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Tarfumes.com - Nanking
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List Price: $27.98
Our Price: $19.99
Your Save: $ 7.99 ( 29% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Starring: Hugo Armstrong, Rosalind Chao, Stephen Dorff, John Getz, Mariel Hemingway
Directed By: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 0821575556354
Format: Color
Label: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Manufacturer: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Running Time: 88
Studio: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
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Editorial Reviews:
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Nanking is a powerful reminder of the heartbreaking toll that war takes on the innocent, and a testament to the courage and conviction of a few individuals determined to act in the face of evil. The film tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in the early days of World War II and focuses on the efforts of a small group of unarmed Westerners who established a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. The events of the film are told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries as performed by Jurgen Prochnow, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Dorff, and Mariel Hemingway, among others.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: many thanks to the people who made the great film
Comment: As a Chinese, I would like to say, many thanks to the people who made the great film. The truth needs to be known to the whole world. I'm also deeply indebted to those Western people who helped Chinese in our difficult time. I would like to see someday people in Nanking erect monument for those great people. There's no reason Chinese people deserve such cruelty. Shaped by the teachings of Confucianism and Taoism, Chinese people traditionally like to make peace and harmony with neighbors. If you look back Chinese history, it's always ethnic tribes who attacked and invaded China, not the other way around. After years' ruling, the attackers were often assimilated with Chinese, and became Chinese themselves eventually. That's the magic of China. On the other hand, the Japanese people are militant in nature and by training. They committed such horrendous crime, but even till now, they refuse to acknowledge what they did and never apologized. Simply, take a look of their banking system. After bubble burst, rather than acknowledge their bad debt, they used all their means to cover it. It's no wonder their economy is still dragging along after 18 years. Their decade-long economic deflation reflects their shameless nature exactly. Personally I hope the new generation of Japanese can learn from their forefather's crime, and make contribution to the world peace instead. But history rhythms, that could be my hopeless wish. Their prime minister continues to bow to the soul of war criminal, Tojo. In contrast, the Germany Chancellor kneed down to in front of the Polish Getto Victim Memorial to beg forgiveness for what Hitler did. The most hated liars are those whose revise history.
War is crime. War not only costs life of both sides, but also wipes off treasures and capitals accumulated through generations. The first and second world war exhausted the great British Empire. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) destroyed France, the most powerful country from 1700-1800. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) destroyed Greece Empire. I am afraid the current Iraq War could abolish the great power the United States holds, causing unexpected consequences. We need to unite together, opposing all the wars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Heroes rise
Comment: Amid the horror- hope. A valuable retelling of the history. The history is the subject of books and other films. This is a good starting point to learn, once again, about the cruelty and bravery possible in mankind.
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Summary: True picture of history
Comment: The historical footage of this movie can not be denied. Though it was very emotional to watch, it was a lesson we can not ignore. Like the holocaust, this was another human tragedy which should never be repeated.An excellent documentary I recommend fully.
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Summary: You wont be the same after you watch this...and nobody should.
Comment: Nanking is a kind of documentary told by the Westerners and the Chinese who lived through the massacre of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937. The foreigners who lived in Nanking at the time have sadly passed away but their diaries and stories are read aloud by such actors as Woody Harelson, Jurgen Prochnow and Mariel Hemingway.
Along with the actors reading their parts and the testimonials of surviving Chinese are actual pictures and film footage of the horrors the Japanese soldiers inflicted on the citizens of Nanking.
For the most part you have to have a very strong stomach and a strong heart to watch this. Its gruesom, horrifying and beyond sad. Many would argue though, in order for history not to repeat itself, it needs to be seen.
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Summary: The Purple Mountains on Fire
Comment: I, like many other Westerners, first heard of the Rape of Nanjing ten years ago when Iris Chang released her book Rape of Nanking. I, of course, knew that Japan had been at war with China and that the Japanese Imperial Army had done a number of despicable things in China, but it was this book that really opened my eyes to what Japan did in China and had a major enough effect on me to make me dedicate my life to the study of Japanese and Chinese history, literature, and film. While I have become aware that Chang's book is overblown in some ways, blaming the "Shinto Sub Cult" for the ways the Japanese treated the Chinese, it acted as an important catalyst for historians to truly dig into the issue and unearth atrocities that had been hidden by not only the Japanese, but the Chinese Communist Party, and America as well. With a number of scholarly tomes, essays, and translations having been released now, hopefully the world will not only gain a better conception of what happened in China, but why it happened.
Of course, more people are likely to watch a filmic version of the Rape of Nanjing than read a hefty tome, but unfortunately although there are a few limited release documentaries, and the films that have reached a broader audience such as Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre almost revel enough in the gore and bloodshed to make the films more fit to be in someone's splattercore library than as an important bit of media.
The documentary Nanking was financed and conceptualized by AOL vice-chairman Ted Leonsis after he read Rape of Nanking on vacation and learned of Iris Chang's suicide. Instead of just stringing together news footage, photos, and films of the period, Leonsis and the directors Gutenberg and Dan Sturman casted various American and international actors, including Mariel Hemmingway, Woody Harrelson, Jürgen Prochnow, and Michelle Krusiec, to give voice to a number of foreign missionaries, businessmen, and doctors who suffered through the Japanese attack upon Nanjing, but did their best to protect the Chinese citizens and military deserters from the brutality of the Japanese soldiers. Also, there are a number of interviews with Chinese survivors of the Rape
Through their roles of reading the diaries of the missionaries George Fitch, Minnie Vautrin, and John Magee, the doctor Bob Wilson, and the Nazi businessman John Rabe, the actors give voice to these great people who risked their very lives to save the people of the foreign country that had become their home. Through their words, and the ample number of photos and films, the viewer can vicariously experience the travesties they experienced which would shorten all of their lives after the left China.
Nanking is of course quite graphic in its detailing of the suffering of the Chinese people at the hands up the Japanese soldiers, but it also shows the strength of what a few can do against the oppression of many. A good albeit horrifying film, it should be added to the libraries of those interested in history and the bitter relationship between China and Japan
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