Currently, the most popular film release in China mainland opened in theaters is the subject of two movies, "City of Life and Death" and Sino-German co-production "John Rabe".

 

The heartrending story of the massacre in Nanking 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.

 

On Dec. 13, 1937, the invading Japanese army occupied Nanking and launched a six-week massacre. Chinese records show more than 300,000 people, not only disarmed soldiers but also civilians, were murdered.

 

The Nanking massacre is seen by most Chinese as one of the darkest chapters in history, during which the Japanese army slaughtered nearly 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers following the occupation of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, in December 1937.

 

Chinese director Lu Chuan’s "City of Life and Death" focuses on Chinese soldiers and civilians' fight against invaders before and after the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.

 

Lu Chuan's “City of Life and Death” (Nanking Nanking) 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.

 

    

 

"John Rabe", a joint production by China, Germany and France, is a biopic of German businessman John H. D. Rabe, who saved two hundred and fifty thousand Chinese refugees during the 1937 Nanking Massacre, the notorious mass-slaughter waged by Japanese invaders, which killed over 300,000 innocent Nanking civilians.

 

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, Nanking, 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.

 

Due to Rabe's long experience in China working for Siemens AG and his familiarity with Nanjing, he was elected head of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone.

 

When the city was occupied by the Japanese army, he used his Nazi Party membership and appealed to the German-Japanese bilateral pact to try to protect civilians. That failed, but it also created a delay that allowed people to flee.

 

Rabe's book "John Rabe's Diary", written in 1937 when he was living in China, disclosed the sordid truth of the Japanese brutal killings in Nanking. The book was first published in Germany in 1996.

 

Rabe is sometimes called "China's Oskar Schindler" after the businessman who saved Jews in Europe.

 

The subject, which remains a heartrending memory to many Chinese and a stumbling block in China-Japan relations, challenged the director's wisdom, let alone the fact that a dozen of movies with similar themes had already been made.

 

The topic remains a sore point in China-Japan relations. Many Chinese believed that Japan has not fully recognized and sincerely apologized for its war atrocities, while some Japanese historians and government officials frequently claimed that the massacre has been exaggerated or even fabricated for the purposes of political propaganda.

 

History can always be interpreted from different perspectives. The point is what kind of message the interpretation intends to convey.

 

I’m burst into tears after watching both movies cover same subject, my heart was in pain and darkness. It was like in hell. The film presents history in very human terms. I see fierce gun battles, cruel scenes of massacre, and hints of a love story. The epic movie is expected to be a blockbuster as it tackles themes from one of the cruelest pages of human history.

 

Many people after watching movies comment in internet, said” they will never forgive Japanese what they had done in Sino-Japanese War”. Chinese hate Japanese because of many of them still not recognized and sincerely apologized for its war atrocities, but for Chinese is also don’t want to face that consider unnecessary of victims whom were slaughtered in China civil war.

 

From recorded Chinese history, “Large-scale Massacres” can be seen in any dynasty, since Battle of Changping in 260 BC, State of Zhao about 400000 captive was executed after battle instead of being killed in battle. The Battle of Julu in 207 BC, 200000 Qin soldiers was buried.

 

There are many historical records on the Manchu's mass murders of ethnic Han Chinese, especially Genocides and Atrocities committed by Manchu Qing enter China Proper, “Yangchow massacre (1645 AD)”, “Jiading massacre (1645 AD)”, “Kiangyin massacre(1645 AD)”, Canton massacre(1650 AD).,etc.

 

As we know merciless war victims weakness and hopelessness suffered from the war. So I quote some sentences to end my writing.

 

"War is cruel and you cannot refine it."
- William·Tecumseh·Sherman

 

"The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war."
- Ralph·Waldo·Emerson

 

"War is as much a punishment to the punisher as it is to the sufferer."
- Thomas·Jefferson