Nanking Reviews
Dillon L
Super Reviewer
January 17, 2011
Straightforward and to the point, this documentary on the seldom heard Nanking atrocities is as intelligent as it is well made.
Harlequin68
Super Reviewer
December 25, 2007
[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]
[font=Century Gothic]"Nanking" is a devastating documentary about the 1937 occupation and rape of Nanking(it is estimated there were 20,000 rapes in the first month) by the Japanese army.(I had heard this event mentioned on occasion but never seen it documented with this level of detail.) A group of Westerners stayed past the evacuations on a mission of mercy, setting up a safety zone in an attempt to save as many civilians as they can.(They saved as many as 250,000 people.) Among their number, were a group of Americans and one Nazi businessman, John Rabe.(On the one hand, Rabe being a part of this courageous humanitarian mission is beyond irony. But his petitiioning his government for help does present new evidence into the debate of what the German people knew and when did they know it.) Of particular concern were former Chinese troops who were being summarily executed and of course any women.[/font]
[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]
William G
Super Reviewer
December 31, 2007
Talking-head format robs actions both harrowing and heroic of their full impact.
iamthethinman
September 8, 2010
This is a very well projected telling of the tragedy through survivors, actual footage and actors reading journals and other first person accounts. It reminded me so much of Hearts and Minds or Night and Fog which reveal worst of human nature while at war. However, this one give so many first person accounts that there is a real connection to it more than just the shock. Ken Burns World War II documentary is like this in its ability to absorb and make you relate.
This is a production that provides an intimate portrayal that must be told to all. Some scenes are not for the squeamish, but the overall should be known.
Damn, I watch a lot of really depressing documentaries. However, this is a very interesting production and, of course, one of the worst overall atrocities committed on people in history. The fact that it is still denied by so many people is akin to holocaust denial. Maybe because it was focused on one geographic area, but that area was worse than hell to be in. And I love Japan, but you can't help but feel some context when you see a movie like Tokyo Gore Police before watching this.
This is a very well projected telling of the tragedy through survivors, actual footage and actors reading journals and other first person accounts. It reminded me so much of Hearts and Minds or Night and Fog which reveal worst of human nature while at war. However, this one give so many first person accounts that there is a real connection to it more than just the shock. Ken Burns World War II documentary is like this in its ability to absorb and make you relate.
This is a production that provides an intimate portrayal that must be told to all. Some scenes are not for the squeamish, but the overall should be known.
December 7, 2008
I really liked this doc. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy watching actors read journals from Nanking, but it being interspersed with interview footage of the Chinese survivors and the war footage, really moving. Loved it.
synergizer2003
July 14, 2008
Different than what I expected. The story told was very compelling albeit very gruesome and disturbing at the same time. The essence you walk away with, as intended I think, is that war between nations is awful and should be avoided
standbyfilms
February 29, 2008
Chilling.. more reason not to ever buy a Ford..
or reconsider our love for Japans history
One of the best Docs - of 2007
Chilling.. more reason not to ever buy a Ford..
or reconsider our love for Japans history
gillianren
May 18, 2012
This is a horribly depressing documentary, of course. No one would see its title and not think that unless they didn't know anything about the Rape of Nanking. Which, of course, means that there is an unfortunately large number of people who won't know what they're getting into just from the name. However, there is one moment which is very briefly delightful, though it is unfortunately followed up by something along the lines of, "And then the Japanese killed my mother." Because that's pretty much how stories about the Rape of Nanking go. However, the one moment which is pleasing to an audience, though it's probably unconscious on the part of the man being interviewed (more on which anon), is that he is still making sound effects for the planes and guns even all these years later. It's a remarkably human moment in a story which goes almost beyond human understanding.
Ideally, I should not have to go into the details of the Rape of Nanking here. Suffice it to say, then, that this documentary is a combination of historical footage, interviewers with survivors, and readings by current actors standing in for important figures of the events in question. Jürgen Prochnow, for example, stands in for John Rabe, whom we have seen before. Woody Harrelson is Dr. Bob Wilson, the Steve Buscemi character from [i]John Rabe[/i]. Mariel Hemingway is Minnie Vautrin. And so forth. And while they are not acting per se, they are very clearly intended to be portraying the figures whose words they are reading. For the most part, the camera shows us the faces, only occasionally delving into the imagery that Rabe and the others managed to document the horrors with. The timeline is laid out, illuminated by the details of rapes and murders. Some of the survivors weep as they tell of the things which specifically happened to them.
