Truly Dreadful Film

A lot of fun.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Without the focus on the heroic efforts of a small group of European and American expatriates, Nanking the film would be a near unbearable experience. The Nanking Massacre, or The Rape of Nanking as it's widely referred to, took place over a 6 week period in 1937. The Chinese capital city was invaded by Japanese troops, resulting in 200,000 (or more depending on varying estimates) innocent people raped and slaughtered. Tales of civilians being forced to have sex with corpses or family members, unborn foetus's being cut out of their mother's belly with bayonet's, or the gang-rape of small girls and boys are all confirmed here. But Nanking achieves its power not through shocking and repulsing but by showing the triumph of the human spirit in the face of hell on Earth.Although plenty of archival footage is used - from the beautiful, pulsating Nanking sitting proudly as China's capital, to it's destruction through heavy bombing - a bulk of the film consists of readings by actors of diary entries written by the likes of Nazi party member John Rabe and American missionary Minnie Vautrin. Rabe and Vautrin were part of a small, wealthy group of men and women who decided against fleeing Naking, and set up a 'Safety Zone' inside the city. The actors, including the likes of Jurgen Prochnow, Mariel Hemingway, Woody Harrelson and Stephen Dorff, are earnest and understated in their delivery, and this helps give these moments an urgency, when it could have come off as trying to add some Hollywood gloss to a devastating event.The Japanese agreed to the implementation of the safety zone, but their soldiers would parade the grounds, raping women at will and dragging men off to be executed on mass for being suspected enemy soldiers. Still, the protection offered by Rabe, Vautrin, Bob Wilson et al is estimated at being responsible for the survival of 200,000 Chinese lives. This is hard stuff to watch, one of the most despicable war crimes ever committed - interviews with Chinese survivors and seemingly remorseless and disconnected Japanese soldiers hit particularly hard - but this is essential viewing, proving that in order to move forward, we must look back.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

It is a shame that the "Rape of Nanking" is not more widely known, and it is - quite frankly - equally a shame that there are still a lot of apologists who try to deny that the Japanese Army would have done such a thing, or that the horror was exaggerated. I've done enough reading and research on this subject to find it impossible to excuse the Japanese soldiers who participated or to deny that the events occurred. That is historical revisionism at its worst and most offensive. And, yes, war crimes have been committed by all sides in all wars, but to use that as an excuse to criticize this documentary for being biased is ridiculous. This documentary seeks to lay out the facts of the events that occurred when the Japanese occupied Nanking, China in 1937. Why it should make reference to what the Americans have done in Guatemala (or any other example of war crimes) is beyond me. That's like saying that you can't make a documentary about the great boxer Joe Louis without making mention of Mike Tyson. The subject matter is related, but one story isn't at all relevant to the other.This is emotionally wrenching stuff. It's a pretty simple format. Directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman use diaries, letters etc. written by Westerners living in Nanking during the occupation as the basis for the documentary. Those westerners (and some Japanese and Chinese) are portrayed by actors (most notably Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and Jurgen Prochnow) with actor Mark Valley acting as a sort of narrator. There are also accounts offered by some of the Chinese who survived the atrocities. These are woven together by actual film footage of what happened, and it all adds up to something that sometimes sickens the viewers as we hear the accounts of innocent Chinese men, women and children being bayoneted and shot, along, of course, with the heartwrenching accounts of girls as young as 10 being savagely raped by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese slogan "Burn All - Kill All - Loot All" was very appropriate, and yet perhaps even too gentle in comparison to what actually happened. One account in particular - offered by a Chinese survivor who described the horrific deaths of his mother and baby brother - made me need to pause this and take a break. That rarely happens to me. I was also taken aback by the testimony of one of the Japanese solders (now an old man) who spoke about what had happened and who seemed to be chuckling as he described the rapes, and who admitted that it shouldn't have happened, apparently because - in his words - "if both of them aren't into it, what's the point." That was the extent of his remorse? That "both of them weren't into it?"This is also inspiring, though. It's basically a tribute to those westerners who tried to set up a "Safety Zone" in Nanking, where Chinese refugees could come for safety and medical care and where the westerners did everything they could (not always successfully) to keep the Japanese troops out. It was a strange group of westerners, made up mostly of American missionaries and Nazi businessmen, who joined together and worked together because of their disgust for what they observed. Especially interesting among these folks - to me at least - was the story of John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who seems to have believed in the goodness of Hitler and who believed Hitler would want to help. As the eventual fates of the westerners are revealed, we're told that when he finally returned to Germany he sent a letter and films of the carnage to Hitler with a request for help, only to find himself arrested by the Gestapo for his efforts. We're then told that he was arrested by the Soviets after the war and ultimately found himself in dire poverty, only to be helped by the citizens of Nanking, who sent him money because they remembered his kindness to them and his efforts on their behalf. In a way, Rabe resembles the "Oskar Schindler" of China. And yet, westerners aren't described or portrayed as glamorous. The ones this movie is dedicated to are given a deserving tribute, but the disinterest of their governments in what was happening is noted, especially with the word "the world stood silent."The Japanese invasion of China was really for all intents and purposes the beginning of World War II, since it became a significant battleground in the War that we usually think of having begun with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, but it often gets little historical attention. This documentary helps to fill in that gap. It is truly superb. (10/10)

Nearly seven decades after what was deemed one of the most despicable and inhumane acts ever inflicted by Man on fellow men, the issue of 'the rape of Nanking' has neither been justifiably debated nor has it been sufficiently brought to rest. The spectres of the massacre still live among us, refusing to be appeased. The next couple of years will see a spate of documentaries and feature films depicting one way or another on the subject. Nanking is the first to tackle the issue, its aim to separate fact from fiction. Nanking allows us to view the horrendous events in chronological order, an effective method that is both clear and concise. Using first-hand accounts of survivors as well as real footages of war crimes committed, viewers get a bitter taste of what's like during arguably the darkest period in modern Chinese history. The subject matter remains overwhelmingly depressing, despite the efforts of the filmmakers in introducing another aspect of the Nanking story – great Westerners who banded together in a successful bid to save as many Chinese from intolerable suffering as possible. Nanking could have been an influential film; however it lets itself down in crucial areas – narrative technique and pacing. Using actors to impersonate the above-mentioned heroes by gathering them together in a room to account for their experiences of the Nanking massacre is a bad move by the filmmakers. It loses its credible touch even before the final third and with the combination of poor pacing, results in a documentary that's one of the weakest of 2007. No doubt it's an important and timely film, but I would rather have Michael Moore anytime. GRADE: C+ (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved.

"Nanking" (documentary, 2007): When we think of Evil and War, we think first of the Nazis, Germany, and Jews. Though this is simplistic, we at least have these household terms as points of reference. We HATE everything around the names Nazi, Swastika, and Hitler. What our history has failed to do is discuss the Japanese at and before that same era with their attacks upon China, and, how they were no less brutal than the Nazis. Ill even go further than that and say their blood lust was more brutal, random, passionate, and less calculating than the Nazis. WHY we, as Americans, have allowed our history to be written so clearly and sharply about the Germans, yet so vaguely and softly about the Japanese, is a question I suspect has embarrassing answers. See this documentary. It wont answer all your questions, but it will initiate them.