This would be thoroughly engrossing if the film itself weren't an example of the most tedious brand of documentary.
Shanghai Ghetto (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:36
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Explores a little-known piece of Holocaust history, weaving together stories of overlapping cultures and their coexistence under the pretext of a war to create a touching and unusual narrative.
Theatrical Release:Sep 27, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: In the late 1930s thousands of German Jews, fearing for their lives under Nazi rule and unable to secure entrance visas to other countries, found refuge in the Japanese-occupied city of Shanghai.... In the late 1930s thousands of German Jews, fearing for their lives under Nazi rule and unable to secure entrance visas to other countries, found refuge in the Japanese-occupied city of Shanghai. Destitute, hungry, and thrust into a strange environment, they made the best of their situation as they waited to return to Europe, little realizing the horrific toll that the ravages of war, and Nazi-orchestrated genocide, were taking on their people. This engrossing documentary from Amir Mann and Dana Janklowicz-Mann tells the tale through use of concurrently running narrative interviews with several of the men and women who grew up in the Shanghai ghetto, including Dana's father, Harold, whose dinner table reminiscences sparked the genesis of the film. From persecution and escape from Europe, through the length of the war and eventual migration to the U.S, the riveting, moving saga of these survivors comes alive through family photos, archival footage, and, most touchingly, their return visits to Shanghai and the one-room tenements they shared with their families. Narrated by Martin Landau, SHANGHAI GHETTO won the audience choice award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it premiered in 2002. [More]
Starring: Harold Janklowicz, Alfred Kohn, Betty Grebenschikoff, Sigmund Tobias
Starring: Harold Janklowicz, Alfred Kohn, Betty Grebenschikoff, Sigmund Tobias, Evelyn Pike Rubin
Director: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Director: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Producer: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Composer: Sujin Nam
Studio: Menemsha
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Reviews for Shanghai Ghetto
A Jewish WW II doc that isn't trying simply to out-shock, out-outrage or out-depress its potential audience! Who knew...
The film isn't especially dynamic, but it brims with insightful, poignant memories from survivors.
This may not have the dramatic gut-wrenching impact of other Holocaust films, but it's a compelling story, mainly because of the way it's told by the people who were there.
The film is a worthy addition to the vast catalogue of Holocaust cinema but too narrowly focused on the experiences of the refugees, to the exclusion of Chinese and Japanese sources.
The film uses standard techniques to tell its tale ... but does so with integrity and attention to detail.
A worthy educational reminder of how many strange stories grew out of the Holocaust experience.
Filmmakers Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann area headed east, Far East, in retelling a historically significant, and personal, episode detailing how one international city welcomed tens of thousands of German Jewish refugees while the world's democracie
This is riveting stuff, especially in its account of how refugee culture and community spring up almost overnight.
The strength of the film comes not from any cinematic razzle-dazzle but from its recovery of an historical episode that, in the simple telling, proves simultaneously harrowing and uplifting.
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| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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