Rape of Nanking DVD Review
Added 2/6/2010
This is an excellent mixture of the reading of the diaries of key Western individuals who were there coupled with recollections of Chinese civilians and Japanese military personnel who participated in this terrible period of time. The recollections, diary readings coupled with video images of the carnage that took place - really adds to reality of a horror of a magnitude not thought to exist at that time and denied by the Japaneses government to this day
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Another Holocaust
Added 2/2/2010
In 1937 the Japanese occupied Nanking, a bustling city then the capital of China, and reduced it to rubble. In the process, they murdered more than a quarter of a million Chinese men, women, and children in a six week period. In horrible, documented accounts (many on film clips edited into this picture), the Japanese military bayoneted infants and pregnant women, eviscerated children, machine-gunned men en masse, burned hundreds alive, forced the living to copulate with the dead, buried people alive, and raped girls and women of all ages from infancy to senescence, many of whom were killed thereafter (and when no females were around, young boys sufficed). The Allies later determined that there were at least 20,000 rapes committed in the first month of Japanese occupation alone (an admittedly low number; some sources put the number at over 80,000).
In the midst of all the destruction, a determined group of Westerners established a "Safety Zone" in the city into which crowded tens of thousands. Most of the leaders of the "Safety Zone" were missionaries, but some were German Nazi Party members who were sickened by the sights they saw. Although the "Safety Zone" had no legal status, the Japanese largely respected its bounds and respected the people who had established it. Together, these righteous people managed to save about 250,000 Chinese.
NANKING is a document which memorializes the fearsome "Rape of Nanking" in image and word. Several well-known actors portray the missionaries (not in action, but as commentators, reading from diaries, reports, and letters). Interviews with survivors and now-aged former Japanese soldiers also make up the substance of this film.
It is sad to hear that the Missionary Dean of the local girls' College, Miss Minnie Vautin "The Angel of Nanking," who protected hundreds of young Chinese women from depredation, later committed suicide when the horrors of World War II overwhelmed her.
It is even more sad to hear of John Rabe, a confirmed Nazi Party member, who wrote to Hitler in outrage, asking that he do something to protect the helpless Chinese, believing, as he said, that the Nazi leader was concerned with the needs of the poor in Germany, and therefore, he assumed, elsewhere; Rabe's films and photos were confiscated and Rabe was sent to a Concentration Camp when he returned to Germany (Rabe was later sent to the Gulag by the Soviets). He ended his days living off donations from thankful Nankingese citizens whom he'd saved, a kind of Oriental Oskar Schindler.
Still, the essence of this film comes across in the searing images of tortured bodies and minds in every frame. An almost forgotten episode, Nanking was the site of Japan's own Final Solution, a genocide which (in 1937) was unparalleled. Unfortunately for humanity, it was not to remain so for very long.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Great Documentary
Added 1/25/2010
This is a great documentary buy it or rent it. I am so glad this dvd is made. Very good pace and draws the audience right into the movie. Truth about Rape of Nanking, always bring out Japanese Facist Poster on this review board.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Kung Fu does not work on Japanese Samurai
Added 10/29/2009
So great to see the truth about martial arts abilities of Chinese instead of hyped up Kung Fu flicks with Chinese heros flying through the air over 100 feet and defeating armies of enemies. Clearly, Chinese military abilities are quiete inferior to the Japanese. When you get bored of watching Kung Fu movies, watch this movie for the truth about military weakness of Chinese and inferiority of Kung Fu.
0 out of 11 people found this helpful.
|
Terrific documentary
Added 8/18/2009
The Bottom Line:
An innovative documentary (though some of its conceits don't entirely work) that thankfully expands its scope beyond talking head interviews and archive footage, Nanking brings the titular 1937 massacre to live in a horrifyingly successful way, illuminating the tragedy while subtly underlining the heroes who stood up to genocide; if you're interested in World War II or documentary film, rent or buy Nanking.
3.5/4
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Rape of Nanking DVD Review
Added 2/6/2010
This is an excellent mixture of the reading of the diaries of key Western individuals who were there coupled with recollections of Chinese civilians and Japanese military personnel who participated in this terrible period of time. The recollections, diary readings coupled with video images of the carnage that took place - really adds to reality of a horror of a magnitude not thought to exist at that time and denied by the Japaneses government to this day
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Another Holocaust
Added 2/2/2010
In 1937 the Japanese occupied Nanking, a bustling city then the capital of China, and reduced it to rubble. In the process, they murdered more than a quarter of a million Chinese men, women, and children in a six week period. In horrible, documented accounts (many on film clips edited into this picture), the Japanese military bayoneted infants and pregnant women, eviscerated children, machine-gunned men en masse, burned hundreds alive, forced the living to copulate with the dead, buried people alive, and raped girls and women of all ages from infancy to senescence, many of whom were killed thereafter (and when no females were around, young boys sufficed). The Allies later determined that there were at least 20,000 rapes committed in the first month of Japanese occupation alone (an admittedly low number; some sources put the number at over 80,000).
In the midst of all the destruction, a determined group of Westerners established a "Safety Zone" in the city into which crowded tens of thousands. Most of the leaders of the "Safety Zone" were missionaries, but some were German Nazi Party members who were sickened by the sights they saw. Although the "Safety Zone" had no legal status, the Japanese largely respected its bounds and respected the people who had established it. Together, these righteous people managed to save about 250,000 Chinese.
NANKING is a document which memorializes the fearsome "Rape of Nanking" in image and word. Several well-known actors portray the missionaries (not in action, but as commentators, reading from diaries, reports, and letters). Interviews with survivors and now-aged former Japanese soldiers also make up the substance of this film.
It is sad to hear that the Missionary Dean of the local girls' College, Miss Minnie Vautin "The Angel of Nanking," who protected hundreds of young Chinese women from depredation, later committed suicide when the horrors of World War II overwhelmed her.
It is even more sad to hear of John Rabe, a confirmed Nazi Party member, who wrote to Hitler in outrage, asking that he do something to protect the helpless Chinese, believing, as he said, that the Nazi leader was concerned with the needs of the poor in Germany, and therefore, he assumed, elsewhere; Rabe's films and photos were confiscated and Rabe was sent to a Concentration Camp when he returned to Germany (Rabe was later sent to the Gulag by the Soviets). He ended his days living off donations from thankful Nankingese citizens whom he'd saved, a kind of Oriental Oskar Schindler.
Still, the essence of this film comes across in the searing images of tortured bodies and minds in every frame. An almost forgotten episode, Nanking was the site of Japan's own Final Solution, a genocide which (in 1937) was unparalleled. Unfortunately for humanity, it was not to remain so for very long.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Great Documentary
Added 1/25/2010
This is a great documentary buy it or rent it. I am so glad this dvd is made. Very good pace and draws the audience right into the movie. Truth about Rape of Nanking, always bring out Japanese Facist Poster on this review board.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
