In this mostly enjoyable and occasionally grisly docudrama, we follow the officers, doctors, soldiers, youth corps, and inmates of a Japanese prison camp through their final desperate days of World War II. Set in the isolated tundra of occupied Manchuria, a handful of Japanese brass is commissioned to heartlessly perform experiments on the captured Chinese, Korean, and Russian prisoners. The Japanese, in a last ditch effort to defeat the Allies, have concluded that the best way to do so is via chemical, bacterial, and biological warfare; hence, the experiments. They distance themselves from their victims by referring to them as “maruta,” or material, and by imposing this viewpoint on the protagonistic youth corps, who reluctantly, with increasing disillusionment, accept their roles in what they believed would be an adventurous situation. The commanding Lieutenant General is nearly fanatic in his work, and his subordinates somewhat abate his zeal with their pragmatism; the combination leads to a rather disturbing final twist.

The dynamics of the youth corps, however, are the most interesting aspect of the film, as this is its focal point. What makes this film most memorable, though, are the gruesome and almost totally unexpected moments of shocking violence that underscore the arbitrary and apparently unproductive nature of the experiments. The victims’ sense of despair in the unapologetic face of the Japanese is sincerely felt, as is the mounting suspense of a third-act subplot which eventually comes to the forefront. Despite moments of tonal ambiguity that belie the psychological depths of some characters and of the film as a whole, this film remains a quietly stunning dramatization of real-life horror.