is a 1986 Japanese black and white drama film written and directed by Kei Kumai and based on a novel of the same name by Shà «saku Endà Â. It tells the true story of downed American pilots in World War II who are vivisected by Japanese surgeons in the Kyushu Imperial University.
The film has never been released on home video outside of Japan with an English translation. Unofficial translations exist online and can be legally watched with an original Japanese DVD using computer software that allows custom subtitles.
Director and screenwriter Kei Kumai submitted his film proposal to Nikkatsu after his 1970 film Apart from Life. However, Nikkatsu was on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, and so he approached various companies, but they shunned him, citing the film as "dark, heavy, and difficult â all three of the major elements that make a film unsuccessful." After more than a decade, a businessman offered to fund the production, and 17 years later, the film was finally produced. Kumai stated, "I was shocked when I read the original novel in 1958, and every time I reread it, the impact is renewed. I fear that the current social climate is reverting to the past, and I want to warn against this with this film."
Most of the filming took place at the former Tokyo Industrial Laboratory in Hatsudai, which has served as a location for numerous films and TV shows, including MISHIMA and Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girls' Blood is Roaring.
60th Kinema Junpo Best Ten Awards
37th Berlin International Film Festival
41st Mainichi Film Awards