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So much average

Sadly Over-hyped

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It was during the American Civil War that the Truth was driven home like a wooden stake through a vampire's heart: target the civilian population, engage in a "scorched earth" policy, and you'll shorten the war. But has it ever been otherwise? History suggests it's always been the norm. Not long ago, I watched a documentary about a photographer who had gone to Africa and returned with some of the most horrific photos imaginable. There were the usual atrocities, drought, etc.,- but the most shocking photo, which turned out to have been recorded on video as well, showed a human being literally reduced to skeletal proportions crawling slowly along a dirt road. One couldn't help but feel for the man... and then the documentary revealed that this man and other members of his tribe had butchered and beheaded and dismembered all the members of another tribe... the tribe that had been responsible for farming and providing food for everyone in the region. When the U.$. invaded Afghanistan, Afghanistan was said to be "the POOREST country on Earth." "The enemy creates a desert," someone says in the documentary NANKING, "and calls it Peace." Also in NANKING, we're told that those Chinese with Money and Means were able to avoid the horrors visited on the rest of the population- "the poorest of the poor," who couldn't AFFORD to flee (Katrina, anyone?). It's ironic, indeed, that one of the Chinese benefactors was a devout Nazi sympathizer; ironic, too, that it was the United $tate$ itself that supplied the Japanese with war supplies. The Japanese strategy in Nanking was summed up by "the three Alls: Kill All, Burn All, Loot All." (The exact same strategy employed by the U.$. in The American War- in Vietnam...) Says one missionary: "During this time, we really felt that we were contending with the powers of evil." ("Axis of Evil," anyone?) "I can see little indication of God," one wrote. (And these writings, as powerful as they are, are somehow LESS powerful when read by Actors so very far removed from the Reality; better it had been a narrator- or at least Actors kept off-camera.) It was indeed infuriating to see the unrepentant old Japanese war criminals fondly recalling the atrocities they committed (see the documentary THE ACT OF KILLING to see this kind of jerking come full circle) and some of the revelations about their depredations were truly startling- for instance, that they raped young BOYS when young Girls weren't available... and the (eye-witnessed) act of NECROPHELIA. (Did you know that General Patton left Nazi guards on duty at some of the "liberated" concentration camps during World War Two? How's THAT for a War Hero? Gung Ho Gung Ho Gung Ho...) As for the Japanese, they just "wanted no witnesses."

A powerful film recounting the atrocities committed before World War 2 in China by members of the Japanese military. The bulk of the film is told as journal entries from the actual people who were involved. There are also interviews with the actual survivors and some of the 'participants' as well from the Japanese army.It's quite an interesting effect. The voice overs are combined with actual footage from the war. And it gives a sad realism to it.For me the worst part was the ending where the atrocities were documented and brought to the attention of the American politicians but they chose to turn a blind eye to it - as did the rest of the international community.For shame. The US of A had the same reaction to the news as Hitler's Germany - they both turned a blind eye.

I won't leave an 'out of ten' for this one because I turned it off after an hour. Not to downplay what happened to the citizens of Nanking but sometimes you just have to ask yourself 'Why am I watching this?'. I rented this one cause it said 'based on the incredible true story...westerners unite to save thousands of innocent civilians from the atrocities of war' or something like that. So I was expecting some feel-good re-enactment of history, something akin to Schindlers List. But after watching for about an hour, listening to the REAL people describing some of the most gruesome acts of atrocity committed to their loved ones before their very eyes, I began to realize that this movie was not for me. Yes, all this happened, and yes, we must Never Forget, but at the same time I believe you can make an argument against using horrific anecdotes to teach history. For the people who lived through this I don't believe there is any story of redemption, no rhyme or reason, no heroic deliverance. Yes, good people stood up and saved lives and that should have been the focus of this documentary, not the unspeakable brutality.

There's Woody Harrelson. There's Mariel Hemingway. And look, there's the Chinese lady from "The Joy Luck Club" who baked chocolate-peanut butter pies for her American husband. These well-known actors aren't here to do a press junket for their latest film. Somewhat reminiscent of Louis Malle's "Vanya on 42nd Street", the arriving performers aren't here to do a workshop production of Anton Chekov's "Uncle Vanya" neither. Harrelson and the other actors file into the theater, find their seats, and transform into period piece characters before our very eyes. Adapting the story of Nanking into a filmed theater piece could have gone horribly wrong, but it's a creative gambit that pays off handsomely, sometimes with stirring results. Interspersed with familiar faces such as Hemingway and Rosalind Chao, survivors from the secret holocaust help create a dynamic of first-hand testimony and theater performance art. With each new horrific account of the ten-day siege that made a ruins out of China's capital city, the Hollywood actors slowly disappear into character, as the narrative takes precedence over the mode of its telling. What began as a jarring mix of amateur and professional actors, soon coalesces into a seamless whole, as the spilled blood of three-thousand Chinese innocents democratizes the disparate ensemble. Hemingway, however, needs to be singled out. As Minnie Vautrin, the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway is more like a conduit than an actor.In depicting the Japanese army, the late-Iris Chang, author of "The Rape of Nanching", didn't excuse their inhumane behavior, but she did get to the root of it. Chang wrote that the young Japanese men were subjected to a very rigorous training program which desensitized them to violence. And their Shinto faith, as opposed to Christianity, doesn't contain the same message of an all-encompassing love for other people. Shintoism bred a sort of feral tribalism that proved fatal for anybody who wasn't of Japanese descent."Nanking" gives the Japanese side a voice, too, but it's a highly selective one, which may infuriate some viewers. Not one of the surviving soldiers, nor the actors portraying their brethren, expresses any remorse towards the raped and slaughtered. But perhaps this is warranted since the war criminals continue to be hailed as conquering heroes at the Yasuhune Shrine. To inflame the viewer, "Nanking" shows the men shouting, "Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!" in a context that suggests an overriding indifference among the Japanese towards the dead Chinese peasants, many of whom were women and children.Perhaps no director embodies the Japanese ideal more than Yasujiro Ozu whose domestic dramas that feature quiet, humble characters stand in stark contrast with the brutal actions of the Japanese army. During the war, Japanese filmmakers were encouraged to praise the war and promote a fascist ideology. Many succumbed to the state's edict, but not Ozu. This omission of politics is worse than a ideologically fascist film. For those who've seen propaganda films, in particular, Leni Riefenstahl's "The Triumph of the Will", there's a sense that something is amiss. In a film like "Tokyo Monogotari", Ozu's acknowledged masterpiece, the people exist in a vacuum. The Chinese aren't even a rumor, hiding in the negative space. They don't exist.