1 Massacre, 2 Films and 3 Perspectives

By Raymond Zhou

Good things come in double doses - and so do films.

The heartrending story of the massacre in Nanjing shortly after it fell to Japanese occupation in late 1937, commonly known as "the rape of Nanking", is the subject of two movies, which almost by acquiescence, are premiering one week apart.

Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death (Nanjing Nanjing) gives a panoramic view of the atrocities and the rescue, from three different perspectives. The first tells the story of the soldiers, whose failed defense of the city led to the horror of rampant execution-style killings at the hands of the Japanese. The second gives the most poignant account of the civilian survivors and those who risked their lives to save them. The third is about the redemption of one Japanese soldier, who manages to retain a semblance of human decency despite all the cruelties around him.

The Sino-German co-production John Rabe is a biopic focusing on the most important of the rescuers. John Rabe was the director of electronics company Siemens, Nanjing, a Nazi and supporter of Hitler. As the incidents unfold, he is thrust into the storm of history. Together with a small group of expatriates, he sets up a refugee zone, which ended up protecting as many as 200,000 people. Simply put, Rabe was the Oskar Schindler of the incident.

The diaries Rabe left behind are a major testament to unspeakable brutalities in the winter of 1937. Sadly, the movie seems to be obsessed with Hitler - there are so many mentions of the Fuhrer's name you could be forgiven for thinking the incident happened in Berlin. Rabe's association with the Nazis is over-emphasized, while his heroism is understated. During the second half of the movie, much of the action is pushed to the background. Some melodramatic details were invented to fill the void but real events were strangely bypassed. Moreover, the lengthy end credits make no mention of the donation drive organized by Nanjing citizens in the aftermath of the war to help out a newly impoverished Rabe, their savior, while the last scene depicting his departure looks like a poorly staged propaganda show, every bystander with over-the-top expressions.

Rabe also features in a supporting role in City of Life and Death. Here, though, the same farewell scene is filled with such rich emotion that you can feel the bond between him and those he had saved. There is not a dry eye, on screen or off.

Poster of director Lu Chuan's film 'Nanking!Nanking!', or 'City of Life and Death' [File Photo: sina.com ]

Lu Chuan's production is not only more ambitious, but more attentive to detail. All the extras - and there were swarms of them - looked like people from that period, costume, haircut, facial expressions and all.

Lu has obviously learned a lot from the great masters such as Spielberg and Polanski. To start with, he took the bold step of making a high-budget epic in black and white, which is commercially risky but adds greatly to the gravitas of history. He exhibited artistic integrity by cutting a matinee idol's screen time by half because he felt that his role, as a soldier, had no chance of surviving in that environment, let alone date the female lead.

Most important of all, Lu was able to display the violence without letting it drown out the humanity. He not only drew subtle and convincing portrayals of the victims and survivors, but gave ample screen time to the Japanese soldiers, one of whom almost got top billing.

The John Rabe biopic could have been a great film because it has a limited scope and is therefore better equipped to fully explore its key characters. Unfortunately, it is overtaken by political correctness and ends up as a feeble supplement to the main story.