BEIJING A patriotic Chinese film about the infamous Nanjing massacre of 1937 has become a box office hit at home but also triggered outrage by depicting Japanese soldiers as humans for the first time.
City of Life and Death, a 132-minute account of the fall of the then-capital to the Japanese army, deals in gruesome detail with the ensuing killing of defenceless civilians and prisoners of war.
The massacre, in which China says 300,000 died, is well-known here and abroad, but what is new for Chinese audiences is director Lu Chuan's decision to tell it from several angles, including that of the Japanese invaders.
“I felt a lot of pressure. The media and the audience asked me why I decided to adopt the point of view of a Japanese soldier,” 38-year-old Lu told AFP.
In the film, shot entirely in black and white, the Japanese soldiers are shown as ordinary people caught in the tragedy of war and not as the blood-thirsty monsters that they have always been regarded as in China.
But this is unforgivable in the eyes of some ultra-nationalists and Lu has already received at least one death threat.
He says he was driven merely by the wish to show the truth and balance out the “excessive” way in which the massacre has always been dealt with in China in the past.
“Sometimes it's been as if this was the Cultural Revolution,” he said of the backlash.
“Before the film premiered I had no idea there were so many nationalists.
“I want to spread a message of peace and love, and I believe the majority of the public can subscribe to that. The extremist minority will never be convinced anyway.”
Lu was speaking after returning from a promotional tour of several Chinese cities that had proved difficult at times, especially for the Japanese actors.
“After some days during the tour, I felt that this was regular 'torture' for them. I was worried about their safety,” he said.
“The subject has been depicted in an excessive manner in China, which explains very strong reactions in the public.”
One of the Japanese actors buckled under the strain and asked permission to cut short the tour.
Despite the criticism, the film has been an enormous success with ticket sales exceeding 120 million yuan (17.5 million dollars), helped by the huge distribution network of the all-powerful China Film company.
But Lu has also made it clear that, while he does not completely agree with how the sensitive issue has been handled in the past in his country, he has no sympathy with the Japanese.
“The Japanese government has never apologised for the massacre and certain Japanese are even prepared to deny that it ever took place,” said Lu, the soft-spoken bespectacled son of a famous writer.
Lu, who attended a Nanjing military college before turning to film-making, said the fact he was allowed to make a Nanjing massacre film taking a slightly different perspective from past efforts showed that China was evolving.
But other sensitive historical events such as the Cultural Revolution or Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989 remain off-limits, he said.
“Some film-makers would like to make films about these subjects because they are perfect material for this medium,” said Lu.
“I myself would love to make a film about June 4,” he said, adding that the possibility of this happening within the next five years “wasn't great.”
“We have to keep pushing to ensure the country becomes more and more open.”—AFP