I recently saw for the second time a good movie, John Rabe (released in the United Kingdom as City of War: The Story of John Rabe), a 2009 German-Chinese-French biopictorial film directed by Florian Gallenberger and starring Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl and Steve Buscemi. It focuses upon the experiences of John Rabe, a German businessman who used his Nazi Party membership to create a protective International Safety Zone in Nanking, China, helping to save over 200,000 Chinese from the Nanking Massacre in late 1937 and early 1938. The massacre and its associated atrocities were committed subsequent to the Battle of Nanking by the invading Imperial Japanese Army after they defeated the Chinese Nationalist forces defending the city during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Based upon John Rabes published wartime diaries, shooting for the film commenced in 2007, and it premiered at the 59th Berlin Film Festival on 7 February 2009. Upon the films release it did not receive theatrical distribution in Japan and was the subject of vociferous refutations by Japanese ultranationalists who denied the events ever took place. The film picked up over seven German Film Awards nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Gallenberger), Best Actor (Tukur) and Best Supporting Actor (for Buscemi, one of the few times that a Lola nomination has been given to a non-German citizen – Buscemi is American). It won the awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. Lead actor Ulrich Tukur also won the 2009 Bavarian Film Awards for Best Actor. In Japan, none of the major film companies were willing to watch the screening. Florian Gallenberger also confirmed those difficulties. The director was asked by one potential Japanese film distributor if they could remove all footage of Prince Asaka, who was commander of the Japanese forces in its final assault on Nanking, but the distributor refused. Asaka was the presiding officer under which the order to kill all captives was issued, thus providing official sanction for the Nanking Massacre. The film, which did not have a theatrical release in Japan and was one of several made commemorating the 70th anniversary of the events of Nanjing, met with vociferous opposition from right-wing nationalists in Japan who even released a number of Japanese films claiming that the Nanking Massacre never occurred. https://youtube/watch?v=Wt9-ME6mQqI
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 17:13:08 +0000
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