Don't Cry, Nanking (Nanjing 1937) (Nan Jing yi jiu san qi)

Release Year: 1995

Director: Ziniu Wu

Review: Brutal. Sickening. Inhumane.  These words are not nearly strong enough to describe the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre.  The film focuses on the Japanese overtaking and occupying the Chinese city of Nanking where hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed while thousands more women raped.  Guiding us on this harrowing depiction of the 'battle' is a Chinese man and his Japanese wife, their children and their struggle to survive the horrors of the event.

It is easy to be numbed by the sheer quantity of murders and rapes that take place over the course of the movie.  By taking a subset of this devastation, the family, and showing their intimate survival tale allows the magnitude of the horror to sink in.  The fact that the wife and her daughter are Japanese magnifies the absurdity of the brutality.  The Japanese and Chinese cultures are not so far removed that the soldiers can simply disregard their humanity.  Their own countrymen are among those that they blindly massacre.  On the flip side, it gives the Japanese a reprieve of sorts.  The Japanese are portrayed very harshly in the film as heartless beasts, which is accurate of the events.  Having the Japanese wife shows that this is not indicative of the entire Japanese population at the time, but of the soldiers. It serves as a useful tool to bridge the Japanese and Chinese sides without diminishing the focus of the film.

This is not an easy film to sit through.  I was full of emotion, ranging from sadness to rage, watching the relentless disregard for human life.  At one point a soldier comments that it was a shame that the person he just killed wasn't a pig so that they could eat it.  Pigs worth more than humans.  This is the sentiment that the film portrays.  There is a complete disregard for life and it is utterly heartbreaking to watch.  Its overwhelming to witness the large scale massacres and its mind boggling to think about how many extras it took to film.  By using such huge quantities of people it gives scope to how many people actually suffered during the battle.  Its a devastating and haunting look at an inhumane massacre and one that will stick in my mind for a long time.

Rating: 4/5