This film had been rejected for the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals , it suddenly burst into a deserved popularity when it won a top honour in the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The issue of the Nanking Massacres is hotly contested in Japan and academia there has sullied itself by coming up with denials which border on the desperation we see in Europe from some holocaust denying apologists and latterly champions of Israeli military actions in Lebanon and Gaza.It is a profoundly disconcerting phenomenon when Zionists are reduced to espousing re-hashed tired discredited excuses used by Nazis and the Japanese Imperial Army to justify their unspeakable actions against civilians as well as medical and food distribution infrastructures.
From a film-making point of view the subject has been hard to portray as it is still seen as a national humiliations within China , and a brutally painful reminder to how exposed was the fate of China to external machinations of foreign powers, at the turn of the 19th Century China was under the yoke of military occupations from over a dozen nations , as well as civil wars among the imploding old ruling dynastic groupings, not to mention an unhealed long-running festering wound because it has never been recognised by Japan or the International community at large in the same way that Germany have been made to atone for the actions of the Nazi rule.
You can see the trailer of the film below , it formally comes out in late March and April.
One of the main stumbling blocks which prevent Japan to even accept the massacres today , and the West to side with China in this issue stems from the fact that the Japanese Imperial Army at the time of the rape of Nanking was commanded overall by Price Asaka , not only the relative of Emperor Hirohito , but directly appointed by him to take command of the Army as it prepared to take Nanking in 1937.When the war was over and Japan signed the unconditional surrender to the US , Emperor Hirohito and his relatives , including Prince Asaka were give full immunity from prosecution as well as given the right to remain as Emperor for the sake of continued stability as post -war Japan was brought in the the US orbit.It stems from this that for Japan to admit , or recognise the crimes of Nanking will be tantamount to accusing the current Emperor through his ancestors of war crimes worthy of appearing in court , even though the Emperor in 1937 had signed a declaration stripping all Chinese from the protection of International treaties to which Japan may be liable.From the side of the West it would be seen as abandoning modern Japan and siding with Communist China if they openly recognise the Nanking massacres and put any undue pressure for Japan to accept and play its part in rectifying past wrongs.
The film can be viewed in its entirety on youtube , see this link.
If you look at the Nanking massacre information on the internet you will be taken aback by the many entries from the Japan media side which do not recognise any undue killings over and above military operational casualties , In fact the whole period in Japan is only referred as the Nanking INCIDENT.
It is in this background one must appreciate the unique achievement of making this film at all.It has drawn condemnation within China for giving a Human Face to some of the Japanese soldiers , the reaction from Japan has been a massive propaganda exercise to put doubt on and nullify any evidence China has garnered and put in the public domain.The best evidence from International investigations is that the Chinese total of 300,000 killed by the Japanese Imperial Army is not far of the mark , certainly nowhere near the numbers claimed by some Japanese commentators today of less than 40,000 which are disrespectful to the memory of those killed as well as being academically deeply insulting.
Here is a particularly moving scene , as well as extraordinarily brilliant cinematic direction.It begins with the Japanese hero shooting a woman in the form of a mercy killing at her own request , you have to recall this is as good a bout of heroism a member of the Japanese Imperial Army during the reducing of a enemy city can be likely to display.Then we have the triumphant Victory March of the victorious Imperial Army through the devastated streets of Nanking looked upon by the few living relatives of those killed by the thousands, todays equivalent would like the British Army doing a victory parade in the streets of Derry accompanied by the Orange order to celebrate the Derry massacre.
No comments:
Post a Comment