But I can't tell you those survivors' names. I do believe that it's impossible to tell the true and full story of the Rape of Nanking without using the experiences of those Westerners who saved so many lives, so I'm certainly not suggesting that they have no place in these events. They also serve to counter, at least a little, the idea that the Rape of Nanking was exaggerated if not outright invented by the Chinese government. However, neither of my usual two sites for checking details of a movie provide the names of the handful of actual Chinese people interviewed here. You can tell they're not actors, because they are old people telling stories about what happened to them when they were in children. One woman talks of being raped at twelve because she thought it would save her grandfather's life. One man talks of the death of his mother and how his baby brother was unable to understand what was going on. These are important stories, just as important as those of the Westerners. But I don't remember their names, and no one wants to help me.
It is frustrating to me that people call this documentary "anti-Japanese." As if the problem with the deaths was just that the killers were Japanese. Oh, we know it won't be airing in Japan any time soon, because Japan has never come to terms with its own history from that era. Producer Ted Leonsis insists that the film is merely anti-war, and I think that's accurate. No, it doesn't talk about the millions killed by things like the Great Leap Forward, but then, it also doesn't talk about the Korean "comfort women." Neither are relevant to the story being told, which is one city at one time. I'm quite sure that most of the people involved could say pretty scathing things about the mistakes made under Mao, as could I. That, however, simply isn't the point. Nor is any history between China and Japan up until that point or anything which has happened since. The point is to remember what happened in Nanking, to recognize part of our human history.
To me, the importance of Nanking is quite simply that it shows both the good and the evil of which humans are capable. John Rabe used the power of Nazi Germany to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Oh, he was one of the only Germans I can excuse for not knowing what was going on in Germany at the time, being that he hadn't been to Germany in quite some time, and he was ignorant enough so that he thought Germany would step in and protect the people of Nanking. Minnie Vautrin committed suicide in despair for all the women she was unable to protect. However, she protected more women than she would have been expected to. The atrocities of Nanking--of World War II in general--are a portrayal of humanity at its worst. The stories of the Westerners of Nanking--and, yes Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg and many others--are a portrayal of humanity at its best. You need the former to truly display the latter, though I'd do without the latter if we could avoid the former while we're at it.
Putting Woody Harrelson in Glasses Doesn't Make Him Respectable
This is a horribly depressing documentary, of course. No one would see its title and not think that unless they didn't know anything about the Rape of Nanking. Which, of course, means that there is an unfortunately large number of people who won't know what they're getting into just from the name. However, there is one moment which is very briefly delightful, though it is unfortunately followed up by something along the lines of, "And then the Japanese killed my mother." Because that's pretty much how stories about the Rape of Nanking go. However, the one moment which is pleasing to an audience, though it's probably unconscious on the part of the man being interviewed (more on which anon), is that he is still making sound effects for the planes and guns even all these years later. It's a remarkably human moment in a story which goes almost beyond human understanding.
Ideally, I should not have to go into the details of the Rape of Nanking here. Suffice it to say, then, that this documentary is a combination of historical footage, interviewers with survivors, and readings by current actors standing in for important figures of the events in question. Jürgen Prochnow, for example, stands in for John Rabe, whom we have seen before. Woody Harrelson is Dr. Bob Wilson, the Steve Buscemi character from [i]John Rabe[/i]. Mariel Hemingway is Minnie Vautrin. And so forth. And while they are not acting per se, they are very clearly intended to be portraying the figures whose words they are reading. For the most part, the camera shows us the faces, only occasionally delving into the imagery that Rabe and the others managed to document the horrors with. The timeline is laid out, illuminated by the details of rapes and murders. Some of the survivors weep as they tell of the things which specifically happened to them.
But I can't tell you those survivors' names. I do believe that it's impossible to tell the true and full story of the Rape of Nanking without using the experiences of those Westerners who saved so many lives, so I'm certainly not suggesting that they have no place in these events. They also serve to counter, at least a little, the idea that the Rape of Nanking was exaggerated if not outright invented by the Chinese government. However, neither of my usual two sites for checking details of a movie provide the names of the handful of actual Chinese people interviewed here. You can tell they're not actors, because they are old people telling stories about what happened to them when they were in children. One woman talks of being raped at twelve because she thought it would save her grandfather's life. One man talks of the death of his mother and how his baby brother was unable to understand what was going on. These are important stories, just as important as those of the Westerners. But I don't remember their names, and no one wants to help me.
