Unit 731 has to shut down its base in Manchuria and all evidence that it existed must be destroyed.During the shut down,a soldier gets infected with some plague and ends up riding a train back home and somehow this means there is a "biological time bomb,aimed at the heart of the Japanese empire".The first "Man Behind the Sun" is incredibly disturbing and devastating film,on the other hand "Laboratory of the Devil" is just a rip-off of the original with some scenes of shocking violence added for good measure."Narrow Escape" mostly takes place on a train.The film is loaded with flashbacks of graphic experiments from the previous installments and offers literally nothing fresh or interesting.Unfortunately they didn't replay the scene of the guy having his innards squeezed out of him inside the pressure chamber.So if you want to watch this one for sickening violence and gore you'll be sorely disappointed.Watch only "Man Behind the Sun" and "The Nanking Massacre"-don't bother with Godfrey Ho's uninteresting rip-offs.
8 Reviews
Give this a miss!
paulgeaf4 April 2010
Well after seeing the much lauded (amongst my weird friends at least!!) 'Men Behind The Sun', I ventured to watch the second in the series of films. The second one was good, I will leave the rest for my review on that. Now, on to this one, the strangely supposed 'third' movie in this series but I find myself wondering if it really is, it has so little in common with the other two.
Firstly this movie is not like the others in that they are seriously disturbing, they try to shock and, mostly the first film succeeds. This movie has some clips right off of the first movie just thrown in randomly and not even to good use either. this film meanders from one thing to another and never really keeps a grip on a solid plot. the plot is spread thinly over many different sub plots and weak, uninteresting characters that I think we are supposed to care about in some way. Most people watching this would only be looking for more liquid nitrogen hands being chipped away or more screaming and experiments but nope, this movie tries to give us plots and it cannot even do that!
It was so slow that, at a few different points in the movie I was distracted by a blank patch of wall opposite me. I think the way the light was hitting the paint was just ... fascinating, relative to the movie that is.
Like another guy here says, this is NOT WORTHY of the Man/Men Behind The sun name. AVOID!
Firstly this movie is not like the others in that they are seriously disturbing, they try to shock and, mostly the first film succeeds. This movie has some clips right off of the first movie just thrown in randomly and not even to good use either. this film meanders from one thing to another and never really keeps a grip on a solid plot. the plot is spread thinly over many different sub plots and weak, uninteresting characters that I think we are supposed to care about in some way. Most people watching this would only be looking for more liquid nitrogen hands being chipped away or more screaming and experiments but nope, this movie tries to give us plots and it cannot even do that!
It was so slow that, at a few different points in the movie I was distracted by a blank patch of wall opposite me. I think the way the light was hitting the paint was just ... fascinating, relative to the movie that is.
Like another guy here says, this is NOT WORTHY of the Man/Men Behind The sun name. AVOID!
Don't bother with this one
mic_25 February 2003
"Men behind the sun 3" is basically a boring attempt to build a story around a few of the soldiers in unit 731. Where the first movie was a shocker in graphical content, MBTS 3 is a drag and adds nothing new in terms of gore. Apparently, director Godfrey Ho (or possibly the producers) decided that having any special effects would be too expensive, so they cut in clips from the previous movies at more or less random places - something that seems to be a key part of Ho's film-making philosophy.
A Blatant Attempt To Cash-In On The MBTS Name...
EVOL66623 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Honestly, A NARROW ESCAPE is barely worth talking about, so I'm gonna keep this one short-and-sweet. There's nothing to be learned from the film in a historical content, and those that liked some of the other entries for the exploitative gore content will be severely disappointed as well...
Towards the conclusion of WWII the staff of Unit 731 have to close up shop and head back to Japan to protect their secrets. The whole film is the train-ride home with a few "flashback" sequences lifted from the second MBTS film, LABORATORY OF THE DEVIL...
Nothing really to speak of on this film. I even dug LABORATORY against popular opinion, but the only decent thing about A NARROW ESCAPE is the few stolen scenes from LABORATORY. Definitely not deserving of the MEN BEHIND THE SUN name or reputation, and I would STRONGLY advise against wasting any money on it. Not the worst film I've ever seen but a total "pass" in my book...3/10
Towards the conclusion of WWII the staff of Unit 731 have to close up shop and head back to Japan to protect their secrets. The whole film is the train-ride home with a few "flashback" sequences lifted from the second MBTS film, LABORATORY OF THE DEVIL...
Nothing really to speak of on this film. I even dug LABORATORY against popular opinion, but the only decent thing about A NARROW ESCAPE is the few stolen scenes from LABORATORY. Definitely not deserving of the MEN BEHIND THE SUN name or reputation, and I would STRONGLY advise against wasting any money on it. Not the worst film I've ever seen but a total "pass" in my book...3/10
Boooring. I'm not impressed, Mr Ho
Corpus_Vile18 October 2014
The first Men Behind the Sun was starkly & grimly disturbing, outright shocking in parts. The second Men Behind the Sun was exploitative gold.
