The Flowers of War

[GaHanna]

I remember a Chinese friend lending me, without checking the internet now, a documentary called "Nanking" early 2008. Must seek it out.

[LaoDing]

 

 

I thought Nanjing! Nanjing! was a good movie that is well-made and does justice to the massacre, but I would never use the word 'like' to describe my feelings about it. 

 

We can all understand it if you put it that way, but I think it's unfair to the poster. We can 'like' a movie that tries to reveal and understand the mechanisms that trigger a genocide. If we can understand what causes them, we can do more to prevent them. 

At least, I believe that is true. I don't believe war is inevitable but we must understand war to prevent it. That's why I 'don't like' Flowers of War. In a way it's a devil's advocate movie that could promote war instead of hindering it. After Nanjing! Nanjing! most of us feel queasy and disturbed- but a bit wiser and like you said: we never want to see that again.

[Lu]

It was certainly not intended as criticism of the poster's words, my apologies to them if that's how it came across. It was rather a gut reaction, I was trying to express how awful I felt watching Nanjing! Nanjing!.

[JustinJJ]

Laoding, you need to read the book. It provides more context to the event, as opposed to the movie which is really just a propaganda film. The book is written from the point of view of the author's auntie, who was one of the students.

[LaoDing]

 

It was certainly not intended as criticism of the poster's words, my apologies to them if that's how it came across. It was rather a gut reaction, I was trying to express how awful I felt watching Nanjing! Nanjing!.

 

Yes, I'm sure the poster understood you too. I just wanted to clarify because although for some people I'm sure the movie is horrifying, it's also very important and worth watching as it is in no gratuitous or forgiving. It a mind-numbing larger than life picture that bends the meaning of being human to the breaking point. I'll never forget it, and don't think I'll ever watch it again!

 

 

Laoding, you need to read the book. It provides more context to the event, as opposed to the movie which is really just a propaganda film. The book is written from the point of view of the author's auntie, who was one of the students. 

 

I've seen good praise for this book several times in this thread. In history, documentation is regarded as more solid evidence than testimony. However, study after study shows that testimony, especially that of eye-witnessed trauma, is usually quite accurate; they're just too shocking to forget. For example, (I can't remember the name of the documentary offhand) but in the documentary there is a meticulously narrated account by a prison guard of his day to day treatment of prisoners in the high school that was converted into a prison in Phnom Penh. In a recreated cell, he was able to recite daily dialogues, remember dates of interrogations, and act out movements of feeding, scolding etc. the prison that had been there before their eventual executions. You don't forget such things. Survivors confirm the accuracy of his invaluable and brave testimony. I can only suppose that it has been Cambodia's policy not to punish the guards as they were so young at the time.

 

There are thousands of testimonials across Asia regarding Japanese war atrocities during WWII. Denying them would be as ridiculous as denying German wartime atrocities. Yes, I'll see if I can get that book.

 

Regarding Flowers of War (aside from the poor melodrama typical in modern Chinese film and really discouraging coming from Zhang Yimou), is its lack of respect and dignity for the people who suffered helplessly and powerlessly during one of the worst massacres of modern times. To compare genocide heroics, however inaccurate Schindler's List was I can't say. But the film brought to life a heroism and courage against evil that can inspire us all, many to tears.  But Flowers of War deformed virtue under terror into a Tarantino satire, 90% fiction. I think, incidentally, that both Nanjing! Nanjing! and Schindler's List were filmed in black and white for obvious reasons. It would be extremely difficult to film these in color, as evidenced by It's a Beautiful Life- another creepy flop in my opinion. (Sorry to those who thought it great.)

 

Well, I didn't mean to write such a long post, but that's how it goes. I didn't find the 1986 Nanjing but I did find this documentary of the same year. It is quite moving (you can watch it on Youtube if you have a VPN and I'm sure it's on one of the Chinese channels as well):

 

Iris Chang - Nanking Massacre by Japanese in World War II (張純如 - 南京大屠殺)

 

Three striking things in the documentary include 1) Chang's determination and in her words 'lack of any choice' but to write her book, 2) The fact that despite the abundance of evidence, the Nanjing Massacre was buried and virtually unknown for decades in the West, presumably due to Cold War lack of sympathy (it's fruitless to blame the governments of Japan for all of this- in the interest of an Asia ally the U.S. has ignored Japanese war atrocities against other Asians as much as Japan has denied them), and 3) sadly, Chang committed suicide at the age of 36. However, her last notes are quite lucid and she describes being hounded and harassed. They do not read to me at all like the writings of a paranoid schizophrenic. 

 

If the proposition that one person can make a difference is true, this document (about her book) is a great testimony to that.