Nanking describes the events of the winter of 1937 in Nanking, China: the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese during their occupation of the city and the protection offered by foreigners who created a Safety Zone. It serves mostly as a description, however, and doesn't succeed as a documentary. It is too mild and tepid to make any point worth making. It seems too afraid to offend, reiterating how all Japanese were not the cruel villains committing these sins. But it does not condemn the evil that caused it; in fact, it says nothing at all of evil, or of the nature of mankind, or of anything global or universal. It relays facts and draws no conclusions, and so we walk out of the theater knowing a little more about a tragic series of specific events and nothing else.That being said, there are several moments that just tear me up inside thinking of them; horrifying firsthand accounts of atrocities backed by stunning archival footage I can never forget. While edited together proficiently, they never reached their full potential. In retelling the events chronologically, the filmmakers muted the emotional and visceral climaxes of the anecdotes. They seemed afraid of taking chances, and took the simple way out hoping the subject matter would be enough to make this movie good. It is not.
An interesting technique they used was having actors read diary entries and letters of real people involved. Seeing people I recognized made it hard for me to envision them as the people they were portraying. Additionally, the fact that they were reading letters, talking at you instead of to you, provided a distancing feel as opposed to an inviting one. Still, I commend this film for publicizing the rape of Nanking, for revealing something that has been hidden and denounced time and time again. You don't need to watch this movie, but you do need to know about this terrible scar on mankind's history.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0893356/