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre was sober and definitely had its moments.
Men Behind the Sun III: Destroy all evidence is... a plodding bore. Japanese soldiers on a train basically have flashbacks from the other Men Behind the Sun films (parts 1 & 2) as Godfrey Ho was feeling REALLY lazy and decided he couldn't be bothered putting any effort (at all, whatsoever) into his rip off and apparently thought "Hey, that Wes Craven dude made a Hills Have Eyes sequel that consisted mainly of flashbacks, I'll do the same! Ho, you genius!".
Anyway as has already been said far more eloquently than me, avoid this, it isn't worthy of the Men Behind the Sun moniker. Just a really dull, plodding film and anyone who's seen the other MBTS films is missing nothing- and I do mean absolutely nothing- here at all. Avoid like the plague filled syringes of unit 731.
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre was sober and definitely had its moments.
Men Behind the Sun III: Destroy all evidence is... a plodding bore. Japanese soldiers on a train basically have flashbacks from the other Men Behind the Sun films (parts 1 & 2) as Godfrey Ho was feeling REALLY lazy and decided he couldn't be bothered putting any effort (at all, whatsoever) into his rip off and apparently thought "Hey, that Wes Craven dude made a Hills Have Eyes sequel that consisted mainly of flashbacks, I'll do the same! Ho, you genius!".
Anyway as has already been said far more eloquently than me, avoid this, it isn't worthy of the Men Behind the Sun moniker. Just a really dull, plodding film and anyone who's seen the other MBTS films is missing nothing- and I do mean absolutely nothing- here at all. Avoid like the plague filled syringes of unit 731.
Nonsensical and unoriginal
lime_juice3029 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
According to an interview with T. F. Mou, the director of the first Men Behind the Sun, he was unaware that two sequels existed until a fan told him about them. Part 2 and 3 are the work of notorious B movie director Godfrey Ho. Part 2 is basically a retelling of the first part and Men Behind the Sun 3 does not have anything to offer that we haven't seen in the previous movies. It's just the same experiment/autopsy scenes all over again so if you have seen these already, there is no shock factor at all.
I don't know if this was because I was watching a Chinese dub with English subtitles but they seemed to have renamed Dr Ishii, which is strange because we know who he is. But he is not the protagonist here anyways, he only keeps circling around in his plane near active combat zones instead of flying to safety. And because no Godfey Ho movie would be complete without a ridiculous fight scene, we have the part where the soldiers beat up the Manchurian train conductor instead of just shooting him. They then inject him with bacteria for fun and leave him behind near the train tracks. Why would they do this? I thought they wanted to keep the activities of their unit a secret as much as possible. The guy manages to crawl away, encounters two children and gets the word out.
There is no reason to watch this movie except for the sake of completion when you have seen the other two. The rest is as boring as a train ride over several days would be in real life.
I don't know if this was because I was watching a Chinese dub with English subtitles but they seemed to have renamed Dr Ishii, which is strange because we know who he is. But he is not the protagonist here anyways, he only keeps circling around in his plane near active combat zones instead of flying to safety. And because no Godfey Ho movie would be complete without a ridiculous fight scene, we have the part where the soldiers beat up the Manchurian train conductor instead of just shooting him. They then inject him with bacteria for fun and leave him behind near the train tracks. Why would they do this? I thought they wanted to keep the activities of their unit a secret as much as possible. The guy manages to crawl away, encounters two children and gets the word out.
There is no reason to watch this movie except for the sake of completion when you have seen the other two. The rest is as boring as a train ride over several days would be in real life.
Rerun
mrdonleone25 May 2022
So-so
yuriwithyui7 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Let's imagine the movie is an "alternate ending" to the true story of Squadron 731. Given this, it's slightly more enjoyable. There are things that don't add up or are left very open, like Tama being sold to Japan. It is poorly produced that it even seems filler, or a very forced story. In other words, they mention it and that's it. What the hell happened in between? Please explain more.
One good thing is that there isn't as much unnecessary gore. But the one that exists, well, it is. And there is always the same complaint in the successors to the first film: why is the ending so boring? I doubt that's even called an ending.
The version that I saw, has quite backward subtitles. I mean, they would change scenes and the characters would still talk in the previous one.
It's good to hang out for a while. But honestly, it's not worth it.
One good thing is that there isn't as much unnecessary gore. But the one that exists, well, it is. And there is always the same complaint in the successors to the first film: why is the ending so boring? I doubt that's even called an ending.
The version that I saw, has quite backward subtitles. I mean, they would change scenes and the characters would still talk in the previous one.
It's good to hang out for a while. But honestly, it's not worth it.
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