Mou Tun-fei () (May 3, 1941 - May 25, 2019) was a Chinese filmmaker known for directing the infamous 1988 horror film ''

Men Behind the Sun ''Men Behind the Sun'' (, literally ''Black Sun: 731'', also sometimes called ''Man Behind the Sun'') is a 1988 Hong Kong historical exploitation horror film directed by T. F. Mou, and written by Mei Liu, Wen Yuan Mou and Dun Jing Teng. The fil ...

''.

Biography

Born on May 3, 1941 in Shandong, China, Mou's family left China for Taiwan in 1949 due to

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. Mou graduated from National School of Arts (now

National Taiwan University of Arts National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA; ) is a university in Banqiao District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It is the oldest and most prestigious art university in Taiwan. History National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) was established as the N ...

) that could not even afford equipment for the students. Mou thus was forced to learn filmmaking by theory alone, mainly by watching films numerous times in theaters and identifying how many cuts the films contained. After graduation, Mou was assistant director on an anti-communist

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

called ''Give Back My Country'' and then directed numerous Taiwanese films in a style akin to the

Italian neorealist Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...

movement. His first and second feature ''I don't dare to tell you'' (1969) and ''At the runway's edge'' (1970) were both banned by Taiwanese government, especially the latter film contained homosexual overtones. In 1977, Mou settled in Hong Kong and joined the Shaw Brothers, his first film there being ''Gun,'' a segment in the fifth film of the Shaw’s exploitation true crime series ''The Criminals''. While at the Shaw Brothers, he would dabble in crime (''Bank Busters''), romance (''Melody of Love''), horror (''Haunted Tales'') and

kung-fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...

(''

A Deadly Secret ''A Deadly Secret'', also translated as ''Requiem of Ling Sing'' and ''Secret of the Linked Cities'', is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first published in the magazine ''Southeast Asia Weekly'' () and the Hong Kong newspaper ''Mi ...

''). However, his most notable work for the Shaw Brothers would be ''Lost Souls'' (1980); telling the story of a group of illegal immigrants taken captive and sexually and physically abused by a gang of human traffickers, ''Lost Souls'' has often been called a brazen, vicious and outrageous

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...

and a film that brings

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

’s ''

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' ( it, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, billed on-screen ''Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom'' on English-language prints and commonly referred to as simply ''Salò'' []) is a 1975 horror film, horror art film dir ...

'' to mind. Mou then left the Shaw Brothers to become the first director from Taiwan to work in the mainland. While working on a children’s kung fu film called ''Young Heroes'', Mou began to hear stories about war atrocities committed by the

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. One account, of how the

Japanese military The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

had performed every manner of horrific experiment on

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

POWs and civilians while stationed at

Unit 731 , short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, particularly grabbed Mou. Thus, he decided to make a film about it. Originally, he wanted to make a documentary, but he then realized that the Japanese army had destroyed or classified most of the photographs and films so he set about making a staged recreation instead. The film that resulted, a collaboration between

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and the mainland, would be the horror film ''

''. After co-directing the hardcore pornographic film ''Trilogy of Lust'' with Julie Lee Wa-Yuet, Mou set about making a sequel to ''Men Behind the Sun'', this time visiting the 1937

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...

(or Rape of Nanking) called '' Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre'' which released in 1995.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mou, Tun-Fei 1941 births 2019 deaths Propaganda film directors Film directors from Shandong Taiwanese film directors Hong Kong film directors Chinese film directors National Taiwan University of Arts alumni Taiwanese people from Shandong