Independent distributor ThinkFilm has acquired North American
rights to Nanking, a documentary chronicling Japan's
infamous 1937 invasion of the Chinese city.
Bill Guttentag and Robert
David Port (R) at the 75th Annual Academy Awards.
Between 150,000 and 300,000 civilians were murdered, while tens
of thousands were raped. The film features interviews with Chinese
survivors and Japanese soldiers, along with letters and diary
entries read by actors portraying Westerners who helped save more
than 200,000 Chinese refugees.
Nanking was directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman,
and narrated by Woody Harrelson, Stephen Dorff and Mariel
Hemingway.
ThinkFilm plans to release the film at year's end, coinciding
with the 70th anniversary of the attack known as the Nanking
Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking -- also the name of
the Iris Chang book that inspired the film.
"It's an event too often ignored or eclipsed by other 20th
century genocides," said ThinkFilm theatrical head Mark Urman, who
has been interested in the film since its premiere at January's
Sundance Film Festival.
"Recent events in Asia have reminded us that what happened in
Nanking 70 years ago this December remains an open wound between
China and Japan," added the film's producer, AOL vice chairman Ted
Leonsis, referring to recent remarks by Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe that there was no proof of alleged sexual slavery of
women by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Abe said Thursday
that he would launch an investigation into the issue after an
outcry over his remarks in the United States and several Asian
countries.
The Nanking Massacre also inspired controversy in January when
Japanese filmmakers announced plans to make a documentary titled
The Truth About Nanking claiming that the massacre never
happened.
(Agencies via CRI.cn March 10, 2007)
