I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This film is a total waste of time. The director is more worried about showing off what he learned in film school than telling a story. This movie is full of long drawn out scenes that really have no bearing on the story that are trying to impart. This director has no understanding on how to edit a film. He allows one of the "witnesses" he interviews to ramble on about things that did not matter and to repeat himself multiple times. As you watch it you get the feeling that the makers of this film are going for shock value and nothing else. They show "doctors" performing surgery on people with with blood sprayed everywhere and the staff walking around with it on them. It is all smoke and mirrors and not substance. A 30 minute film stretched into 4 hours.You might as well watch the Saw movies, because they are exactly the same except the don't make any pretenses about being factual. They also get to the point and don't beat around the bush for 4 hours.

I'm not really sure where to begin with this film. On the one hand, I feel like the story of Unit 731 and the horrors that happened there is a story that needs to be told, so I feel that this film has some merit if only because it raises awareness about a horrific point in history that seems to get glossed over all too often. That being said, the subject matter could have been handled much better. This movie just isn't really that good, nor is it terribly realistic. For some reason, all the victims in the film appear to be Russian despite the fact that historically, the vast majority of the victims of 731's experiments were Chinese. On top of that, all the victims look like super models, complete with perfect eye make-up and neatly waxed pubic hair. They look like they belong on the set of a fashion shoot rather than a POW camp. Historically, the staff of Unit 731 were highly trained scientists and medical professionals, however, in this film, "surgeries" are portrayed with the doctors just hacking and jabbing away haphazardly with blood unrealistically spurting in every direction. I also found myself wondering how many of the "experiments" portrayed in the film actually took place. While the human experimentation of 731 was no doubt cruel and inhumane, I was under the impression that the experiments at least had some medical and scientific reasoning behind them, whereas many of the experiments portrayed in Philosophy of a Knife just seemed totally pointless, not to mention highly unrealistic. Inserting a cockroach into the vagina, tearing off the victim's face, and then having the cockroach come out her mouth? Give me a break. And then, of course, there's the length of the film. 4 hours? Really? Editing seems to be a foreign concept to the director. The torture scenes just drag on and on and on, to the point where I found myself becoming desensitized and, frankly, bored, despite the graphic nature of the scenes. I literally caught myself falling asleep halfway through the second half of the film. The film could have easily been half the length. I did like the fact that the film attempted to humanize a couple of the Japanese staff characters, showing them grappling with feeling sympathy for the victims while still being brainwashed into believing that they were acting for the greater good of their country. I found that aspect of the film very interesting. All in all, Philosophy of a Knife is mostly just a bad, low-budget, poorly edited and acted gorefest that tries pretentiously to pass itself off as an artistic and realistic portrayal of historical events. It has a few redeeming qualities, but if you're interested in learning about Unit 731, you'd be better off just reading the Wikipedia page on it and saving yourself 4 hours.

Obviously with a running time of 4.5 hours, this is not an easy watch, but considering that 3 hours of the movie is pure human atrocity, this will try both your stomach and mental capacity. I watched the opening 1.5 hours, went away and came back to finish the film—a pseudo documentary.I had two complaints with the film. From the little I know on Unit 731, most of the experiments were carried out on Chinese prisoners, but the film only featured Caucasians. The other complaint was the effects. It's too bad they weren't better since the bodies often looked like plasticine.The sound effects and music were perfect, and the last hour was an interesting touch (I won't spoil it, but I will say this: It was a complete left turn from the first three and a half hours).If I had to pick one word to describe this movie, it would not be extreme, or gore, or sickening (but all three would make great descriptions), but simply: deliberate. Each scene is played out in deliberate excruciating detail. Case in point is the opening scene walking through the snow for five (?) minutes and the scene where the man is freezing outside.

Just my opinions: First let me say I rate this film an 8.5 out of 10. Philosophy of a Knife is a film like no other. It has been said by other reviewers that it is like a giant music video. In some ways it is. That isn't a bad thing at all. Somebody really needs to contact Nine Inch Nails to get Andrey to do a video for them. The closest film I could even compare this to was the film "Goodbye Uncle Tom" (from the makers of Mondo Cane) only because it was part documentary, part reenactment, and part exploitation. Although Andrey probably didn't intend for this to be an modern day exploitation flick, it pretty much is. Although many people who made exploitation films probably weren't going for that at the time that they made their films. I found that the best way to watch this film is in 30 to 45 minute increments. I will admit at times it does drag on, but when you go away and come back it seems new, exciting, and fresh all over again. When I first heard rumors that the film might be cut down from 4 hours, I was passionate about letting the film remain in it's 4 hour entirety. Now after watching, I think it could have been knocked down to 3 and maybe even 2 hours. It would make it easier to recommend to people, because it takes quite a bit of dedication to get through the film. I don't have a short attention span, but let's just say Andrey has a exceptionally long attention span. Every scene should remain in the film, but many of the scenes contain many redundant shots. In some cases, the length of certain gore scenes make it lose it some of it's potency. However, I must say, the EFFECTS in this film are pretty much outstanding. Although, I wasn't a fan of the "old vintage film" effect used throughout the entire film (with the little lines and stuff). It wouldn't have been that big of deal if the effect wasn't still used on still-shots of photos or in the scenes with modern footage. It even used the effect on top of already "old vintage footage", making it "double vintage footage". I wish they had interviewed more people to give their opinions and views on Unit 731. For a documentary it's always nice to get many perspectives. Despite, the flaws I listed, this film is one of the best independent films to come out in years. The music done by Alexander Shevchenko in the film is top notch and can stand on it's own. It's good to buy the 2 Disc Special Edition so you can have all the music. Some of the most powerful scenes in my opinion were the "frost bite testing" when the guy is made to walk, and the scene towards the end with the Japanese solider letting the girl go. (very beautiful scene). It's a visual masterpiece. If you took all the best parts of this film, it would still be longer and better than all the "extreme" movies nowadays. If "extreme" was a genre, this would be one of it's crown jewels.