After Japan has surrendered to the Allied Forces at the end of World
War II, Unit 731, the Manchuria-based research facility specialized in
germ warfare (see Men Behind the
Sun and Men Behind the
Sun 2 for the full story), is ordered to return to Japan and
either destroy all evidence or return it in order to not fall into enemy
hands. But on the train leading Unit 731 through China and Korea, a
self-developed virus causes the plague to break out, and seeing the plague
killing the own people makes even patriotic hardliner Akiyama rethink his
position about Unit 731, which he so far regarded as vital for Japan's
self-defense. Ultimately he even falls in love with Tama, a Korean nurse,
and when she catches the plague and is being buried alive, he starts to
rebel - alas too late, as he's merely shot on the spot. The
positive aspect of this film is that it tries to tell a different story
than Men Behind the Sun
and Men Behind the Sun 2
(which told the same story from slightly different points of view), and
despite repeating some of the most cruel scenes from the first two films, Men
Behind the Sun 3 is not just another piece of torture porn. That said
though, Men Behind the Sun 3 is not a very good film either, its
story lacks action, tension and suspense, its characters hardly exceed
cardboard quality, and its direction is merely functional, making the
least of its train settings or the landscapes the train is passing
through. In all, maybe not as annoying as the first Men
Behind the Sun, but far from a good film nevertheless.
|