BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE

BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE

(a.k.a. HEI TAI YANG NAN JING DA TU SHA)

Tun Fei Mou is most well-known for his slap-in-the-face account of war atrocities that is MEN BEHIND THE SUN.

But it's with BLACK SUN that we find him at the height of his creative powers. Retelling the horrific true story of how Nanking was invaded and taken over by the Japanese army during December of 1937, Mou's film tells of the soldiers that rounded up the Chinese families and subjected them to 6 weeks of ongoing torture, murder and rape ... for seemingly no reason, as the province had already been taken over.

Boasting impressive large-scale production values and beautifully shot, BLACK SUN also has a keen eye for period detail (costumes, set design). Mou is an attentive filmmaker who is no doubt emotionally close to the subject he films. But at the same time, there are outbursts of screen violence at such frequent intervals that one comes to question his historical well-meaning, and wonder if he's perhaps sold his soul to exploitation ...

The film opens with a sombre text introduction, informing us of the hugeness of the tragedy about to unfold. Then we see a peace-loving Chinese family in their home, speculating that the war is over and Buddha has answered their prayers by saving them.

But, no. The Japanese are in town and pretty soon every family, every household, is about to be tormented beyond their wildest dreams.

An early scene (the film's most infamous one) shows soldiers chase a pregnant lady round a courtyard, beating her partner with rifle butts when he attempts to intervene. With the woman knocked to the ground, a soldier points his rifle bayonet towards her heaving belly, stabs it in ... and pulls it out with a bloody foetus hanging from the blade's point.

A clear display of the unsparing barbarity endured by the innocents of Nanking? Undoubtedly. But shot with such gory relish, it's hard to judge what reaction Mou was looking for. Is he an educator or a showman?

It's hard to tell. The above is far from being the only contentious scene in the movie (for example, a later scene has a screaming toddler thrown into a barrel of boiling water, as his mother watches in horror while being raped). But this, we're told, is what actually happened. Mou proves it somewhat by using black-and-white stock news footage at regular intervals to ram his point home (although setting the stock footage to a weepy orchestral score is a tad heavy-handed).

Either way, BLACK SUN is a heavy-going exercise in inhumanity, and anything but throwaway entertainment. It's perhaps morally confused and naive in its interpretation of China as peace-loving Buddhists and the Japanese as raping demons (talk about propaganda!). But it remains a well made, elegantly shot addition to Mou's oeuvre. And one that many Brits never thought would see the light of day on these shores.

But here it is, fully uncensored courtesy of those fine folk at Tartan Grindhouse.

The film is presented in it's original 1.77:1 aspect ratio and has been enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Considering the film is relatively new (1995), the transfer isn't that good. Specks appear on screen frequently and the image is generally soft. - I'm surprised by the amount of superficial wear-and-tear. Colours are light and a little washed out, although this is a familiar trait among Asian films of this era. So perhaps it's a problem with the source, rather than the transfer per se. Overall, it's watchable enough - just not great.

The Japanese mono audio is largely free from inconsistencies and offers a steady, clean presentation. No qualms here. Removable English subtitles benefit from a shadow that makes them easy to define. They're a good size and seem to be free from errors.

The screener disc advertises extras such as an original trailer and a historical tour of Nanking employing the use of a virtual map. Alas, neither were present on the disc I viewed. All I got was a static scene-selection menu offering access to the film via 16 chapters.

Still, it's great to see such a notorious flick scrape past the BBFC intact. Kudos to Tartan Grindhouse for considering such a title and having the balls to take what on the surface doesn't look like a commercially viable movie, and release it over here anyway.

Worth tracking down for that reason alone.

Review by Stu Willis


 
Released by Tartan Grindhouse
Region All - PAL
Rated R
Extras :
see main review
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