Thursday, 25 January 2007

The Rape of Nanking. Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You.

(Apparently saying "Coming Attractions" sounds wierd. I thought the phrase was pretty common place but it came up the other day and everyone laughed. I say "Trailers" too, but a little "Coming Attractions" every now and then is good for the soul.)

Anyway, from CBC:

China plans to depict one of the most infamous events of the Second World War, with a film version of U.S. author Iris Chang's historical account The Rape of Nanking.

Chinese moviemakers will team up with U.S. and British filmmakers to describe the brutal massacre of Chinese civilians and burning of the former capital city by Japanese troops in December 1937.

The movie deal was announced Monday, a day before the anniversary of Japan's Second World War surrender.

China has objected to plans by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japanese leaders convicted of war crimes as well as Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

Backers of the $25 million US project hope to woo Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh for the cast, according to a report from the Chinese news service Xinhua.

erald Green, the American producer of the movie, said the film would be a war classic like Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning 1993 film by Steven Spielberg about a businessman who attempts to save the lives of Jews in Poland.

"We hope we can make the film a classic on a massacre in the Second World War, just like Schindler's Listabout the miserable experience of Jewish people during the war," he said in an interview with Xinhua.

Chang, an American-Chinese writer who died in 2004 at age 36, wrote the 1997 English-language history, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for several months and became a New York Times notable book. It helped bring the massacre, little known in the West, to wider attention.

China claims 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the war-time capital Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking. A 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people.

Japanese war crimes are a sensitive issue in China, which says Japan has not taken full responsibility for its wartime occupation of China.

Viridian, a Hollywood entertainment firm, is working with British investors and China's Jiangsu Cultural Industry Group on the project.

Shooting is to begin soon, with the movie scheduled for completion by Sept. 1, 2007, ahead of the 70-year anniversary of the Nanjing massacre.

I for one think this is great news. It definitely is something that everyone should be aware of. The things the Japanese army and government did during their occupation of China is indescribable. Mutilations, rape, forcing boys to have sex with their grandmothers and then kill them both, rip babies from mother's stomachs. The list goes on and it gets worse. (seriously)

What's infuriating is that Japan has yet to appologise for this. A lot of people think the Chinese are even making this up despite all the evidence from International and Japanese researchers. Don't even get me started on the history textbook censorship of which Japan, who has been bitching about it happening in China is itself doing the same thing.

As a movie, the story of the people involved in the real life Rape are very interesting historical characters and should make for a very gripping story on film.

I do wonder how edited this film will be when released in Japan, if at all.

Labels: movies, Rape of Nanking

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...: What amazes me is that the Chinese do not have mor animosity towards the Japanese who have conveniently explained away this historic events which did not occur as a single incident in a cruel campaign.
www.tratfor.com; Saturday, 27 January, 2007
Brad said...: I know what you mean. I think a lot of the hatred is directed more at the government and the army than the everyday Japanese. From what I've seen, Japan seems to be kind of idolised in Asia with a lot of kids wanting to be like Japanese people with money, style and fashion.

A lot of Chinese dislike (or hate) what the government has done and is doing but there seems to be a want to be like the average Japanese person (though I've heard with more female empowerment).; Sunday, 28 January, 2007
Anonymous said...: It seems like the Asian community in the United States has no problem with Japan being portrayed heroically in World War II.

http://azntv.com/axawards/night_of_excellence/winners.aspx

Outstanding Film: Letters from Iwo Jima

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima tells the untold story of the Japanese soldiers who defended their homeland against invading American forces during World War II. With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima itself, the unprecedented tactics of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai) and his men transform what was predicted to be a swift defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat. Their sacrifices, struggles, courage and compassion live on in the taut, gripping film Rolling Stone calls “unique and unforgettable.” It is the powerful companion to Flags of our Fathers.

—-

I am not one to hold a grudge but the Japanese used Chinese citizens for chemical warfare testing. The Chinese still haven’t forgiven them for that.

And somehow American history has lost the stories of how the Japanese treated American Prisoners of War

And how about the Rape of Nanking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EL3h8rTwvg

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4920138942953644691

But, no to Clint Eastwood (and I guess the American Asian Community who honored his film) the Japanese soldiers were merely defending their homeland against those mean olde invading American imperialists.

Clint Eastwood is a traitor to America who has denigrated all those who fought in the Pacific as merely racist imperialists going after the yellow men instead of the liberators of Asia which they really were.

I spit on Clint Eastwood! No wonder Hollyweird can’t distinguish the good guys from the bad guys in Iraq when they can’t even do that when it comes to the Japanese in World War II.

By the way, on the Truth Serum video, of course I disagree with the whole part accusing Bush or America covering it up in order to get access to the scientific research that the Japanese inhumanly performed. That is just insane.

But everything else on that Truth Serum video seems historically accurate. If that isn’t the case, I would really appreciate someone educating me to the inaccuracies in the video.

I do wonder why we didn’t after World War II convict Japanese of War Crimes to the extent we did the Germans. They Japanese did terrible things to AMERICAN POWs. From my understanding the Japanese treated American POWs far worst by and large than the Germans did. And then of course there was the way they treated the Asian Civilian communities they invaded. They never seemed to be personally held accountable for it the way the Germans were the Holocaust.; Sunday, 03 June, 2007
Brad said...: Raise some interesting points though the Asian community in America might not be mad about it but what about the Chinese community? Remember the difference. ;)

Personlly, I had never heard of Nanking before coming to Japan. We don't exactly learn about it in Australian schools either. It came to my attention here over the idiot Prime Minister of Japan visiting Yasakuni Shrine every year.

Japan wasn't held accountable because they struck a deal with the US government after the war. The emperor himself was to be tried as a war criminal but got out of it by negotiating with the US over land, military benefits and trade. Quite a few politicians remained in power that did terrible things during WWII.

I disagree with the concept of "good guys and bad guys" especially in war. The only "bad guys" in my books are the politicians who make bad decisions concerning their people.; Sunday, 03 June, 2007