“731” recently officially announced that it will be released on September 18, and released a “blood evidence” version poster today, directly facing the war crimes of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Army that invaded China.
The film recounts the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army’s Unit 731 in Harbin’s Pingfang District, on the eve of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945. The unit conducted bacteriological warfare research under the guise of “water supply epidemic prevention,” slaughtering civilians for human experiments. Through the tragic experiences of innocent civilians like street vendor Wang Yongzhang, who were lured, imprisoned, and used as living experimental subjects, the film depicts the suffering, awakening, and unyielding spirit of ordinary people in the face of war. Through the powerful power of art, the film gives voice to history and establishes a testimony to the truth.
The “Blood Evidence” poster captures this tragic history with striking visuals. The poster features a stark red and white palette. At the center of the image, members of the Japanese Army’s Unit 731, dressed in protective gear, stand in a cold standoff with prisoners, creating a powerful sense of oppression. The blazing flames rising from the prisoners’ bodies symbolize the brutal exploitation of their lives, until they are completely consumed.
The flames reflect the smoke from the crematorium, the horrific scenes of field experiments on live subjects, and the outlines of remains in mass graves… These silent yet powerful images are not only a tearful indictment of the crimes against humanity committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Army in China, but also a metaphor for the invaders’ systematic erasure to destroy evidence and conceal the truth. The words “Remember History, Never Forget National Humiliation” in the upper right corner of the poster further reflect the film’s determination to restore history.
In 2025, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the release of “731” carries special and profound significance. History is the best textbook and the best sobering agent. The film’s release at this time serves both as a solemn commemoration of that arduous and great victory and as a profound reflection and reflection on the lessons of history. It warns the world to learn from history, remembering the hardships and heroic struggles of our nation, and thereby rallying the tremendous strength to strive for self-improvement, cherish peace, and be committed to rejuvenation.
A lot of liberals there are exposing themselves online by calling for boycotts of the movie lol
Didn’t this same unit experiment on American POWs too? Which the FedGov covered up while trying to rehabilitate Japan for the Cold War?
I hope they include that part. The amount of fascist war crimes committed against Allied personnel & civilians that got covered up deserves to see the light. Complicity of Western governments in whitewashing fascist atrocities is something more people need to know about.
I think they also developed germ warfare techniques that the US may have used in the Korean War.
Japan also in general did war crimes on white colonizers, yes. They didnt hold them in high regard. Of course the brutality was mostly focused on east and south asians.
Right, I know that. There was just this narrative after the war that Japan only committed atrocities against other Asian groups which was deliberately spread in the West as a sort of equivalent to the “Clean Wehrmacht” with Germany as it would be harder to justify rearming & rehabilitating Fascist Japan if their regular use of torture, experimentation, and execution of American POWs got more public attention. Sometimes these are outright just omitted from official history texts.
Which isn’t to distract from the bulk of their victims being East & Southeast Asians, of course. Obviously the genocidal acts against those peoples were far more horrendous and deserve far greater attention.
execution of American POWs got more public attention.
Yeah like putting Shanghailanders into camps and selling dutch settler women, in the dutch east indies, into sex slavery. Westerns would have been too livid and demanded japan be more punished if they didnt rehabilitate japan so much.
But as you said, the terror comes from the fact that it was done to white people by a “second rate people”.
I’m all for it. I wonder why now though?
80th anniversary of the end of the sino-japanese war
that makes total sense, thanks
Cool! I’m watching this!
Will there be an English dub? Or at least subs?
There are a couple groups which do open source english subtitles for a lot of Chinese dramas and films. I’m sure this one will be done as well.
A full and comprehensive film about Unit 731 would be up there with movies like Human Centipede 2 in terms of being dark and disturbing. The shit they did was cruel even by Axis standards.
The only other movies about Unit 731 that I know of are Men Behind the Sun and Philosophy of a Knife, so its good we are getting more about it from China, especially since I am pretty sure the guy who made Men Behind the Sun is also anti-communist.
