In this gruesome and extraordinarily explicit wartime medical horror story, based on a 1948 novel by Simsako Endo, two rival surgical teams at the University Hospital in Kyushu begin on a course of practice which violates every concept of medical ethics after the moderately innocent decision to disguise the death of a patient on the operating table as a post-operative mortality. Before long, the teams are performing needless, lethal and experimental surgeries on captured American servicemen. The scenes and sounds depicting these operations are exceptionally graphic and detailed and, despite warnings during festival showings of the film, many viewers had to leave the room.
~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide