Philosophy of a Knife (2008) (V)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Andrey Iskanov

Writer:

Andrey Iskanov (writer)

Release Date:

8 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

God created heaven, man created hell

Plot:

The true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk...

Plot Keywords:

Unit 731 | Part Documentary | Prisoner | Experiment | Severed Tongue

Cast

Yukari Fujimoto	...	The female nurse #1
Yumiko Fujiwara	...	The female nurse #2
Svyatoslav Iliyasov	...	The male nurse
Andrey Iskanov	...	The amputation surgeon
Masaki Kitagava	...	The female nurse #3
Tatyana Kopeykina	...	The blond girl with toy bear
Vladimir Kucherenko	...	The radioactivity experiment man
Veronika Leonova	...	The brunette girl
Victor Ludchenko	...	The decompression experiment man
Manoush	...	Japanese nurse (voice)
Reiko Niakawa	...	The female nurse #4
Irina Nikitina	...	The pregnant girl
Tomoya Okamoto	...	The officer #2
Elena Probatova	...	The favorite girl
Anatoly Protasov	...	Himself
Tetsuro Sakagami	...	The officer #1
Artem Seleznyov	...	The frostbite experiment man
Victor Silkin	...	The old surgeon
Dmitriy Skripnik	...	The captured airplane pilot
Alyona Strebkova	...	The dental torture girl
Anna Subbotina	...	The insect experiment girl
Stephen Tipton	...	Historical commentary (voice)
Irina Zenkina	...	The syphilis experiment girl

Runtime:

249 min (Unrated Director's Cut)

Country:

Russia | USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Quebec) | USA:Not Rated | Canada:R

Filming Locations:

Khabarovsk, Russia

Company:

Unearthed Films

Trivia:

Work on film has occupied four years.

Soundtrack:

Forgive Me

Iskanov's disturbing vision is NOT for the faint of heart

Having seen Andrey Iskanov's two earlier works, "Nails" & "Visions of Suffering", I was very much looking forward to his latest. I have seen "Men Behind the Sun" so I know what Unit 731 was about, but "Men Behind the Sun" seems like "The Sound of Music" in comparison to THIS film.

This is, in part, sort of a documentary, and includes commentary by one Anatoly Protasov, a man who was a student in Harbin during the time that Unit 731 was in operation, among other things. Some of the material is archive footage from somewhere, and the rest is Iskanov's twisted nightmares on film.

If what is shown here is any indication, German atrocities pale in comparison to those of the Japanese. Supposedly their "experiments" had good reasons, like their experiments with frostbite, decompression, etc. But the execution of the experiments seems more like "let's see what would happen if we did this" than any sort of planned or regulated experimentation. There is horror after horror on display, and they were definitely "waste not, want not" with their subjects...after they'd worn them out with one thing they'd finish them off with yet another.

There are surgical instruments wielded with the care of pruning shears (complete with sound effects that further that notion). There are experiments that will make your skin crawl, especially what appears to be a large aggressive cockroach inserted where no one would ever want one. And there are things done with pregnant women that I won't even go into.

Is this all just a horror show to end all horror shows? Well, no, not really, for after the end of WW2 there is some history of what happened to those who were left (and apprehended) from Unit 731. It's also sort of a memorial, of sorts, to those who died, and those who were known and those who were not.

It's also over FOUR HOURS LONG and you'll probably feel like you've been beaten with a lead pipe if you attempt to watch it all at once.

I'm not sure I should say something like "I liked this film", although I suppose I did....but maybe "like" isn't the right word. Iskanov is definitely a man with a vision, and thank God he's putting his visions on film and not taking them out on others. 7 out of 10.