It is frustrating to me that people call this documentary "anti-Japanese." As if the problem with the deaths was just that the killers were Japanese. Oh, we know it won't be airing in Japan any time soon, because Japan has never come to terms with its own history from that era. Producer Ted Leonsis insists that the film is merely anti-war, and I think that's accurate. No, it doesn't talk about the millions killed by things like the Great Leap Forward, but then, it also doesn't talk about the Korean "comfort women." Neither are relevant to the story being told, which is one city at one time. I'm quite sure that most of the people involved could say pretty scathing things about the mistakes made under Mao, as could I. That, however, simply isn't the point. Nor is any history between China and Japan up until that point or anything which has happened since. The point is to remember what happened in Nanking, to recognize part of our human history.
To me, the importance of Nanking is quite simply that it shows both the good and the evil of which humans are capable. John Rabe used the power of Nazi Germany to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Oh, he was one of the only Germans I can excuse for not knowing what was going on in Germany at the time, being that he hadn't been to Germany in quite some time, and he was ignorant enough so that he thought Germany would step in and protect the people of Nanking. Minnie Vautrin committed suicide in despair for all the women she was unable to protect. However, she protected more women than she would have been expected to. The atrocities of Nanking--of World War II in general--are a portrayal of humanity at its worst. The stories of the Westerners of Nanking--and, yes Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg and many others--are a portrayal of humanity at its best. You need the former to truly display the latter, though I'd do without the latter if we could avoid the former while we're at it.
August 14, 2011
A wonderful documentary projecting the atrocities committed at Nanking (far worse than the holocaust) but yet I only felt just terrified..nothing more
Dillon L
Super Reviewer
January 17, 2011
Straightforward and to the point, this documentary on the seldom heard Nanking atrocities is as intelligent as it is well made.
Existence
November 23, 2009
The way in which it is presented is particularly powerful. I think this may be the best unintentional case for pacifism there is. This review will be entirely inadequate to convincing any to see it who are not sure or against seeing it. There are so many emotions I felt during the course of the presentation that I can't begin to describe how this film is challenging and changing my perspective even now. One particular emotion that is most troubling to me from this film is a confusion about how to react to a Nazi using his nationalism and the swastika to scare off Japanese soldiers from murdering and raping innocent civilians.
The movie is not anti-Japan. I did not come out with any contempt for the Japanese soldiers or Japan. I am not even tempted to say that the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide some measure of retribution for the atrocities committed in Nanking. I was a pacifist going into this movie and am all the more convinced coming out that no one wins in war. There are no victors or righteous governments in the world. There are only oppressors and oppressed and the line between those is very blurry indeed.
This is a movie everyone should see. This movie will mess you up. It won't make it onto my top anything lists despite scoring higher than many films on those lists and that's because the movie truly is in a league of its own. Being a documentary and due to the content it explores I decided it would not be fair to put it next to fictional or fictionalized stories. It would be unfair to all parties. Usually I am reluctant to watch even Holocaust movies because of how angry and sad they make me. None of those begin to compare to how much Nanking messed me up. I consider myself a pretty strong minded and strong willed individual and this movie nearly had me balling by the end.
The way in which it is presented is particularly powerful. I think this may be the best unintentional case for pacifism there is. This review will be entirely inadequate to convincing any to see it who are not sure or against seeing it. There are so many emotions I felt during the course of the presentation that I can't begin to describe how this film is challenging and changing my perspective even now. One particular emotion that is most troubling to me from this film is a confusion about how to react to a Nazi using his nationalism and the swastika to scare off Japanese soldiers from murdering and raping innocent civilians.
The movie is not anti-Japan. I did not come out with any contempt for the Japanese soldiers or Japan. I am not even tempted to say that the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide some measure of retribution for the atrocities committed in Nanking. I was a pacifist going into this movie and am all the more convinced coming out that no one wins in war. There are no victors or righteous governments in the world. There are only oppressors and oppressed and the line between those is very blurry indeed.
Harlequin68
Super Reviewer
December 25, 2007
[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]
[font=Century Gothic]"Nanking" is a devastating documentary about the 1937 occupation and rape of Nanking(it is estimated there were 20,000 rapes in the first month) by the Japanese army.(I had heard this event mentioned on occasion but never seen it documented with this level of detail.) A group of Westerners stayed past the evacuations on a mission of mercy, setting up a safety zone in an attempt to save as many civilians as they can.(They saved as many as 250,000 people.) Among their number, were a group of Americans and one Nazi businessman, John Rabe.(On the one hand, Rabe being a part of this courageous humanitarian mission is beyond irony. But his petitiioning his government for help does present new evidence into the debate of what the German people knew and when did they know it.) Of particular concern were former Chinese troops who were being summarily executed and of course any women.[/font]
[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]
