Nanking (2007)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 2
This powerful and horrific documentary brings the atrocities committed at Nanking to light without sugarcoating any of the brutality.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 0
This powerful and horrific documentary brings the atrocities committed at Nanking to light without sugarcoating any of the brutality.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 4,849
My Rating
Movie Info
Filmmaker Bill Guttentag takes a closer look at the atrocities committed by the Japanese after Nanking fell to the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937 with this documentary that was inspired by Iris Chang's novel The Rape of Nanking. Compiled from over 700 hours of footage including news-reel footage, interviews with survivors and soldiers, and staged readings, Nanking was financed in large by millionaire Ted Leonsis, who had read Chang's obituary and subsequently been prompted to read the author's
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Cast
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Hugo Armstrong
Rev. John Magee -
Rosalind Chao
Chang Yu Zheng -
Stephen Dorff
Lewis Smythe -
John Getz
George Fitch -
Mariel Hemingway
Minnie Vautrin -
Michelle Krusiec
Yang Shu Ling -
Chris Mulkey
Mills MacCallum -
Jürgen Prochnow
John Rabe -
Sonny Saito
Sakai Hiroshi -
Graham Sibley
Bates -
Robert Wu
Chinese Soldier -
Mark Valley
Stage Manager -
Woody Harrelson
Bob Wilson -
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Nanking Trailer & Photos
All Critics (54) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (2) | DVD (4)
The lesson here is not simply to vilify the Japanese soldiers of that era, but to make sure that we never forget who we are and what our country stands for today.
Top CriticSheds light on particular wartime atrocities largely neglected in the collective memory.
This painful documentary ends on a hopeful note, although with a clear view of the cloud over human nature.
A noble effort, but a flawed delivery. The film would benefit from more time spent with the real survivors, and less with actors tasked with "playing" the Western saviors.
Living through a screening of ... the 1937/8 Japanese invasion, devastation and occupation of Nanking creates a fervent wish to have nothing o do with our membership cards in the homo sapiens species.
A stunning documentary, a must-see-and-bear-it cinematic testimonial to yet another mass war crime, lest we forget.
A deft and dramatic melding of talking-head documentary, historic photos and film footage and readings by a cast of actors, the film is a devastating depiction of man's inhumanity to man. It is also about how some of us are brave enough to say 'No.'
Nanking bombards you with words and images of acts too barbaric to fully absorb.
Audience Reviews for Nanking
Super Reviewer
[font=Century Gothic]Along with archival and newswreel footage, interviews with Chinese survivors and Japanese soldiers involved in the atrocities, the movie has actors including Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Jurgen Prochnow, Chris Mulkey, Rosalind Chao, Stephen Dorff, and Mark Valley read testimony from the observers straight to the camera.(They felt that if their testimony could be heard by the outside world, then pressure could be applied to stop the atrocities, especially by the Japanese public but it does not seem likely since they were stirred into a militaristic and patriotic fervor by their dictatorial government.) It does take a little while to get used to this technique but it is as effective as everything else in this superb antiwar film. [/font]
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
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| Ian Buckwalter is a retard | 7 days ago | 0 |
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