same effect as working in a slaughterhouse: it desensitizes the viewer. There are so many ways to portray a mangled carcass before the variations run out and the viewer is left with the "I've seen this before, so what"-syndrome. Sure, "MBtS 4" offers some pretty gruesome stuff, both authentic illustrations of atrocities and re-enactments. Perhaps the goriest scene in the movie is the "forced abortion" via a Japanese bayonet but where can you go from pierced plastic-fetuses? You may have noticed that IMDb has among the genre-descriptions "war", "drama" and "history", all which is true but in all that's right, it should have added another: "exploitation". It is that sense of glee with which the atrocities are depicted that sets it apart from above mentioned film by Steven Spielberg (and now just imagine if Mr. Spielberg had used real body parts and the general "reaction" that would have followed).

We could say that "MBtS 4" was a prime example of a genre eating its own children. It happened to the Italian Zombie-films, it happened to the Cannibal-genre, it's happening to the SAW-franchise and the whole torture-porn-sub genre right now.

As said: this film isn't for those people who are historically interested – plenty of documentaries on the topic for those. This film is for the dissolute gore-hounds among the audience; at least those that haven't moved on to watching shock-sites on the internet.

As to giving it points or a rating: always difficult for those kinds of films. One the gorehound-scale it would probably get a 7 or even 8 out of 10, as a "real" film it would probably receive a lot less, maybe somewhere in the range of 3 or 4 points.

Truly depraved stuff, so just don't say I haven't warned you.

Based on true events..In December 1937 the Japanese army defeated the Chinese and entered the city of Nanking. The horrific events that took place over a period of some weeks became known as the "Rape of Nanking". Directed by T.F Mou (Men behind the sun) this really is a high quality film. It has brilliant photography and an epic feel but it's not over long. It's very well directed and if you are familiar with the tragic events of the film you will notice how well researched and accurate it is. The film superbly mixes together real footage from the time and it gives you an almost documentary feel as you witness the terrible horrors of the massacre. Don't expect blazing gun battles and cheesy happy outcomes, this is a long way from a Hollywood blockbuster but it's far superior. "Black Sun" is quite often classed in the horror film genre and obviously this film won't be for everyone as it's very graphic and gory but I still strongly recommend this outstanding film

We open with stock footage of the Japanese invading China, 1937. Nanking, we are informed, falls by mid December of that year. So begins this recounting of a hopeless time for China.

According to the film, disciplining the Chinese population (with mass rapes and murders) was justified due to its preserving Japan's lock on them for the future. Its depiction of said massacre makes the soldiers of "Bridge on River Kwai"(1957) look like Disneyland attendants. There are two minor subplots in the film. One involves a man desperately trying to save his young niece and nephew from the invading Japanese. Another involves a father and his young son, the father cooperating with the Japanese in lieu of his son's life. As was the character of this film, neither would come to much fruition. Refugee camps, with American and German observers, are raided without so much as a care for world opinion.

The high points of the film come with opinions being shared between Generals in the "trenches" and those of the High Command. The entrenched Generals win out in the end. Also of note is a conversation between a Samurai adviser and an Army General on the moral situation at hand (all spoken in deference to their Samurai Swords and the respective makers). It is most entrancing.

This film depicts atrocities most heinous in nature. A street side abortion is performed with bayonet precision. It is a somewhat "fakey" looking affair, but effective in its message. Thousands are burned seaside in an effort to "cleanse" the landscape for foreign journalists. Many more are machine gunned in hopes that the people will better understand their hopeless position in the war. No one is spared in this matter.

The production values and acting are simply superb in this film. It makes one wonder what Hollywood could produce if it weren't for the MPAA controlling things there. This film is definitely proof that extreme cinema need not be labeled "exploit" to keep one glued to the screen through cinematic excellence and horror alike. Most highly recommended.

Charlie.

I would argue that Men Behind The Sun 1 is gorier and nastier than this movie, however, both movies are amazing. This movie brought me to tears at the end. Pretty much just like the first Men Behind The Sun, this is a movie where the Japanese are being the worst towards the Chinese people. We follow a family, that seems to have a normal regular life, in the family it's children too, and they are praying that the war ends. Sadly, all of the family dies except the little boy, that had to witness his grandma saving his life, and burning the whole house, when the Japanese entered and began physically attacking the girl, the boys little sister. Another horrifying scene was when they placed the dead Chinese people on fire, that was one of the most notorious things i have ever seen, it's a lake full of burning corpses, probably one of the worst things to imagine seeing in person, there's also the scene where a pregnant woman gets it's stomach cut open, as they cut her stomach they drag her fetus out too. Guys, the first film is more gorier in my opinion, but this one is a hard hitter just like the first one. Honestly, it's disgusting that all of this happened not too long ago, and that i can very well happen again. I love how this movie is using old war Japanese footage, along with the movie, to actually provide references to what we are currently viewing. This movie is amazing, and it should be praised for what it is. Dara of Jasenovac reminds me of this film, as it's a family running for it's life, and most of the family ends up dying. Both tragic and amazing movies to watch.