Film Name: 731 / Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night / 731 Biochemical Revelations
The new film “731,” released yesterday, is arguably one of the few truly groundbreaking movies of the year. Given the weighty significance of its subject matter, the debate over its quality has been the most compelling topic in recent months—especially since the early promotional materials didn’t inspire much optimism. Now, all questions have finally been answered: living up to everyone’s speculation and “expectations,” the film is indeed a disaster.
Objectively speaking, it hasn’t sunk so low as to pierce the earth’s core—at least it doesn’t invert right and wrong or call a deer a horse. But its reputation is beyond salvaging. Recalling the viewing experience leaves me squirming uncomfortably, unable to sit still.
The only reason “731” secured such extensive screenings and attention is its unique subject matter and the necessity of remembering history. Strip that away, and the film reveals itself as utterly unremarkable—utterly incomparable to this summer’s “Dead To Rights,” falling a dozen “Dongji Island” levels short.
I’ll briefly touch on the points that struck me most.
1. The film’s thematic/genre patchwork feels conspicuously forced, creating an odd sense of mismatch.
Though billed as “exposing the Japanese Army Unit 731’s inhumane human experimentation atrocities,” much of the content resembles survival games like Prison Break or horror thrillers. Its original title, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, might have been more fitting.
If the storylines about Japanese atrocities and Wang Yongzhang’s group were separated and viewed independently, it would feel more natural. Suspicions of riding on a hot topic, forced connections, and specifically reshot scenes are hard to shake—the likelihood of it being a reshoot is extremely high.
2. Building on the previous point, the film’s costumes, makeup, and production design are also jarringly unrealistic.
Many have pointed out this flaw… I won’t dwell on the anachronistic protective suits, but consider this: toward the end of the War of Resistance, the Japanese army could supposedly provide ample fresh apples, eggs, and boxed meals to their “test subjects”? The prison cells even feature flush toilets and toilet paper rolls. and the entire detention area featured spotless windowsills and gleaming tiles—but if it makes me think “this human experimentation facility is cleaner and tidier than many school labs and dorms,” that’s clearly not my issue but the film’s.
It just goes to show that aging effects are a true art form, a showcase of a production team’s fundamentals and attitude. On this point, Unit 731 clearly fails.
3. The film boasts virtually no successful character arcs.
Several key supporting characters feel inexplicably contrived. Take the female officer, who shouldn’t logically exist—she comes across as a B-movie or web series trope designed for titillating edge-pushing. Later hints that she’s actually Chinese seem to suggest she retains humanity, yet she shows no mercy in killing and committing atrocities. One can only interpret this as another form of “national extinction.”
Similarly, Wang Zhiwen’s portrayal of Du Cunsan lacks both depth in individual expression and functional significance in advancing the plot through interactions. Other supporting characters’ performances remain equally superficial.
Jiang Wu’s protagonist Wang Yongzhang also suffers from inconsistent and ambiguous characterization, though the film somewhat redeems this by the climax.
4. The portrayal of Japanese soldiers veered into the wrong direction.
This didn’t strike me as particularly noticeable while watching the film, but upon reflection, it feels increasingly off. Merely in terms of depicting the brutality of the Japanese military, 731 resembles more of a cult-classic B-movie, with an overwhelmingly strong cult-like flavor…
From the opening scene of Ishii Shiro drinking urine, to the courtesan geisha leading “Maruda” to her death (I genuinely didn’t recognize Bibi Wen), to the obsessive close-ups of mutilated bodies, the lengthy narration by a child’s voice spouting Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Zone propaganda, and the final scene where a Japanese soldier paints a skull while standing over an open-skull corpse before the lab building explodes… All those beautiful, mono no aware Japanese elements have been twisted into bizarre, grotesque voodoo curses.
In short, the Japanese soldiers in Unit 731 are portrayed as a bunch of mentally disturbed perverts—though they are indeed perverts, in a film that should be patriotic, going this far off the rails and over-the-top feels utterly inappropriate, completely undermining any sense of gravity.
Ah well, it’s over now. Seeing a bad movie in theaters is nothing new. It’s just a shame that such a good opportunity was squandered. Let’s just move on. Move on.
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