Rape of Nanking to be war film 'classic'
Aug 14, 2006 14:43:13 GMT -5
Post by Woodson on Aug 14, 2006 14:43:13 GMT -5
Rape of Nanking to be war film 'classic'
Last Updated Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:18:44 EDT
CBC Arts
www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/08/14/nanking-film.html
China plans to depict one of the most infamous events of the Second World War, with a film version of U.S. author Iris Chang's historical account The Rape of Nanking.
Chinese moviemakers will team up with U.S. and British filmmakers to describe the brutal massacre of Chinese civilians and burning of the former capital city by Japanese troops in December 1937.
The movie deal was announced Monday, a day before the anniversary of Japan's Second World War surrender.
China has objected to plans by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japanese leaders convicted of war crimes as well as Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
Backers of the $25 million US project hope to woo Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh for the cast, according to a report from the Chinese new service Xinhua.
Japanese war crimes remain sensitive issue
Gerald Green, the American producer of the movie, said the film would be a war classic like Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning 1993 film by Steven Spielberg about a businessman who attempts to save the lives of Jews in Poland.
"We hope we can make the film a classic on a massacre in the Second World War, just like Schindler's Listabout the miserable experience of Jewish people during the war," he said in an interview with Xinhua.
Chang, an American-Chinese writer who died in 2004 at age 36, wrote the 1997 English-language history, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.
The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for several months and became a New York Times notable book. It helped bring the massacre, little known in the West, to wider attention.
China claims 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the war-time capital Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking. A 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people.
Japanese war crimes are a sensitive issue in China, which says Japan has not taken full responsibility for its wartime occupation of China.
Viridian, a Hollywood entertainment firm, is working with British investors and China's Jiangsu Cultural Industry Group on the project.
Shooting is to begin soon, with the movie scheduled for completion by Sept. 1, 2007, ahead of the 70-year anniversary of the Nanjing massacre.
Last Updated Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:18:44 EDT
CBC Arts
www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/08/14/nanking-film.html
China plans to depict one of the most infamous events of the Second World War, with a film version of U.S. author Iris Chang's historical account The Rape of Nanking.
Chinese moviemakers will team up with U.S. and British filmmakers to describe the brutal massacre of Chinese civilians and burning of the former capital city by Japanese troops in December 1937.
The movie deal was announced Monday, a day before the anniversary of Japan's Second World War surrender.
China has objected to plans by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japanese leaders convicted of war crimes as well as Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
Backers of the $25 million US project hope to woo Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh for the cast, according to a report from the Chinese new service Xinhua.
Japanese war crimes remain sensitive issue
Gerald Green, the American producer of the movie, said the film would be a war classic like Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning 1993 film by Steven Spielberg about a businessman who attempts to save the lives of Jews in Poland.
"We hope we can make the film a classic on a massacre in the Second World War, just like Schindler's Listabout the miserable experience of Jewish people during the war," he said in an interview with Xinhua.
Chang, an American-Chinese writer who died in 2004 at age 36, wrote the 1997 English-language history, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.
The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for several months and became a New York Times notable book. It helped bring the massacre, little known in the West, to wider attention.
China claims 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the war-time capital Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking. A 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people.
Japanese war crimes are a sensitive issue in China, which says Japan has not taken full responsibility for its wartime occupation of China.
Viridian, a Hollywood entertainment firm, is working with British investors and China's Jiangsu Cultural Industry Group on the project.
Shooting is to begin soon, with the movie scheduled for completion by Sept. 1, 2007, ahead of the 70-year anniversary of the Nanjing massacre.
