Japan showing for Nanjing movie
Print Edition
Chinese director Lu Chuan hopes his 2009 movie “City of Life and Death” will help Japanese viewers have a better understanding of World War II when it is shown online.
Japan’s largest online video platform niconico.jp is planning to show a series of documentaries and movies to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. On its list are Chinese documentaries “Yasukuni” and “Nanking,” based on Iris Chang’s book “The Rape of Nanking,” and Lu’s drama “City of Life and Death.”
Lu’s film focuses on the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.
“I would like to speak for our nation with the film,” he said.
“It is special to me,” added Lu, who attended college in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province. “It has been my hope that Japanese people would have a chance to watch it.”
The director was surprised when he heard about the video platform’s plans. “I know it could be very difficult,” he said. “We even sent copies to some Japanese officials, but we were told about obstruction from right-wing groups.”
Lu said he spent three years doing research before making the film, and found himself “awed by the cruelty of the war. It unleashed the darkness inside people’s hearts.”
Four years ago, the movie had two screenings in a Tokyo cinema where some 1,000 tickets were sold out.
“More than 40 police officers and several police cars were there in case right-wing extremists made trouble,” he said. But the film proved a success with viewers of all generations. A student surnamed Takemura told him that her grandfather was a soldier in Nanjing. Before he passed away, the old man told Takemura that the war had turned men into beasts.
“Some scenes in the movie were familiar, just as he had told me,” she said.
A Ms Yamaguchi told Lu that Japanese people should reflect on the past, and maintain good relationships with neighboring countries. Even Suzuki Kunio, senior adviser to Issuikai, a right-wing association that denies Japanese war crimes, watched the film and discussed it with Lu. “He compared the movie to a textbook, and said Japanese people should watch it,” Lu said.
The director has made many trips to Japan and has friends there, but there are still many people unaware of the history.
A man once told him that the number of victims in Nanjing couldn’t be as many as 300,000.
“I told him that the focus of the film was the fact, rather than the number. I also told him that questions could exist, but couldn’t be raised by the perpetrators, just as German historians would not question the number of Jewish victims in World War II.”
Lu believes that there are not enough exchanges between Chinese and Japanese people.
“We should understand each other better,” Lu said.
The showing of his film by niconico.jp is a good step along the way, he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
