A Film No One will Forget

Films big and small are vying for the right audience to get them into the awards race. Thanks to Ryan for posting A Simple Man’s trailer (below). Meanwhile, the film most likely to be chosen by China as their official foreign language submission got some good ink today:

Friday, September 11, 2009 06:20 PM

A film likely no one will forget

Guy Dixon

The Asian film industry will be closely following the reaction to one film in particular at TIFF this year. Nanjing Nanjing (English title: City of Life and Death) graphically depicts the horrific devastation of Nanjing by Japanese forces in late 1937 to early 1938. The film deals with the mass murder and rape in epic proportions, somberly, without gratuitously showing more gore than necessary, yet also not shying away from the atrocities. Shot to perfection in black and white, it is widely seen as China’s likely submission for an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

Of course, the film hasn’t avoided controversy. It was a box-office success in its Chinese release earlier this year, after having passed official censors. Yet a campaign criticizing the portrayal of some of the Japanese soldiers in more human terms, especially the central Japanese lead, has erupted on the Internet, said TIFF programmer Giovanna Fulvi. Arguably, though, the humanness of the Japanese soldiers in the film makes the atrocities committed that much more sickening and immediate.