brasil60 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.

chuck-219 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.

Mahatma Fabrizi Arriving at my door, this video, which I had procured from E-Bay.com has many extras and features and is very-well put together, but the film itself, unbeknownst to me at that time, would prove to be my undoing: Quite by accident I'd come upon a dread vision more fantastic than anything from out of Dante; putrified, bodies piled in heaps on beaches in the Chinese province of Xixioung, a, like so many flesh-balloons ripening and bursting in the afternoon sun. On this the camera lingers, unflinchingly -- Pop! a corspe, bursting at the seems, abruptly inflates and then pops open strewing it's organs amid a splash of half-uncoagulated blood, and then another, and then another...Finally, toward evening, this ranch of carnage is set ablaze and we are treated to a symphony of sickening popping sounds and the abysmal sight of what can best be described as a field of human popcorn yielding it's unwholesome fruits. The heat from the resulting conflagration, you see, creates pressure within the floury endosperm of corpse-meat, causing it to explode, and, horrific to relate, turn itself inside out.In addition to a severe case of panic/anxiety disorder, a screening of these terrors, celebrated in this film, "Rape of Nanking-- Solar Disc of Umbra" (literal translation) resulted in something my doctor has told me is called "restrcutring cognitive distortion", a condition wherein brain fluid backflows (refluxes) into the lobular cavities, sometimes getting into the ears, occasionally, I understand, even into the mouth. It produces ultra-intense headaches at least twice a week. Actually. before I started taking Pantroprazole, it was occurring not just twice a week, but more than twice a day. In addition to the nightmares, in a very small percentage of people, including me, it produces nearly impossible to describe creepy feelings like something besides just brain fluid is crawling around in my head.Additionally, it also seems to produce, or, at least, trigger creepy feelings and pressure in my head that vaguely resemble the anxiety I experienced when first watching the terrific imagery presented in this title, but are unlike any headache I've ever had. My doctor says that those headaches have nothing to do with the Nanking Massacre, but I don't believe him.And when dead bodies start erecting themselves, and march out of their graves, or people with crippled skeletons are restored to perfect form, CNN will be there ...

sumdenguy It's not often you hear about the Japanese atrocities committed against the Chinese. Black Sun : The Nanking Massacre unflinchingly tells the true story of the over 300,000(that's 300,000!!!!) Chinese people who were brutally killed by the occupying Japanese army. Mixed with real film footage and photographs of the actual events, the film really shows the atrocities of war. It's mostly told from the Japanese point of view, and several conversations between Japanese commanders and soldiers are chilling. There are some exploitative gross out moments, like an unborn baby being pulled out of a pregnant woman's stomach via bayonette...but it always feels true. There are so many scenes of crowds being machine gunned down that you can be desensitized pretty early on in the film. The scary thing is, is the Japanese really WERE this barbaric. They slaughtered babies, infants, children, women, men and monks alike. The scene of hundreds of bodies being burned on the beach is a truly haunting moment. While it is an absolute must see for war film fans or historians...the film, however, is gory enough to make splatter fans happy.